Professional Rower
Courtney became a professional rower after the canceled race with Riley. The decision to move into the professional ranks was one Courtney would later regret. When asked later in life why he became a professional, he responded, "Because I was a fool, I had no more business in the professional line than I had of being a preacher."
Even though he did not become a professional until 1877, this did not mean he hadn’t profited from being an amateur rower. Courtney admitted that he was given $450 after he won the Grand National Amateur Regatta at Saratoga in 1873 by local gamblers that profited from his victory. That sum was more than a year's salary as a carpenter. In the race versus Riley where he was poisoned, Courtney and his brother had bet over $1,000 on his victory in the race. He also stated that before the race was canceled, he expected to receive half the grandstand receipts.
Read more about this topic: Charles E. Courtney
Famous quotes containing the word professional:
“The American character looks always as if it had just had a rather bad haircut, which gives it, in our eyes at any rate, a greater humanity than the European, which even among its beggars has an all too professional air.”
—Mary McCarthy (1912–1989)