HISTORY OF ROWING
Rowing is among the oldest of all sports. It has no recorded
birth date. Rowing, as some the oldest Egyptian carvings show, was a
well-established practice even before history began to be written.
Rowing had become so prominent an activity, however, that it became one
of the earliest of recognized sports. The first competitive event was staged on
the Thames River in 1715. An English actor, Thomas Doggett, offered a Waterman's
orange coat with a conspicuous silver badge on the arm engraved with the word
"Liberty". It was so great a success that an annual celebration known as the
"Doggett's coat and Badge Race" was established. This event still continues in
England.
The first intercollegiate race was rowed at Henley in 1829 with the
Oxford crew winning over Cambridge. Oxford had begun rowing races among its own
classes in 1815 and Cambridge took up the sport one year later.
The Henley Regatta was established as a public meeting in the Town Hall,
Henley-on-Thames, on March 26, 1839, when it was resolved: "That from the lively
interest which had been manifested at the various boat races which have taken
place on the Henley Race during the last few years, and the great influx of
visitors on such occasions, this meeting is of the opinion that the
establishment of an annual regatta, under judicious and respectable management,
would not only be productive of the most beneficial results to the town of
Henley, but from its peculiar attractions would also be a source of amusement
and gratification to the neighbor- hood, and to the public in general." In 1851,
His Royal Highness Prince Albert became the first Royal Patron of the Regatta,
and since then it has been called "Henley Royal Regatta."
As in England, the first races in this country were between watermen
usually in fours. Club rowing started in New York Harbor in 1834 when the Castle
Garden Amateur Boat Club Association was organized. It spread rapidly over the
country as did club regattas until by 1872 there were more than 150 regattas
throughout the United States. The Detroit Boat Club, founded in 1839 and still
active, is the oldest club in this country. The Schuykill Navy, organized in
1858, gave the Philadelphia clubs a permanent role in American Rowing. Not to be
outdone, Pittsburgh had more rowing clubs than Philadelphia near the turn of the
century.
Crew racing is also the oldest American college sport (1844), antedating
football (1871), baseball (1879) and basketball (1891). In 1843, a Yale student
bought a second-hand four-oared shell from a New York club and brought it back
to New Haven, Conn. He paid $29.50 for the boat and oars. This was the beginning
of the first boat club at Yale College. The first college race was between boats
owned by rival Yale clubs in Boston Harbor in 1844, the contest being an
eight-oared gig and a dugout canoe. The dugout canoe won over the much faster
gig because a stone had lashed to the keel of the gig.
In the early days of intercollegiate rowing there was not unity of
design as to boats. There were proponents of six, eight and even ten oared
shells, both with and without coxswain, and it was some years before the "eight"
became the standard racing shell. Rowing has operated under the handicap of not
being self-supporting and of having to depend financially upon the sports which
produce income, such as football and basketball, plus the voluntary
contributions of enthusiasts. The early rowing courses were from one to four
miles long. Courses were standardized worldwide to 2000 meters only a few years
ago. However, the Henley Royal Regatta remains at one mile plus 550 yards. Also
for many years there was little international competition, particularly between
the famous English and American college crews. Besides the high travel expenses
which would be involved, there was another very cogent reason, namely the
difference in definition of "amateur standing" in England and America.
There are no great personal heroes in the world of rowing - no “peerless
players" and no "prima donnas". A crew is eight oarspeople and a coxswain, each
dependent of maintaining equally excellent performance throughout the entire
boat.