University of Washington Rowing: A Storied History
The University of Washington (UW) rowing program boasts a rich and remarkable history, captured through extensive research, images, interviews, and videos compiled over the last 20+ years. This dedication aims to raise awareness of Washington Rowing and reconnect alumni and the community to the sport that has positively impacted so many. The historical detail, continuous updates, and extended research found on these pages are unparalleled for any other amateur sports team (men and women combined), whether on the web or in book form.
Early Beginnings and the Rise of Rowing at UW
Rowing was added to the University of Washington’s sports curriculum in 1903, establishing UW as the first college on the Pacific Coast to adopt such a program. However, even before its official recognition, the shores of Lake Washington, bordering the 600-acre campus, naturally attracted students and faculty. Despite the limitations of the era, with Seattle striving to shed its image as a pioneer town, an estimated 5,000 people gathered on shore and by boat to witness the inaugural intercollegiate rowing race between California and Washington in 1903. This enthusiastic support from Seattle embraced and virtually demanded the sport from the very beginning.
The men and women who participated in those early years, lacking modern training facilities and sports medicine, trained rigorously with an ethic that continues to inspire the coaches and student-athletes who row at Washington today.
The Conibear Era: Innovation and Dedication
Hiram Conibear, hired as the Husky crew coach in 1907, remarkably "didn’t know one end of a boat from the other." Driven to succeed, he dedicated himself to studying and improving the orthodox Oxford stroke. Conibear's innovative approach included borrowing a rowing scull seat, placing broom handles in the skeleton’s hands, and taking home a skeleton from the UW Biology Department.
Boatbuilders George and Richard Pocock, sons of a British racing shell builder, immigrated to Vancouver, B.C. Conibear recruited them to open a shop at UW, marking the beginning of a significant partnership. George Pocock possessed a deep appreciation for the art and beauty of rowing. For fifty years, he continued building boats, providing shells for most racing colleges in the country and many overseas.
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Ulbrickson's Legacy: Mastering the Crew
Al Ulbrickson, Conibear’s successor, further developed the coaching system, skillfully utilizing the unique opportunities presented by each year’s crew. Ulbrickson masterminded the development of the winning 1936 men’s crew. He served as the UW rowing head coach for more than 30 years.
The 1936 Berlin Olympics: A Defining Moment
In 1936, the University of Washington men’s rowing team achieved the unthinkable, overcoming injuries and illness to defeat British, German, and Italian crews and win a gold medal at the Berlin Olympics.
Every fall in Seattle, young men gathered at the Associated Students of UW (ASUW) Shell House, located where Montlake Cut meets Lake Washington’s Union Bay, for their first day of crew practice. The imposing 12,000-square-foot structure, with its massive sliding doors opening onto the Cut, would have awed aspiring rowers. Inside, they would have been greeted by the smells of varnish and western red cedar. This sense of possibility remains palpable at the Shell House today, driving the UW community to restore the structure.
In the lead-up to the 1936 season, UW coach Ulbrickson recognized his team's potential to win a national championship and Olympic gold. His challenge was to find the ideal combination of men who rowed even better together, creating a whole greater than the sum of its parts. The young men who impressed Ulbrickson had grown up quickly in Depression-era timber towns, mining camps, and dairy farms. They financed their education by working in pulp mills, on docks, on fishing boats, and even on the Grand Coulee Dam. Higher education offered them a path to a different life, and at the UW, their backgrounds were irrelevant.
After extensive experimentation, Ulbrickson finalized his perfect combination: Bobby Moch as coxswain, Donald Hume at stroke, followed by Joe Rantz, George Hunt, Jim McMillin, Johnny White, Gordon Adam, and Charles Day, with Roger Morris in the bow seat. Ulbrickson named them the Washington varsity eight.
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During the 1936 regular season, the varsity eight solidified their position as one of Washington’s all-time great crews. After convincingly defeating the University of California in the Pacific Coast Regatta, Washington traveled to Poughkeepsie for the Intercollegiate Rowing Association National Championship Regatta, where they came from behind to win the title, beating Cal and several elite East Coast schools. The UW varsity eight was headed to Berlin.
