Honors for Coach Ernst

Rowing News "Best of 2007" Coach of the Year award was announced last week, and our own Bob Ernst won going away! We weren't surprised. After the fantastic 2007 season and his bombshell announcement in July that he would take over the women's program, anything else would have been a joke. 

The magazine wrote: "Under Ernst, UW is regarded as one of the world's premier collegiate rowing programs, one blessed with strong alumni and athletic department support and hard-to-beat natural resources.... The question isn't whether he'll be able to turn things around on the women's side, it's how long will it take."

Congratulations Bob. You earned it.

Bob Ernst
 

Annual Meeting Set

The Rowing Stewards Board has set its annual meeting for 7:00 p.m. on January 15, 2008, at Conibear Shellhouse. Board members and non-members are invited and we hope that you will turn out for it.

In addition to brief board business, we will review the progress we’ve made over the last year on new strategies and events. We will also provide details on our efforts to build the financial strength of the program, and on our current financial position.

Best of all, the meeting will give you an opportunity to hear from Bob Ernst and Michael Callahan, and to meet and talk with Erica Schwab and Luke McGee. You can expect reports from the annual holiday training trip to California and an early season preview.

What’s Up For 2008?

Heads up, those of you who intend to race in Husky shells this spring. The upcoming season holds expectations beyond those you know – a challenge you weren’t expecting.

Why? Simple. Husky crews have a habit of making special things happen in those years ending in the number eight. If you know your history, you know that Husky crews in those years – for 100 years – put down amazing performances. Legacies can be challenges; you’ve got one for the 2008 racing season.

In 1908, the Huskies inaugurated what became known as the Conibear Stroke, challenged the winner of the California-Stanford dual, paid California’s travel expenses to Seattle, and raced them on Lake Washington over a three mile course. The Huskies won by three lengths. It was also the year that women’s rowing was officially sanctioned by the University of Washington.

In 1918, the season was cancelled as our men, and those of other crews throughout the country, fought in World War I.

In 1928, Rusty Callow left Washington for the University of Pennsylvania and Al Ulbrickson took over as varsity coach – at the age of 24. He went on to become one of the last century’s coaching giants.

By 1948, Ulbrickson had reached a coaching peak. He fostered a competitive environment at the shellhouse and, by the end of the season, the varsity and JV squads weren’t talking to each other. But could they row! Both teams won every race they entered up to the IRA, and back in Poughkeepsie, competing for the national championship, the Huskies swept the races. Although the varsity fell to California at the Olympic trials – a heartbreaking three foot loss – Al entered a four which sailed to England and won the Olympic gold medal. The IRA sweep and the Olympic medal became the impetus for the new Conibear Shellhouse, a fine legacy for a team that remains, arguably, the best Husky crew in history.

In 1958, the crew was prevented from rowing at the IRA because of football program irregularities so they traveled to Henley where they lost to the Russian Trud club. They accepted a post-race invitation to travel to Moscow for a rematch. You’ve heard the story of the thrilling Husky victory and you might even have heard the voice of a young Keith Jackson calling the race from behind the Iron Curtain.

In 1968, Dick Erickson was appointed Varsity Men’s coach, inaugurating a new era at Conibear. In a single year he pulled the program out of the doldrums, sweeping the Bears at the annual dual, winning the Western Sprints and surprising all the pundits by placing second at the IRA. The team went south to Los Angeles to compete at the Olympic Trials and, while they didn’t win, they showed the world that the Washington Huskies were back.

In 1978, the Huskies began the season in December with a trip to the Festival of Oars on the Nile River in Egypt. A confusing start and an unidentified finish line led to an unknown order of finish, but the official results had the Huskies in third place to France and England. At the San Diego Crew Classic, the year’s only national regatta, the Huskies won and followed that by sweeping California in the dual. They beat Oxford on Opening Day and then won the Pac-8 championship in a thrilling come-from-behind race that is still talked about among rowing fans. The ’78 crew finished the season at Henley where the Huskies lost to Bulgaria in what old oars describe as one of the greatest displays of Husky courage ever witnessed.

In 1988, Bob Ernst was promoted to Men's varsity coach and launched a new era in which he became not just the most successful Husky Crew coach in the program's long history but one of the University's longest serving coaches ever. His '88 crew struggled but it was a year for imposing the now well-known Ernst discipline and focus, and it became a foundation year for those that would follow.

The 1988 women, led by new varsity coach Jan Harville, simply flooded their competition. They began the season winning the Windermere Cup varsity and junior varsity races and those two teams went on to win at the Pac 10’s. They capped their season by taking all the glory and gold at the Women’s National Collegiate Rowing Championships.

Photos from the ’78, ’88, and ’98 women’s crews are still being collected and compiled by Ellen Ernst for her official history of Husky Crew. In the not too distant future, we will be able to show those to you as well as those of the men.

The 1998 women’s varsity started slowly by losing at the Windermere Cup to the British National Team, but they picked it up and, together with the JV and Novice 8, won gold at the Pac 10’s The varsity followed by winning the National Championship at the NCAA’s, a contest at which the team won the NCAA Team Championship.

The 1998 men’s crew began the year with five seats vacated by graduated seniors from the all-conquering ’97 crew. But this young team marched through the season by winning the Copley Cup in San Diego, beating Wisconsin in the Cut, beating Cal in the dual, and beating Nottinghamshire County Rowing Association at the Windermere Cup. And they topped it all by rowing one of the greatest races in IRA history, one in which Washington and Princeton pulled out from the pack and rowed stroke for stroke to the finish line where Princeton won by a second.

