Copyright 2000 by Thomas E. Weil, Jr.

1900 - The Paris Olympics included six rowing events; the first Olympic eights contest was won by the Vesper Boat Club on the Courbevoie course on the Seine.

1903 - The American Rowing Association was formed with the goal of creating an American Henley regatta in Philadelphia.

The first Pacific Coast Intercollegiate Regatta took place between Washington and California in Seattle.

1904 - The only foreign boat to medal in the St. Louis Olympics rowing at Creve Coeur Lake was the second place Canadian eight; Vesper again won gold in that event.

Hiram Conibear, an athletic trainer with no rowing experience, took over the rowing program at the University of Washington, and, after being joined by professional watermen George and Dick Pocock, developed a dynasty famed for turning out many of the prominent U.S. coaches of the 20th century.

1906 - The Grand Challenge Cup was won for the first time by a foreign crew, from Belgium, and London newspapers mourned the death of English rowing.

1908 - The U.S. did not send any boats to Henley, the rowing venue for the London Olympics, where the home club, Leander, won the eights. Guy Nickalls, one of the Leander crew, the oldest (41 years) oarsman to ever win Olympic gold, concluded a career that placed him in the pantheon of British rowers, including seven Stewards, six Goblets, five Diamonds, four Grands and four Wingfields.

1912 - The U.S. was again not represented in the rowing events at the Stockholm Olympics, and Leander again won the eights.

The Pococks began building racing shells in their Seattle boat shop [Miller].

1914 - The Harvard junior varsity was the first U.S. crew to win the Grand Challenge Cup; 50 years later, every member of that crew returned for a reunion row.

1914-18 - Most boat racing was suspended during World War I.

1916 - Lightweight rowing was first introduced to U.S. colleges by Joe Wright at the University of Pennsylvania.

Post WWI

Among the imperial icons under attack in the wake of the First World War was the classic "orthodox" style of rowing taught at Eton. Steve Fairbairn of Jesus College, Cambridge was the leading iconoclast, and while his teachings were often Delphic in comprehensibility, his coaching was consistently successful.

1919 - The fist women's collegiate eight-oared race took place in England between Cambridge's Newnham College Boat Club and the London School of Medicine for Women.

1920 - The Antwerp Olympics, during which the rowing events were contested in Brussels, featured wins by Jack Kelly in the single and (with Paul Costello) double, a Navy win in the eight, and a silver in the coxed four. The eights title began a run of U.S. victories in that event that lasted until another U.S. Naval Academy eight lost in Rome in 1960 (Yale won in 1924 and 1956, Cal-Berkeley in 1928, 1932 and 1948, Washington in 1936, and Navy in 1952), marking a domination of one Olympic rowing event by one country that has not since been equaled.

1922 - The first Harvard-Yale-Princeton 150 lb. race was held (May 20).

1923 - A western crew (Washington) won the IRAs for the first time (June 28).

The Women's Amateur Rowing Association was formed in Britain.

1924 - Jack Kelly added a victory in the 1924 Olympic double to his two 1920 wins, and Yale (with future best-selling baby doctor Benjamin Spock aboard) won gold in the eights on the Seine course at the Paris Olympics. The Swiss won the coxed pairs and fours and the British won the single and the straight four.

1926 - Steve Fairbairn established the Head of the River Race on the Thames.

The Oxford University Women's Boat Club was formed.

1927 - The Boat Race was first broadcast by the BBC, and Oxford women first raced against Cambridge women.

With its entry in the Thames Cup, Kent School provided the first U.S. schoolboy crew to race at Henley; two years later, Browne and Nichols School became the first U.S. schoolboy winners at Henley, in the same event.

The Stotesbury Cup Regatta for interscholastic crews was organized in Philadelphia.

1928 - On the Sloten course at the Amsterdam Olympics, Paul Costello became the first American to win rowing gold in three consecutive Games (double in 1920, 1924 and 1928), while Cal-Berkeley continued the string of U.S. wins in the eights.

1929 - Columbia's entry in the Thames Cup marked the first appearance of a lightweight crew at Henley.

One of the first women's international rowing races took place in Poland with the contest between London's Ace L.R.C. and the Warsaw women's rowing club.

1930 - The first Women's Head of the River Race was held on the Thames.

Frederick Brittain wrote OAR, SCULLAND RUDDER, the first bibliography of rowing literature.

1932 - A Cal-Berkeley crew nipped Italy and Canada for the eights title at Long Beach Marine Stadium at the Los Angeles Olympics; the U.S. also triumphed in the coxed pair and the double, while the British won the straight four and pair.