The American Olympic Committee (AOC) surprised the UW by requiring the team to fund their own trip, leaving them less than a week to raise $5,000 (approximately $100,000 today). The Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer publicized the news, with the Times contributing a lead gift of $500, which spurred the community into action. Volunteers made phone calls and solicited donations on the streets of Seattle.
Rowing was a popular sport in the 1930s. On a blustery evening in the Olympic final on the Langer See, the men from Washington found themselves in last place. They had been placed in the worst lane, exposed to a driving crosswind for much of the course, while Germany and Italy occupied the two most protected lanes. The UW boat spent the first half of the 2,000-meter race battling wind and choppy water, striving not to fall too far behind for a comeback. As the Langer See narrowed and their lane became protected from the wind, they began to claw their way back. Amidst cries of “Deutschland!” from tens of thousands of German onlookers, the Americans increased their stroke rate, overtaking the sprinting Germans and Italians in the final 200 meters. In a dramatic finish, they surged forward, winning the race by approximately 10 feet.
This victory occurred on August 14, 1936. In the German community of Grünau, 75,000 spectators filled the shores of the Langer See, enduring the wind and rain to watch the final rowing event of the Berlin Olympics. Adolf Hitler and his entourage, who had arrived earlier that afternoon to cheers and salutes from the mostly German crowd, overlooked them from a prominent balcony. Calls to boycott the Olympics in protest of the oppression of German Jews had been made in the United States and Europe, but those efforts did not succeed. The United States and its future allies aimed to bring symbolic opposition through their Olympic might. Germany had already won gold in five out of six rowing finals that day. What “the boys in the boat” achieved in that race is legendary.
The Legacy Continues: Triumphs and Traditions
The story of the 1936 team continues to inspire. Today, a decade after the publication of Daniel James Brown’s bestseller “The Boys in the Boat,” and with a George Clooney film adaptation on the horizon, the epic story of the Husky eight lives on at the UW. According to UW Men’s Rowing head coach Michael Callahan, who rowed for Washington from 1992 to 1996, “Before the book, we at the UW knew it was a great story, but now the whole world knows about it.”
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The Husky Clipper, the boat rowed to victory in the 1936 Olympics, currently hangs from the rafters of Conibear Shellhouse, where the UW men’s and women’s crews now train, a short walk north from the ASUW Shell House. Just inside the south entrance is a room filled with glass cases displaying trophies, medals, and plaques that honor the achievements of the UW men’s and women’s rowing programs. Behind each award is a unique group of Huskies who trained hard, pulled as one, and became part of a whole that was greater than the sum of its parts.
In May 2015, Washington’s historically rich men’s rowing program reached new heights by becoming the first program ever to win five consecutive Intercollegiate Rowing Association’s men’s varsity eight national titles. They also swept all five heavyweight championship races for the third time in regatta history. The Huskies won the varsity eight, second varsity eight, third varsity eight, freshman eight, and varsity four, marking the team’s third five-race sweep in the last four years (also achieved in 2012 and 2013). No other program has ever accomplished a five-race sweep in the history of the IRA Regatta, which was first run in 1895. Including heats and semifinals, Washington won 14 out of 14 races at the IRAs. Also, for the unprecedented ninth straight year, Washington won the James Ten Eyck Trophy, awarded to the overall points champion.
Pocock Racing Shells and Innovation
Built by Pocock Racing Shells in the late 1950s, the Husky Challenger was a successor to the Husky Clipper. At 64 feet in length, the eight-oared Challenger represents an innovative design tradition born in Seattle, using Northwest wood to create sleek and efficient shells. The boat’s skin is 3/16′ thick old-growth Western red cedar; the keel is sugar pine; and the shoulders are ash.
Preserving the Legacy
The University of Washington Rowing extends its gratitude to Team Historian and Board of Rowing Stewards member Eric Cohen, ’82, for his tremendous efforts to archive and catalog the 100+ year history of the program.
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