In many respects, Parker is like current Los Angeles Lakers’ coach Phil Jackson—subdued and semi-mysterious. Never in-your-face, he is always laid back, allowing his silence to speak volumes and never fully articulating what is on his mind. Even without significant effort on his part, his legendary status motivates his rowers.

“You just want to be the best crew that he’s seen, because he’s seen the best that everyone has to offer in this sport,” Skey said.

Parker’s quiet approach encourages the rowers to make themselves better of their own accord. He won’t yell or ride a rower until he gets results, but if his coaching cannot motivate a rower to perform at his peak, little else will.

“I think that I coach using a lot of positive reinforcement and encouragement,” Parker said. “I don’t ever try to give people an overall assessment of their performance. Basically I ask them to do what they need to do and they do it.”

And Harvard’s rowers need not look far to see the example Parker sets. For all his years, he is still very much an athlete and a competitor, both at heart and in practice.

Parker runs the squad’s grueling triathlon—7500 meters on the rowing ergometer, immediately followed by the 4.2-mile run from Newell Boathouse to Harvard Stadium and capped by the climb up and down each of the stadium’s concrete stairways. He competes right alongside the team, elbowing some of his pupils out of the way as he goes, beating many of them.

“He’s still got it,” Skey said. “He’s still trucking up and down the river in the single. He beats some of the team in our annual triathlon that we do. He goes to Switzerland and does mountain ranges, [and] the Mount Washington cycling race each year with former alumni. He’s just showing that he’s still got it.”

He enters into an annual side bet with his rowers where he races the team’s average time and the losers, by his rules, must undergo a certain unenviable ordeal. In the past, losers have sometimes jumped naked into the Charles.

“Last year, they surprised me—they did so well,” Parker said. “I doubt that’ll happen again.”

This weekend he will be back home on the water, rowing in the men’s veteran singles.

After last year’s sixth-place finish, Parker is seeded eighth in a group of competitors he has raced against for many years.

“I hope to be competitive with the people I’ve been rowing against, off and on, for quite a few years,” Parker said. “I hope to move up one or two slots.”

And given Parker’s competitive nature and determination, there is a good chance he will do just that.