Seattle’s most profitable sports activities franchise shouldn’t be the Seahawks, the Sounders, the Storm, the Mariners, the long-gone Supersonics or the Husky footballers, it’s the University of Washington men’s varsity rowing team.
For greater than a century, UW crews have been main contenders in collegiate rowing, capturing 21 nationwide championships. The newest of these victories got here final Sunday when the UW boat bested Harvard on the Cooper River in New Jersey.
As Daniel James Brown informed us in “The Boys Within the Boat,” his distinctive e book concerning the UW crew that received gold within the 1936 Olympics, crew races had been town’s premier sporting occasions again within the Nineteen Twenties and ’30s. 1000’s of Seattleites would line the shore of Lake Washington to observe UW rowers tackle the highest groups from California and the Ivy League.
Between 1923 and 1950, the UW crew received 9 nationwide titles. Within the subsequent 50-plus years, this system remained robust, however the Huskies had been capable of carry dwelling simply two extra nationwide first-place trophies. Within the twenty first century, nonetheless, the Huskies have achieved success that now has exceeded the document of these early many years. Between 2007 and 2025, the UW rowers have stroked their technique to 10 nationwide championships.
Rowing shouldn’t be a sport that turns athletes into millionaires. It’s not an leisure that draws a legion of followers. However it might be the last word crew sport. There isn’t a quarterback or pitcher or different place participant who stands out from all the remaining, there are simply 9 younger athletes working in excellent unison with grueling effort to realize victory.
Seattle ought to be proud to nonetheless have our boys within the boat reducing a path to glory by means of the Montlake Lower and on waters past.
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