Brief History of Rowing

Rowing is one of the oldest competitive sports. Long before great networks of road snaked across the land, water was the primary means of moving people and goods from one place to another, whether by lake, river or sea. Friendly informal competitions often arose between watermen and planted the seeds for what has become the sport of rowing. The elegance of many oars moving in and out of the water together did not escape the ruling classes who used brilliantly dressed rowers in great water processions. Oared barges raced on the Nile as early as 2500 B.C and the Egyptian Pharaoh Amenophis II tomb's (inscription dated to around 1430 BCE) shows him rowing. The Roman poet Virgil describes a rowing race in the Fifth book of Aeneid. Rowing was also used as an instrument of war. Though rowers did fatigue and had to be fed, they could be depended upon when the wind failed. The galleys of the Mediterranean cultures of Phonetia, Greece, Rome, Turkey, and Venice generated tremendous speeds as rowers were trained to work together to ram and disable other boats.

The organized sport of rowing traces its beginnings to the "Coat and Badge" competition for novice London watermen which was established in 1715 and has continued to be held annually for nearly three centuries. Eton College claims the first student crew with informal competitions arising between the various houses on the Thames River west of London. Graduates of Eton carried these water races to the collegiate level at Oxford and Cambridge. By the 1820's, great boat houses were being constructed and the first intercollegiate sports competition was held between Oxford and Cambridge. Known simply as "The Boat Race," a name it carries to this day, the race was first held in 1829.

Then as now, spectators were fascinated, and professional rowing competitions, complete with highly paid champions and significant opportunities for betting, soon arose in the countries of the British Empire wherever suitable water and significant population could be gathered. Henley-on-Thames hosted the Royal Henley regatta in 1839, and this is still considered one of the premier rowing events in the world.

Rowing soon found its way to the United States. Boat clubs were established in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia and then moved west. The Harvard-Yale Boat Race in 1852 inaugurated intercollegiate sports competition in the US. In 1869, four oarsmen from Harvard competed against Oxford on the Thames. The event drew world wide attention and within two years the number of boat clubs in the United State nearly tripled. The first national governing body for a sport in the United States was for rowing. In 1872, the the National Association for Amateur Oarsmen was founded in Philadelphia. In 1982 the name was changed to the United States Rowing Association (and then U.S. Rowing). Although there are many different rowing associations throughout the country, U.S. Rowing is the national governing body for rowing competitions in the United States.

Rowing was included in the Centennial celebrations in Philadelphia in 1876. American painter Thomas Eakins captured the event on canvas. Underneath the beauty and athleticism, however, conflict between upperclass amateur rowers and gritty professionals was growing. Ugly scandals arose in professional contests and the public's fascination which had made professional rowers the highest paid and most well known of athletes in the 1880's and 1890's turned sour. By the beginning of the 20th century, professional rowing had been thoroughly discredited and rowing in the United States was largely reduced to elite colleges and private boat clubs.

The international appeal (as well as costly scandals) led European rowing associations to come together in 1892 to form the Federation International des Societies d'Aviron (FISA), the first international sport governing organization. FISA continues to regulate the rules of international rowing competitions. When Frenchman Baron De Coubertin, a rower himself, proposed a quadrennial sports festival which became the modern Olympics in 1896, rowing was among the competitions included. Although the races in Athens were cancelled due to bad weather, rowing has been included in every Olympic Games, earning it the distinction of being the team sport with the longest Olympic history.

Women have been relative late comers to the sport of rowing. Women rowers were included in Olympic competition for the first time at the Montreal Games of 1976. However, Title IX, which requires a balance of opportunities for female athletes, has greatly expanded rowing programs at the collegiate level. Rowing grew rapidly in the 1980's and 1990's. While still an amatuer sport, crew is no longer the exclusive province of elite boarding schools and private colleges. The popularity of rowing has reached down into public high schools and out into community rowing programs. A low-impact sport with tremendous opportunities for developing cardiovascular fitness, rowing can be enjoyed by people of all ages.

References

Sweeney, Joe, "The History of the Penn Athletic Club Rowing Association"
Weil, Thomas, "The Dangerously Neglected Legacy of Rowing."

More information about the sport of rowing can be found at the website for the Schuylkill Navy, the oldest rowing association in the United States, www.boathouserow.org/history.html and Friends of Rowing History, www.rowinghistory.net.

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