{"id":75297,"date":"2023-05-16T09:57:36","date_gmt":"2023-05-16T13:57:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/?p=75297"},"modified":"2024-06-04T11:08:03","modified_gmt":"2024-06-04T15:08:03","slug":"ken-legler-legacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/racing\/ken-legler-legacy\/","title":{"rendered":"Legler Leaves a Jumbo Legacy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Ken <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n Ken Legler\u2019s impact on campus courses is profound, but his contributions to the sport extend to race management as well.<\/span>\n Courtesy Ken Legler<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n

Ed’s Note: Ken Legler, the legendary coach, champion sailor and mentor to many passed away on May 31, 2024 after a long cancer battle. His contributions to the sport and sportsmanship remain everlasting.<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Forty-five years into college sailing<\/a> as a head coach, Ken Legler is clear: You can coach starting technique, but only experience can teach it. And nobody wins much without it. And I\u2019m clear that nobody argues much with Ken Legler. So, if you feel a trembling in the power of the Force toward the end of this spring semester, you will know that Legler really has followed through and hung up his coaching tools after \u00addishing out experience to generations of Tufts University Jumbos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forty-five years, including 43 at Tufts and even more before he became head coach? Heck, he was already coaching when he was still in school. The rest was as natural as learning to smell a windshift. As a coach, Legler\u2019s results speak for themselves. But we can come back to that because if \u00adchampionships were all the man had to show for himself, retirement would not be an earthquake moment. It is one because Legler has inhabited the sailing world, pumped it through his veins and made a difference. He was almost apologetic in 2006 when a second round of throat cancer sidelined him for chemo and radiation. What came to mind as he reported from a hospital bed was: \u201cI sailed through mono as an undergrad. I would be fired if I advised my students to do that now. I just can\u2019t get enough of this college sailing thing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cancer and chemo were too much for \u201csailing through,\u201d and there was also a stroke. As Legler laboriously recovered from each and returned to coaching, the outpourings from friends, admirers and students will perhaps have prepared him for the outpouring (with a capital \u201cO\u201d) coming his way May 12-13, when a tribute is the keynote of Tufts\u2019 annual Alumni Regatta. Or maybe not. When the stories start rolling\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Josh Adams, a three-time All-American and later \u00addirector of US Olympic Sailing<\/a>, says: \u201cWhen they do a Mount Rushmore for college sailors, Ken Legler will be there. As a coach, he\u2019s more philosopher than technician. What he\u2019s good at is getting sailors on the water to learn from being on the water. When you graduate Tufts and look back, you realize that all those practice days and all those practice races were led by an exceptional PRO. He\u2019s made a difference in race management in America. When Key West was at its peak, Ken\u2019s circle was always lauded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cKen is multidimensional. He\u2019s a historian, and he\u2019s a storyteller\u2014he made sure we understood our heritage. And he\u2019s a great photographer who documented all his sailors through the years. Meanwhile, Jumbos showed up in college rankings alongside a lot of Division 1 Ivy League schools. Ken did that with a small Division 3 school, and you can\u2019t look at his accomplishments without feeling like this really is the end of an era.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

OK, a sampling: In 1978 to 1980 at the US Merchant Marine Academy, Legler coached two national championship teams and four All-Americans. At Tufts he is credited with 20 national championships and 92 All\u2011Americans. He was an All-American himself at the University of Rhode Island (while he was doing his first coaching, remember).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the tribute, they really should play \u201cMy Way.\u201d The home waters for Tufts is Mystic Lake, where the breeze is as shifty as you would expect in a landlocked Boston suburb. The fleet is the Lark, \u00adfeaturing a bendy rig, square-top main and a wide planing transom. That is, Larks are the antithesis of the institutional Flying Juniors and C420s used in the rest of college sailing\u2014\u00adtweakier, livelier, more entertaining. And they\u2019re improved, generation by generation, and perhaps a tad frustrating to other teams when they have to show up and adapt. Legler makes sure that his people are challenged by a variety of other boats too, perhaps 16 per semester, and he regrets the time when kids just goofed around in boats. There was freedom in the absence of organization, and there were lessons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Ken <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n Ken Legler is a lifelong and champion sailor, excelling in college sailing, one-design and team racing.<\/span>\n Courtesy Ken Legler<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n

