A Brief History of Rowing
18th Century England. Competition among small ferry barges on the Thames River in England gave rise to the sport we know today as rowing. The first formal rowing event was in 1715 between apprentice English watermen in which an Irish comedian, Thomas Doggett, offered a silver badge and an orange coat as a prize. Since then, this race for the Doggett Coat and Badge has been run annually, except during the war years.
Amateur rowing began in 1815 at Oxford University. Cambridge University organized its first crew shortly thereafter. The two schools held the first intercollegiate race in 1829, using professional watermen to coxswain their boats. The professionals were barred after the first race, and a highly formal code of amateurism has characterized English rowing ever since. Rowing is a gentleman's sport, with rules and behavior codes designed to encourage good sportsmanship. The Henley Royal Regatta, established in 1839 is a social as well as athletic event, with most spectators decked out in formal finery. The Princess Elizabeth Cup is Henley's prize for the best schoolboy.
19th Century United States. The first rowing race in the United States was in 1811 between professional ferrymen using 4-oared barges. In the 1830's, both Yale and Harvard formed crews. They competed against each other in the first U.S. intercollegiate regatta in 1852, seventeen years before the first intercollegiate football game. The Harvard-Yale regatta is held annually and restricted to those schools. Today, crew racing is a well-established and growing sport at both the college and high school level in this country.
While particularly strong programs exist on both coasts, in recent years numerous programs also have been established by schools in the South and Mid-West.
Recent U.S. Accomplishments. 1987 was a great year for U.S. rowing with the U.S. heavyweight eight men's boat, comprised mostly of collegiate rowers, winning the World Championship in Copenhagen, Denmark--the first such U.S. victory in 14 years. The U.S. men's heavyweight eight also won first place in the World's held in Indianapolis in September 1994. This was the fourth first place for the U.S. in overall World Championship competition.
Rowing at the Olympics. The pinnacle of competitive international rowing is obviously the Olympics . Rowing is one of the original Olympic sports with the first modern Olympic games, held in Athens in 1896, due to be its debut. Unfortunately the weather was too rough to hold the event, rowing had to wait until 1900 in Paris for its Olympic debut. Women's rowing debuted at the 1976 Montreal games.
The next biggest event in the international calendar is the World Championship, held every two years, and nationally each country has its own national championships. What makes this country so unique is the survival of many privately held races which remain as a matter of tradition despite attempts to standardize the sport under one set of rules.
The Oxford-Cambridge boat race is a prime example of this. Perhaps the world's most famous race began in 1829, predating Olympic rowing. Although you wouldn't know it because of all the media attention, it is actually a private race and the two Universities decide on all the rules and regulations. Another good example is the Royal Henley Regatta. Although this event incorporates all the standard rowing categories it abides by its own rules. The course for example is less than the standard 2000 meters, and races consist of only two boats going head to head. Like the Oxbridge race Henley is seen as a private affair but unlike the former it has not become commercialized and receives only as much media coverage as a normal local event. It is as much a local social gathering as it is a serious sporting event.
It is clear that despite the high level of professionalism of rowing in this country, highlighted by our success at the Sydney Olympics, the traditional values of the sport as a social pastime, remain strong.