Don Beer was an electrical engineering major at Yale, where he captained the freshman crew, and after his 1956 Olympic appearance, captained the varsity crew in 1957-58. For Yale, he was a member of two Eastern Sprint champions, those in 1957 and 1958. At the Melbourne Olympics, the Yale eight, for which he sat in the fourth seat, had the sobering experience of being the first American eight to ever lose a race, finishing third in the first heat behind Canada and Australia. They came back with a decisive victory in the repechage, and then beat Canada by two seconds in the finals to win the gold medal.
United States