Our historian, Eric Cohen writes: “This race – in fact this season – was a throwback to the years laid down before these crews. It was not perfect, but it was an accurate reflection of the traditions embraced by the teams competing. Cal and Washington had duked it out four times, a bizarre outcome at the Dual leading into a terrific race at the conference championship. And the IRA was back where it belonged – offering a good venue and absolutely fantastic racing, guys selling it completely for the right to hold a trophy for a few minutes.”

So now that 2008 is about to begin, our point is simple We have two challenges for you athletes.

First, go to www.huskycrew.com and learn your history. Those who rowed before you created a legacy of excellence that will be a source of pride and renewed dedication for you. And while you're looking at all those faces, bear in mind that every one of them graduated and became active, contributing members of their communities.

Second, as you train through the long winter, understand that a season ending in the number eight gives you a special reason to focus, to do the extra set, to spend the time and effort necessary to make your own history.

It’s just about time to show us what you’ve got and we can’t wait to see it.

Class Stewards Volunteer

Erin O’Connell has been recruiting Class Stewards to help manage class data for the new automated system donated to the program by Matt Andersen and Andrew Dempsey. In the last few months, 26 alumni have signed on and have begun contacting members of their class to update our records and to search for temporarily lost rowers and friends of the program.

Over the next year we expect to double our address list through this effort and, in the bargain, communicate with you more easily with better, timelier information. It will also give each class or group of classes access to a manageable data base for organizing events – or maybe something as focused as mailing wedding invitations or birth announcements.

A list of Class Stewards and the class or group of classes they represent appears below. Twenty-six volunteers may sound like a lot but Erin still needs more – as you can see below. If you represent one of the missing years, contact her at 206 281-2973 or by email at ocone@spu.edu.

We have no Class Stewards covering the men’s team from the early years through 1959. Here’s the lineup.

So we’re looking for a few good men from all those years preceding 1960 and a dozen years subsequent to it. We know you’re out there; we know you’re reading this. Contact Erin today at ocone@spu.edu and start giving back to your sport.

On the women’s side, we’ve got good coverage, thanks to Ellen Ernst and a handful of others, but we need more volunteers. Here’s the lineup.

So where are the women from those middle years – 1984 through 1996? Get on board, get connected, get the job done. Contact Erin at ocone@spu.edu.

Annual Appeal Update

We have 45 days left on the 2007-2008 Annual Appeal and we have yet to reach our $200,000 goal.

You’ve already read that this is a critical year, a time to rebuild our contingency reserves in order to finance scholarships and other extraordinary costs. But we need to say it once more: We need your support.

Last year’s results proved what an active, committed alumni base can do to help the squad reclaim national championships. Everyone who contributed was in those boats last spring; everyone who wrote a check owns a piece of those great wins, and a piece of Husky history The team can do it again this year and so can you. Make our your check to Husky Crew today and send it to Bob Ernst, University of Washington, P.O. 354070, Seattle, WA 98195.

Thank you.

Click on the icon to dowload Donation Form in PDF format!

Bill Flint

We have lost one of our finest.

Bill Flint, ’62, passed away on December 1 from cancer. It was one of the very few battles lost by our friend.

Those who knew him thought of Bill as one of the best oarsmen in the history of Washington rowing. There may well have been athletes as tough as he, but none was tougher. He simply didn’t know the word quit – and he didn’t tolerate it in others. His friend, classmate and teammate John Vitalich ’62, knew Bill from the first grade. He described him as a person “with the focus, determination and will power to do just about anything he set his mind to do.”

After racing in the 1960 varsity, Bill took the 1961 year off to row in a pair with Olympic gold medal winner and future coach, Ted Nash. They traveled to Europe, raced all comers and won. Friend and Lakewood neighbor, Dave Covey, ’65, underscored that approach to life by saying: “Toughness, discipline and confidence drove Bill from the Husky Varsity to the U.S. National Team, and then into business, parenting and to his bravest challenge, as the principal caregiver to his wife, Barbara, for eight years until her death not long ago.”

After college, Bill turned his leadership skills to business and found success in that sphere quickly. With Barbara and their children, he traveled extensively on vacations to ski, sail and swim. He fell in love with scuba diving and, with his friend Mike "Ben" Benner, dove in the Galapagos Islands, Thailand, Indonesia, the Caymans, Dominica and Cozumel.

The word strength dominates all descriptions of Bill, but his friends found the teddy bear within. They knew that his heart was as strong as his judo skills, and that his cooking was as tasty as his irreverent zingers. Bill showed the world a tough visage but it glowed with warmth and friendship for those open to it.

Perhaps his close friend, classmate, teammate and neighbor, John Magnuson, ’62, came closest to summing Bill's spirit. “Bill returned from that successful European campaign with Ted Nash, re-entered the University and found himself stroking the JV boat. He persevered that year, knowing he stroked the most competitive boat on the squad, and then moved on to the next phases of his life while supporting the Husky program in every way he could. He was a rowing champion but also a champion at life – whatever the endeavor, and in every sense of the word.”

Golf Tournament

Reserve your spot in next summer’s Dave McLean Memorial Golf Tournament now. Go to davemcleangolf.com now and sign up.

Click here to register!
 

2007 – 2008 Crew Calendar

The 2007-2008 year is scheduled and it’s going to be busy. Mark your calendar today for the racing and related event days Alumni events are highlighted in bold type.

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