1935 - The Scholastic (prior to 1976, "Schoolboy") Rowing Association of America was organized (May 14); women started competing in 1974.

1936 - A German sweep of the Berlin Olympics rowing events at the Regatta Pavilion at Grunau was averted only by a University of Washington win in the eights, and the British triumph in the double (which marked Jack Beresford's fifth medal (and third gold) over a span of five Olympics). Beresford, who ranks with Nickalls and Redgrave as one of England's finest oarsmen, also accounted for seven Wingfields, four Diamonds and two Grands.

Parliament broke the A.R.A.'s grip on the definition of an amateur, opening the doors for broader participation at home and better British results abroad.

1938 - Ernestine Bayer founded the Philadelphia Girls Rowing Club.

Joe Burk won the Diamond Skulls in record time at Henley, and received the Sullivan Award in 1940 as the outstanding amateur athlete in the U.S.

Although the BRITISH ROWING ALMANACK ceased publishing records of professional scullers in 1930, at which time Phelps held the world professional sculling championship on the basis of his victory over Barry, perhaps the last world class oarsman to claim that championship was H.R. "Bobbie" Pearce, an Australian oarsman who, after winning the Olympics singles gold in 1928 and 1932, first won the professional title by defeating Phelps in 1933, and the American Bill Miller in 1934, then lost it in 1937, but regained it from Paddon (September 9). Others contested the title at least as recently as 1952, when Saul claimed it from Paddon after a race in Australia.

1939 - The Dad Vail Rowing Championships, named after a professional sculler and Wisconsin rowing coach, were established to accommodate more equitable competition for smaller collegiate rowing programs, and have been held on the Schuylkill in Philadelphia since 1953.

1941 - The Cambridge University Women's Boat Club was formed.

1941-45 - Competitive rowing was generally suspended during World War II.

1946 - The Eastern Sprints were first held, in Cambridge for lightweights and in Annapolis for heavyweights. Not until they moved to Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1960 did both groups starting rowing 2,000 meters at the same venue on the same days.

1947 - John B. Kelly, Jr., brother of actress Grace Kelly (who was to become Princess Grace of Monaco), won the Diamond Sculls at Henley (avenging his father's exclusion from that event when he was the premier sculler in the world in the 1920's), for which he received the Sullivan Award.

Then New England Interscholastic Rowing Association held its first regatta, on Lake Quinsigamond.

1948 - Henley was again the rowing venue for the London Olympics, and the Cal-Berkeley eight harvested gold for the third time. The U.S. also won the coxed four, while Britain was victorious in the straight pair and the double. Joe Angyal, the first great U.S. club lightweight, who dominated his class over 15 years, won 22 national titles (in the days before junior and senior classes, and with WWII interrupting his prime years), made the 1948 Olympic team in the double, setting a precedent for such subsequent "mighty mite" U.S. Olympians as Tony Brooks, Chuck Hewitt, Bill Belden and Larry Klecatsky. The first exhibition of rowing art and memorabilia was held at The Drill Hall in Henley in conjunction with the Games, leading to an appeal for a permanent rowing museum.

Results of the British Women's Amateur Rowing Association regattas were published for the first time in the BRITISH ROWING ALMANACK.

1950 - 40,000 people watched Mervyn Wood of Australia defend the Philadelphia [Gold] Challenge Cup against John B. Kelly, Jr. and England's Anthony Rowe for the world amateur sculling championship over 2,000 meters on the Schuylkill.

1950's - Two major developments in Europe revolutionized rowing. While German Karl Adams and his Ratzeburg crews produced victories with harder training and higher ratings, the East European rowing countries, particularly East Germany and the U.S.S.R. developed national sport policies and national teams with international agendas.

1951 - The first FISA sponsored regatta for women was held in conjunction with the men's European Championships in Macon, France.

1952 - Thomas Price, age 19, from Rutgers, began rowing in January, sat in a pair for the first time in May, and won gold in the U.S. Olympic straight pair in Helsinki in July; Navy won the eights for the second time.

1954 - The first European rowing championships for women were held, in Amsterdam, and were swept by the Russians. The Russian squad, together with two Swiss rowers and a Yugoslav, also dominated the medals awards at Henley.

Magdalen College, Oxford experimented with one of the first fiberglass hulls, and the Bedford sliding rigger was championed by British Olympian, author and BRA editor Richard Burnell.

