July 23, 1952, 68 years ago today, Tom Price and Charlie Logg Jr. won the gold medal for the US at the Helsinki Summer Olympics in the Men’s coxless pair. They had only been rowing together for a couple of months at RU, New Brunswick on the Raritan River, with Logg Sr. as their coach, and they had an accident in the first heat, so this victory was a real underdog story.
CHUCK LOGG - 8/9/2010 HONORARY MEMBER & 7/18/2015 HUDSON DOUBLE NAMED OLYMPIC GOLD MEDAL WINNER MEN’S PAIR 1952 HELSINKI
Charles Paul Logg Jr. was born February 24, 1931 in Princeton. Chuck’s father was the crew coach at Princeton University. The family moved to New Brunswick after his father was named crew coach at Rutgers in 1937. He held that job for 22 years. The crew team trained on the Raritan River, and eventually so did Chuck, who began taking the sport seriously when he enrolled at Rutgers in 1949. Within three years, he developed into an elite-level rower under his father’s tutelage.
In the spring of 1952, Charlie and his Scarlet Knight teammate, Tom Price, shocked the rowing establishment by making the U.S. Olympic team. Charlie had not set foot in a pair-oared shell until three months before the Summer Games. Even more amazing, Price hadn’t started rowing at all until 1951.
In Helsinki, the pair finished dead last in their first heat and actually collided with another boat. However, they won their next race, which qualified them for the finals. They won the gold medal—the first and only U.S. victory in the coxless pair event—finishing three seconds ahead of the second-place Belgians.
Chuck and Tom were celebrated as The Cinderella Kids after their boat, which they named after the fairy tale character. They were feted with a motorcade upon their return to New Brunswick. Following graduation, Chuck went into the military. He and Price reunited for the 1955 Pan American Games and won gold again. They fell short of qualifying for the 1956 Olympics, however.
In 1981, Chuck was named to the National Rowing Hall of Fame.
During the 1960s, Chuck worked as an executive in the helicopter industry. He got into commercial farming in Florida starting in the 1970s. In 2014, Chuck was the featured speaker at the 150th Anniversary celebration of the Rutgers rowing program.
Chuck retired to the Gainesville area and became a member of LLRC in 2007. He has been an inspiration to our juniors and masters.
More Here:
https://www.lakelanierrowing.org/notable-members#ChuckLogg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rowing_at_the_1952_Summer_Olympics_–_Men's_coxless_pair
