1852 Harvard - Yale Trophy Oars Going to Auction
Ladies & Gents,
About a year ago I purchased a Hydrow rowing machine (think Peloton, but an erg) and have since become that guy who will corner you talking about how great rowing is. It's awkward and unnecessary. I need to stop. Alas, as I have continued my spiral as a rowing stan I've learned a few things I thought might make for decent reading/viewing on a slow Tuesday sports day.
The very first collegiate athletic competition is thought to be the Harvard-Yale Regatta of 1852 and is the longest running collegiate competition to date. The trophy oars for that first regatta are on Sotheby's block starting today. There is a great 3 minute video on the history of that Regatta and the oars here.
If you still have room on your summer reading list, I would recommend The Boys in the Boat. While not a new book, it's a good read about the 1936 University of Washington men's rowing team that competed in the Berlin Olympics. If you'd like to support this here blog, go ahead and buy the title through this Amazon
While Michigan's rowing program is run out of the Rec department and is mostly student run, they compete well against other schools with fully funded programs. They are currently on a nine year run as the reigning American Collegiate Rowing Association's Team Point Champions.
Finally, if there are any other Hydrowers out there, let's race. You can find me under the name RobJ.
Since these oars are being auctioned through Sotheby and not ebay, I going to guess the bids are going to be more than I'd want to spend on the oars (which is pretty much 0).
Boys in the Boat is a good read. If you are in Seattle, UW offers tours of the old shellhouse as well, which is really interesting after reading the book.
https://www.washington.edu/ima/waterfront/asuw-shell-house/tours/
This. I can’t second this enough. I’ve vociferously recommended that read to anyone in the “what book should I read” OT posts around here and anyone at work (incidentally, in oncology) who will tolerate me encouraging them to read it. I’ve read a decent number of books and I don’t often feel a little jealous of people who will get to experience it for the first time. If you’re reading this thread about oars for sale, your next stop after bidding at Sotheby’s should be the bookstore.
Rowing made me think of this facility in West Hall (formerly West Engineering):
I used to like to peek through the windows of that place.
Since this was not labeled "OT" was waiting to read about the Michigan connection to these 150 year old oars maybe made from some trees on campus, but sadly none.
My first post and I did commit the posting sin of no OT label. You're right to call me out. Apologies.
I had to look up the Hydrow. That's a pretty nice looking machine. I used the rowing machines a lot in college, but they were nothing like that.
At one point in the 80s, I wanted to go to Oxford and join the rowing team. That lasted until I decided to be a karate champion, then a fighter pilot, then a surfer, then an itinerant bouncer... The younger me would laugh at the 'boring' job I would have later in life.
and thus began your professional dance career?
Dammit, XM. I told you to delete those videos. Though we did make a pretty good team back then.
look, you're the star on the left, i'm the comedic part on the right. if i can deal with it, so can you pretty boy.
Mentioning "Boys in the Boat" strikes a particularly strong chord with me. My wife was getting care with the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance and we were frequently at UW Medical Center, Harborview, and the SCCA campus. She bought the book and I read it to her during treatment and when she was feeling a lot of distress. After finishing the book, I arranged to do a private tour on another visit. The tours had just started at that time.
While going through the experience of cancer is truly awful, I will always treasure the many side adventures we did during those many trips to Seattle.
So, thanks OP for mentioning something that brought a smile to my face. That was a great day for us during a time that didn't have many.
I can't really tell from you phrasing whether or not there was a good outcome to that treatment, but in any case I'm sorry you and your wife went through that. Glad OP's post brought you some joy
Thanks. The "good outcome" in our case was simply having 2 years and a much better quality of life than the original diagnosis indicated. We were able to make the most of it and for that, I am very grateful.
While I hope nobody reading this has to experience such things, I will say Seattle Cancer Care Alliance is phenomenal. Both the medicine and the things they do to reduce burden on the family. It made all the difference in the world.
Sorry to hear that. Peace to you, brother.
