Sights of rowing shells on the water are quite common and frequently our city excursions call attention to the University of Washington’s iconic rowing venue.
This past weekend Washington’s illustrious rowing program notched another significant achievement capturing the men’s national championship for the fifth consecutive year — a feat no other collegiate program has attained. Even more remarkable it was the team’s seventh national title in the past nine years.
In a rowing program that has charted milestones since 1903 there have been other legendary results. A recent bestseller The Boys in the Boat recalls the Husky crew that beat the Germans in front of Hitler at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. In 1958 another Husky crew beat decisively a Russian crew in Leningrad at the height of the Cold War when sport was a valued propaganda tool.