Alf Taeuber

Alfred Charles Taeuber (26 November 1887 – 24 February 1961) was a South Australian rower. He was a dual Australian champion who represented Australia at the 1924 Summer Olympics in the men's eight rowing crew.[1]

Alfred Taeuber
Personal information
Full nameAlfred Charles Taeuber
NationalityAustralian
Born(1887-11-26)26 November 1887
Adelaide, South Australia
Died24 February 1961(1961-02-24) (aged 73)
Murray Bridge, South Australia
Sport
SportRowing
ClubMurray Bridge Rowing Club

Club and state rowing

Tauber was employed as a fireman on the South Australian Railways and his senior rowing was from the Murray Bridge Rowing Club. The Murray Bridge Rowing Club men's eight was the dominant Australian club eight of the 1920s. They had won the South Australian state championship from 1920 to 1923 and for the four years from 1920 to 1923 they were selected in-toto as the South Australian men's eight to contest the King's Cup at the Australian Interstate Regatta. Tauber secured the five seat in the Murray Bridge eight of 1922 and rowed in those South Australian King's Cup victories of 1922[2] and 1923,.[3]

International representative rowing

In 1924 with South Australia continuing to dominate Australian eights rowing, their claim for national Olympic selection could not be denied and after winning a test event raced on Port Adelaide in March 1924, Tauber and the South Australian crew were selected in-toto to represent Australia as an eight at the 1924 Summer Olympics.[4]

Funding was raised from the Murray Bridge Rowing Club, the South Australian Rowing Association and the general public of South Australia. The crew were nicknamed "the Murray Cods".[5] Unlike the 1912 Olympic eight, the Murray Cods were not invited to race in lead-up at the Henley Royal Regatta and in 2000 Ted Thomas jnr a crew member's son, asserted that this was because the eight was crewed by working class men other than the stroke Bill Sladden [5] It's undisputed that tour funds were scarce and on arrival in France, the crew had to row their shell 60 km to their training base; that on tour some of the crew busked as musicians to raise pocket money; and that on race day they first rowed their shell 26 miles from their boatshed to the Olympic course.[5] Their equipment was also sub-par as they rowed with their oars turning in out-rigged poppets rather than in swivelling gates as had become the norm by 1924.[5]

In the Olympic regatta, with Tauber in the five seat, the Australian eight finished second behind Italy in their heat, then finished third in the repechage and didn't advance to the final.[6] Tauber did not row on after the Olympics.

References
  1. Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Alf Taeuber". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 18 February 2018.
  2. "1922 Interstate Championships". rowinghistory-aus.info. Archived from the original on 18 February 2018. Retrieved 18 February 2018.
  3. "1923 Interstate Championships". rowinghistory-aus.info. Archived from the original on 18 February 2018. Retrieved 18 February 2018.
  4. "1924 Paris Olympic Games". rowinghistory-aus.info. Archived from the original on 30 January 2018. Retrieved 18 February 2018.
  5. "2000 speech remembering the Murray Cods". Archived from the original on 7 October 2018. Retrieved 7 October 2018.
  6. Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Rowing at the 1924 Paris Summer Games: Men's Coxed Eights". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 18 February 2018.
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