1956 - Yale rowed itself out winning the eights at Lake Wendouree at Ballarat during the Melbourne Olympics, which was boycotted by the Swiss, Dutch and Spanish teams because of the Soviets' actions in Hungary. The U.S. was also victorious in the straight and coxed pairs. The Soviets won the single and the double.

1959 - The tulip blade was popularized at the European Championships in Macon.

Oxford won despite its first "mutiny," led by Yale's Reed Rubin.

1960 - Oxford introduced spoon oars to the Boat Race.

The Rome Games witnessed the first defeat of a U.S. eight in Olympic history, as Navy lost to the Germans, who also won the coxed fours and pairs. The Soviets won the straight pair and single, while the U.S. won the straight four.

1961 - Cambridge trained for the Boat Race utilizing an unwieldy and primitive device developed in Australia and called an "ergometer."

The Western Sprints were first held.

1962 - One of the oldest records in sport fell when Yale's Boyce Budd weighed in at 15 stone 1 pound for a victorious Cambridge crew, breaking the mark for the heaviest Boat Race oarsman, held since 1829 by Oxford's Rev. Toogood at 14 st. 10lb.

Stuart Mackenzie won his sixth straight Diamonds, a record not since matched.

The first FISA world rowing championships were held, in Lucerne, Switzerland.

1963 - British rowing took several important steps forward with the appointment of its first director of training and of its first national coach, and with the integration of the Women's Amateur Rowing Association in the ARA.

Harry Parker began his career as the head coach at Harvard with an upset victory over Yale, the first of a string of 18 H-Y wins, and the beginning of a career as the most important U.S. college coach of the second half of the century.

1964 - The spare from the 1914 Harvard crew that won the Grand set a record for frustrated patience as the entire crew returned to row the Henley course after 50 years; there was still no place for the spare in the boat.

On the Toda course in Tokyo, Russian sculler Viacheslav Ivanov won his third consecutive single sculls Olympic gold medal; the Soviets also took gold in the double. The U.S. (Vesper) recaptured the eights title, and won the coxed four.

The U.S. National Women's Rowing Association was founded, and held its first championships in 1966, over a 1,000 meter course.

1965 - The first Head of the Charles was held in Cambridge/Boston, Massachusetts, and has since grown to be the biggest regatta in the U.S.

1966 - The East German men took five Henley titles, followed by a chaser of three golds at the World Championships at Bled, ending a decade of dominance of the international rowing scene by the Russians.

Two British Marines, Ridgway and Blyth, rekindled interest in trans-oceanic crossings by rowing from Cape Cod to Ireland in three months; another crew attempting the same feat, Johnstone and Hoare, were lost at sea.

The National Rowing Foundation was established to support U.S. rowing.

1967 - The first FISA junior world championships were held, in Ratzeburg, Germany.

Philadelphia Girls Rowing Club sent the first U.S. representative women's eight as well as a quad to a FISA championship.

1968 - The West German eight was victorious at Xochimilco at the Mexico City Olympics; Harvard was the last non-national team eight to represent the U.S. at the Games, the first in which a competing U.S. team did not win a single event. The East Germans won the straight pair and four.

1969 - Tom McClean completed the first solo trans-Atlantic rowing eastward crossing from Newfoundland to Ireland, and John Fairfax completed the first solo trans-Atlantic rowing westward crossing from the Canary Islands to Miami.

1970 - The introduction of the Gamut ergometer to U.S. circles initiated changes in training and selection processes in most rowing programs.

The East Germans took gold or silver at every event at the World Championships.

1972 - A New Zealand eight beat the U.S. to the finish in the Munich Olympics. The East Germans won the straight pair and four and coxed pair, while the Soviets won the single and the double. Harry Parker conducted the first selection of a U.S. national camp team.

The passage by the Congress of Title IX of the Omnibus Education Act of 1972 changed the face of women's rowing in the United States.

John Fairfax and Sylvia Cook completed a year's rowing odyssey from San Francisco to Australia.

German manufacturer Empacher Bootswerft pushed the frontiers of shell construction with the successful utilization of composite materials [Miller].

1973 - The U.S. entered its first national women's squad in the European rowing championships.

1974 - The initial San Diego Crew Classic was held, establishing an event which provides the first major competition of the spring season for collegiate crews.

The first FISA men's lightweight and women's world championships were held, in Lucerne: the women's distance was set at 1,000 meters. U.S. men won the eight and the single (Belden).

Kent School coach Hart Perry was the first foreigner elected a Henley Steward.

Oarsmanship and theology merged on the Charles with sightings of rude and smooth gods just prior to the aquatic miracle of a "horizon job."

1975 - The U.S. women's team was first selected based on a national camp system.

