"I think it's some kind of rowing term, you know, like a 'flick' of the oar."
At that moment I was not in a position to contradict, but went home and tried to remember just when and why my father, Manuel A. Flick, had started the Flick Regatta.
Suddenly memories of tagging along with him down to the Schuylkill to watch my older brothers row were sharp and clear; the Sunday afternoons spent on the muddy east bank of the river in the early spring, always complaining to my mother that I had to go to the bathroom, the excitement in the old stands as we watched competing shells glide over the finish line just seconds apart, and what seemed like endless waits at the Fairmount Boathouse after the races had ended. I would run up to the deck hoping to get a glimpse of the coxswain being tossed into the water after a win, always wondering if some day he might float past the danger sign and over the falls.
Although the memories were clear, tha facts were not. So I called my oldest brother Bill, who had stroked the varsity eight in the mid '50s at Archbishop Prendergast High School. Prendergast was the new parochial high school in Drexel Hill and was later renamed Monsignor Bonner. Bill filled in the missing pieces.
During the early '50s, Catholic League was very informal. For example, if West Catholic wanted to race Prep (St. Joseph's), the coaches would meet on the river and discuss when they would race. The races were mainly in eights. The only formal races for Philadelphia high school oarsmen to compete in were the Catholic League Championships, City Championships, Stotesbury Regatta, and the "Nationals".
During the 1955-6 season, my father decided to start a round-robin series and organized a meeting with some of the Catholic League coaches. My brother reports that the group agreed on the series with great enthusiasm.
Bill and Dad sat down and together worked the point values for singles, doubles, fours, quads, and of course for the big race, the eights. In order to include as many schoolboys as possible and to encourage more competition, Dad insisted on not limiting the races to varsity, but to include junior varsity rowers as well. Each week my brothers would collect the entries on Thursday, bring them home, where they would help Dad type the schedules on the mimeograph stencils, and the next day have them reproduced at Prendergast.
On the following Sunday, I would help distribute the programs at the races. Since I was the only girl in the family of five children, I was chosen to present the first Manny Flick Trophy at the finish line after the last race in the series. That year it went to the winners, St. Joe's Prep. Since then, my father's 15 grandchildren have shared the honor of presenting the trophy in memory of their grandfather. Last year it was given by Lauren Flick, a sophomore at Notre Dame Academy in Villanova.
Over the years the non-Catholic schools were invited to compete and the races have become an important part of Philadelphia schoolboy rowing. Now the bronze statue of John B. Kelly Sr. graces the finish line where I spent so many childhood Sunday afternoons. Every time I see the tiny white lights go on at dusk to outline the boathouses, I am reminded of our days on the river and know my father would be proud to know he played a part in making the sport of rowing available to so many people.