I’m so sorry to hear that. What an evil disease. But I am glad the treatment and all around care this place provided gave your wife and you those two years of a better life than you expected
I wish you peace, brother
I appreciate that. There are some good people on this blog.
You chief among them
Former collegiate rower here. U-Dubb is still and has been the dominant program in collegiate HW rowing, their crews were just always 8 ginormous dudes who pulled hard AF.
DesertGoBlue, if you like the Hydrorow that much I strongly recommend you search for a local rowing club and learn how to handle an oar (not that hard) and get in a boat; I have never sat on a Hydrorow but I spent many, many hours erging, and erging sucks (even if it is a decent workout). Actual rowing (I only rowed 8s and 4s, could never learn to scull) is 10,000 times better than erging, plus club rowers frequently race which is where the fun really is.
Boys in the Boat talks about the "swing" that the UW crew achieved. It is a pretty special feeling (as is capturing the bow ball on another boat or taking multiple seats on a boat, you can feel the enemy's despair), and this YouTube clip of the US Men's HW8 winning gold in Athens in 2004 is a pretty good clip depicting all 8 rowers swinging together. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upy01M11OHo&t=211s
As my username may imply, I am starved for open water rowing options here in Phoenix. We have a man made lake in Tempe that does sport a boat house that offers beginner training for adults. I'm very excited to partake and get on the water. I am sure it is exponentially better than the erg!
What an awesome video! I literally had butterflies seeing them open up a full boat length lead early. Netherlands made quite a push to finish in that last 100m, looked like they caught up to the 5/6 by the finish line? Would love to hear what the US cox was shouting for that race. Wonder if there's audio of that somewhere? Great clip!
At least one rower in that US boat would probably not give the cox any credit: Beau Hoopman. Whatever the cox was saying probably pissed Hoopman off.
I know about Hoopman through my two sons who rowed at Wisconsin. Hoopman rowed there and now is an assistant coach. (I suspect he’s the heir apparent to the current head coach). Hoopman says this about coxswains: “A cox can’t make a boat go faster; he can only make it go slower.” Coxswains, on the other hand, tend to think that they control everything.
Hoopman’s an interesting guy, regardless of his opinions about coxes. He never rowed before going to Wisconsin, which prides itself on developing novices. Six years after he first picked up an oar, he was standing on an Olympic podium with a gold medal around his neck. He also won a world championship gold in the men’s 8 in 2005 and a bronze in Beijing in 2008.
From what I’ve seen and from what my sons have said, disdain for coxes is a widespread if not predominant attitude among elite rowers.
I was in just was in just the scrub boats in uni but still remember many years later the times our boat flew (not all the time...that's why we were the scrub boat!).
Going once
Has PJ Fleck submitted any bids yet?
He switched from rowing the boat to motorboating after he found his new wife.
Is this the sort of thing that one would hang from the Michigan Stadium goal posts that one bid on at the university auction? Or no?
I was on crew my sophomore year at Michigan, great memories. So glad I joined. Still have my Notre Dame jersey that earned in a bet by beating them in South Bend.
I have a Concept2. Not the same system as yours but I'm a long time believer
Concept2 ergs are the standard in the sport.
The water rowers are terrible by comparison, but they're usually more affordable and any rowing is better than not rowing.
Agreed, I started way back in the day with a piston rower. Crude but wore the thing out.
The Concept2 was an investment but 6 years later it still looks and feels exactly as it did day one. If you're going to stay with it it's actually less costly in the long run because it could go 20 years+. The build quality is a marvel.
Michigan *men's* rowing team is run out of the Rec department and is mostly student run. Michigan's *women's* rowing team has been Varsity since 97/98 and is one of the best programs in the country.
Let's stop defaulting to men's sports = no qualifier needed, while women's sports = must include "women's."
Thank you for this clarification. That is a massive oversite on my part. I agree 100% about not defaulting to men's sports. Great to know about the Women 's team.
I rowed in college and coached out East afterwards.