1976 - The Montreal Olympics, held on the Notre Dame course, had the first women's Olympic rowing, at a 1,000 meter distance, and U.S. women won silver in the single (Joan Lind) and bronze in the eight; the East Germans won both the men's and women's eights, as well as the men's straight and coxed pairs, the straight four, and the q2uad, and the women's single, coxed four and quad. Bulgaria won the women's double and straight pair, and the U.S. men avoided their first Olympic rowing medal shutout ever with a silver in the straight pair.

The Yale women's crew made national headlines with their Title IX protest strip.

1977 - The Dreissigackers produced the first light, durable composite material oars [Miller].

1980 - The U.S. boycotted the Moscow Olympics over the invasion of Afghanistan, while the East German men and women again took both eights titles, as well as the men's straight and coxed pairs and fours, and the double and the quad, and the women's straight pair, coxed four and quad.

1980's - Vespoli boats became the standard of choice for most U.S. rowing programs.

1981 - Steering Oxford to victory, Sue Brown became the first woman to take part in the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race.

Henley Royal Regatta initiated its cautious experimentation with women's racing.

The Concept II erg was put on the market; the institution of the first CRASH-B Sprints at Harvard's Newell Boathouse on January 20, 1982 gave meaning to winter training, and additional selection criteria to coaches [Miller].

The NAAO changed its name to the United States Rowing Association.

1983 - The appointment of Poland's Kris Korzeniowski by the USRA as the first National Technical Advisor and full-time national coach introduced European techniques to U.S. rowing.

1984 - As the Eastern bloc boycotted the Los Angeles Games, Finnish sculler Pertti Karppinen won his third consecutive Olympic single sculls title, Canada won the men's eight, and the U.S. won the women's eight and the men's double at Lake Casitas. Romania won every other women's gold. UCSB's David Farmer organized the first major U.S. exhibition of rowing art and memorabilia.

1985 - The first FISA women's lightweight world championships were held (in conjunction with the men's championships at Hazewinkel), and the FISA and Olympic course distance for women was increased to 2,000 meters.

The USRA moved from Philadelphia's Boathouse Row to Indianapolis.

1986 - The NWRA dissolved in recognition of the assumption by the USRA of responsibility as the national governing body for women's rowing.

1987 - Oxford's second "mutiny" led to books, a movie and a victory without U.S. oars.

1988 - The East German men and women were the victorious eights on the Han River at the Seoul Olympics, where the men also won the single and the coxed and straight fours, and the women also won the single, the double, the coxed four and the quad. The Italian men won the straight four and the quad.

The first Women's Henley Regatta was held.

1990 The World Cup was established by FISA for men's and women's singles.

1991 - "Hatchet" oar blades were first introduced by the Dreissigackers [Miller].

1992 - The Canadian men's eight and the women's straight pair, four and eight were triumphant on Lake Banyoles at the Barcelona Olympics, while the Germans took the men's single and quad and women's double and quad, and the Australians won the men's double and straight four.

1993 - Thomas Mendenhall's history of the Harvard-Yale boat race represented the first major scholarly work published on U.S. rowing.

1996 - The Atlanta Olympics had the first men's and women's Olympic lightweight rowing; Steve Redgrave won gold in his fourth consecutive Olympics with a victory in the straight pair, the only gold won by Britain in the entire Games. The Netherlands men's eight and the Romanian women's eight, as well as their lightweight double, brought home golden memories of Lake Lanier. The Swiss men were victorious in the single and the lightweight double.

Yale's Helen Cooper organized the first exhibition devoted to Thomas Eakins' rowing images, at the National Gallery, Yale and the Cleveland Art Museum.

1997 - The first woman was elected a Henley Steward, and women were admitted as members at Leander Club.

Women's rowing became a National Collegiate Athletic Association sport.

1998 - The quest for a rowing museum was realized when the River and Rowing Museum at Henley was formally opened by Queen Elizabeth (November 6).

1999 - Steve Redgrave and Matt Pinsent rowed in their third consecutive world championship straight four for Great Britain, and Mike Teti-coached Chris Ahrens stroked his third consecutive world championship eight for the United States.

2000 - As U.S. rowing entered the new millennium under the leadership of Dave Vogel and Frank Coyle at the USRA and Dick Cashin and Hart Perry at the NRF, rowing continued to grow, to produce champions of legendary stature, and to open new doors in the evolution of modern sport.

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Tom Weil practiced law in Houston. He has collected rowing books, prints and memorabilia and written and lectured on rowing art and history for over thirty years.