Tufts sailors do not receive the coddling their talents might earn them elsewhere. Legler knows the programs where, as he says: \u201cSailors don\u2019t have to work on the boats. They just show up and start roll tacking. There\u2019s no cooking or cleaning, and those things take time, as anyone no longer in college soon discovers.\u201d In an appreciation at sail1design.com, Pearson Potts recalls a sailor who asked about accommodations at the next regatta and received the reply: \u201cWhat am I, a friggin\u2019 travel agent? You\u2019re an adult now. Figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coddled or not, the Jumbo sailing \u00adexperience includes ample TLC. Current Jumbo Celia Byrne recalls: \u201cAfter I first visited Tufts, I got a funny text from Ken that made me wonder if it was meant for me, something about a female astronaut. When I went back, I realized it was because he had researched my interests\u2014and read my whole file\u2014and thought I would find it worthwhile. That doesn\u2019t happen everywhere. And that photography he\u2019s known for\u2014he continued through COVID and sent pictures to my family. They were touched at a time when it mattered.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cKen was successful because he is meticulous,\u201d says another grad, Stu Johnstone. \u201cThe difficult thing at first was a lack of resource. That came later, then really took off when Larry Bacow became president of Tufts and wanted to see the sailing team grow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Ken Legler has inhabited the sailing world, pumped it through his veins and made a difference.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Today the three-story Bacow Sailing Pavilion provides boat storage and a repair shop, home and visiting team rooms, a kitchen, a conference room, a coach\u2019s office, a great room for regatta gatherings and an ever-popular observation deck. Small program or growing, Legler maintained the largest roster he could, which today means 50-plus. Every weekend he sends out a fleet of vans to regattas big and small. It\u2019s important to him that all his people, Nationals starters or not, get the full college sailing experience. When spring break rolls around, tradition calls for \u00adcamping out at St. Mary\u2019s, and a week of sailing institutional boats to get ready for Nationals. Legends are born in those weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what is it like to be Ken Legler?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRecruiting is a massive piece of the \u00adpuzzle,\u201d he says. \u201cLetters flood in, especially on Sundays, maybe 150 contacts a year. The first thing I look for is whether the kid is qualified to get into Tufts. Then I think about sailing ability. I can tell in a hurry if someone can sail. What I can\u2019t do is take more than one or two male crews in any class year. Six on the team is plenty, but I could take 20 women, because it\u2019s only the small \u00adskippers who can sail with most male crew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBecause of Title 9, we have to take more women to balance out the football team,\u201d Legler says. \u201cAs long as we have more women than men, we\u2019re OK, but the school would like it if we had way more women or just fewer men. When Brown went varsity, they cut a deal to have only 10 men for 20 women, with everyone else sailing on the club team. So, yes, we\u2019re looking for women, but they have to be able to get in. Remember, we don\u2019t pick them, Admissions does.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And how might Legler see the relationship between college sailing and Olympic sailing? That\u2019s a perpetual topic, heated up recently by Paul Cayard as head of Olympic Sailing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo excel in college sailing,\u201d Legler says, \u201cyou have to maintain a keen focus on academics and a keen focus on the finer points of college sailing at the same time. It\u2019s consuming. Nevertheless, our people are at the top, academically, and it\u2019s amazing what a high level of tactics and boathandling college sailors achieve\u2014but that does not get them any closer to a medal. For a medal, you have to sail Olympic-class boats, and not many people can afford that, either the money or the time. To be a fall and spring All-American and an Olympic campaigner is almost impossible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Ken <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n A top-shelf PRO, coach, photographer, and mentor to many.<\/span>\n Courtesy Ken Legler<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n

\u201cOlympic boats have changed dramatically, except for ILCAs. College boats have remained the same, and I don\u2019t see any big changes coming. Another thing too: Our colleges produce people who make six figures right out of the gate. That\u2019s after working hard through high school and then working like bandits to get through college. They\u2019re not going to give that up to finish second at the Olympic Trials.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, how did Ken Legler become Ken Legler? Not by following the path of his students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wanted to go to Tufts,\u201d he says, \u201cbut my dad told me I\u2019d have to make up the cost difference between Tufts and URI. That meant I\u2019d be working all the time instead of sailing, so I went to URI and sailed every day. I was not a good student, but I was a good sailor. I took over as coach as an undergraduate, and I was running the team or trying to. When I came out, I was more prepared for coaching than anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That led to a first job at the Naval Academy, and soon to that head coaching position at Kings Point, and the success levels and impact of the total career we are celebrating here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Personal challenges weighed in. Legler returned to his coaching job\u2014it\u2019s a mission, let\u2019s be real\u2014after each cancer recovery, and recovery was never guaranteed. Today he says: \u201cI\u2019m down to the same weight as in college, but not with the same metabolism. I eat so slowly that I spend five hours a day eating.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was simple sharing, not a sympathy play, and the conversation that produced this writing quickly turned to starting and speed as the first two elements of racing success. Here\u2019s Legler: \u201cWe run lots of practice starts and acceleration drills. Lots. That\u2019s how you learn to pay attention and really see what\u2019s going on. Do you notice a header hitting that boat at the other end of the line? Are you ready to react before it gets to you? A coach can talk about those things, but internalizing them, making them instinctive, is all experience. This year was my third winter back frostbiting on Boston Harbor. We sail Rhodes 19s, and those boats are slow to accelerate. It\u2019s not as though I don\u2019t have experience, but I\u2019ve had setbacks. It took a while for my starting chops to kick in. I had to learn to listen to my coaching voice.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the longest serving and most influential college sailing’s coaches has hung up his whistle, but thousands of sailors today carry forth his influence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":75298,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"BS_author_type":"BS_author_is_guest","BS_guest_author_name":"Kimball Livingston","BS_guest_author_url":"","hydra_display_date":"","hydra_display_updated":false,"_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":"159","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"A look back at the lasting influence of Ken Legler, one of the longest serving college sailing coaches, a respected race official and mentor to many.","_yoast_wpseo_title":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","arc_story_id":"","arc_website_url":"","custom_permalink":"","arc_subtype":"","arc_exclude_from_feeds":false,"sponsored":false,"sponsored_label":"Sponsored Content","sponsored_display_label":false,"sponsored_image":false,"post_right_rail":true,"post_right_rail_ad_1":true,"post_right_rail_ad_2":true,"post_right_rail_ad_3":false,"post_right_rail_ad_4":false,"post_right_rail_recirc":true,"fixed_anchor_ad":true,"post_top_ad":true,"post_off_ramp":true,"post_taboola":false,"labels":true,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":"","ad_settings_ads_on_this_page":true,"ad_settings_automatic_ad_injection_into_the_content":true,"ad_targeting":"","sponsored_url":"","social_share":true,"alternate_title_newsletter":"","alternate_content_newsletter":""},"categories":[159],"tags":[179,2899,177],"class_list":["post-75297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-racing","tag-college-sailing","tag-print-march-2023","tag-racing"],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}