By far the most enjoyable sport I ever competed in and I was a 3 sport athlete in high school (football, baseball, & basketball). 5am wake up, 6 days a week for 9 months, rowing is no joke.
Michigan's women's program is top 10 in the nation and the men's program is the best club program hands down. They used to race IRA schools pretty regularly, but they would occasionally beat a Cornell or Wisconsin and make fully funded programs look bad, so all of a sudden club teams universally weren't allowed to compete at IRA National Championships or other IRA sanctioned races. Club programs "are not governed by the same rules as us." Which is just stupid.
Anyways, rowing is awesome. Erging is terrible. Concept2 makes the best ergs (but something is better than nothing).
Is it a Title IX issue that keeps Michigan from promoting Rowing to varsity? Such that they would have to remove men's scholarships from another sport receiving them or add women's scholarships for a sport not currently receiving?
Yes and no. The NCAA doesn't govern men's rowing. The IRA predates the NCAA by decades, but it kind of operates in a similar fashion. There are restrictions on practice hours, number of coaches, etc.
The University elevating the sport to IRA status wouldn't necessarily require scholarships to my knowledge (Harvard doesn't have athletic scholarships), but it would require more investment for a sport that isn't NCAA. They'd have to provide oversight of a sport that has a different governing body and provide greater financial support for an expensive sport. There really isn't an "upside" even though Michigan is basically the Alabama of ACRA rowing.
Wisconsin is an IRA program but it's a really weird outlier. Almost all IRA programs exist on the East and West Coast.
I agree that scholarships aren’t the issue. Few scools in the IRA offer scholarships. Washington and Cal offer some. I know that BU offers a few partials. I don’t know about Syracuse. Wisconsin doesn’t offer any. The Ivies don’t have scholarships but find a way to get attractive aid packages to athletes.
For Michigan, I think a boat house and the right kind of water for training would be a big obstacle to having a men’s IRA program. Now, the men’s club program trains at Argo pond, with essentially identical facilities to Huron and Pioneer high schools. Argo pond isn’t big enough for serious training. It’s impressive that Michigan does so well with such lousy training facilities.
The women’s team recently built a boat house in Belleville or thereabouts. I don’t know if it’s big enough for both programs. An NCAA women’s team and an IRA men’s team would probably have as many as 200 rowers total, for at least some of the year. I would think that, if Michigan was seriously considering a men’s varsity program, they would have established it when they built the women’s boat house and put other training facilities for rowers at the new athletic campus on South State.
It must be incredibly expensive to build a modern boathouse from scratch, especially for two programs. You have to acquire waterfront property on the right kind of water, build a big facility with a tank (an indoor rowing facility), and buy a lot of expensive boats. A decent shell for an 8 costs well over $50,000. Empachers (the gold standard shell) cost $75-80,000. And they’re made from carbon fiber so they tend to be pretty fragile and have a short life. For men’s and women’s program, you would need literally dozens of shells, and you’d probably spend several hundred thousand every year to keep the boat stock in decent shape.
Funding the construction (or expansion) of a boathouse, paying the training, equipment, and travel expenses, and hiring a full time coaching staff would be the main expenses. There’s a reason that IRA schools are almost all schools that have had rowing programs since the 19th or early 20th centuries. They’ve already paid the biggest capital expenses.
For all of its ACRA success, Michigan is just not on the same level as IRA programs. Even when Michigan raced at the IRA championships, they were, at best, in the back half of the petite final, usually 11th or 12th overall. In the last few years, Michigan and Wisconsin have raced in Indianapolis in the fall, right after Head of the Charles. Michigan sends its first varsity boat; Wisconsin sends its best sophomores, most of whom will never make its 1V. Wisconsin wins. In 2018 or 2019, Michigan’s boat had won the collegiate division at Head of the Charles (the IRA programs race in the championship division), but Wisconsin’s sophomores still beat them. And Wisconsin’s 1V has been a middle-of-the-pack boat for ten years or so, usually finishing 11th or 12th at IRAs.