Ivy League Sports

If a men’s rowing team wanted to make waves in the late 1960s, it used a woman as a coxswain. During the decade, men’s collegiate rowing teams became increasingly aware of the benefit of using women in this role, and the media was cognizant of the impact this action had on the sport. When a woman coxswained at a men’s rowing event, her image was splashed across the front page of newspapers and magazines, and television stations were eager to cover the event.

This was just the first step in what would become a long journey as women broke into the male-dominated rowing world. When U.S. officials announced their plan to sponsor a women’s rowing team for the 1976 Olympic Games to be held in Montreal, a spark ignited and a fire spread across the country. Women’s rowing was brought to the national forefront. This news was met with excitement, yet anxiety, as rowing enthusiasts realized that the pool of women’s rowers was small and not very strong.

At the time, women’s collegiate athletics was still in its infancy and few formal organizations existed to support women’s rowing. The National Women’s Rowing Association (NWRA), founded in 1962, offered some support and opportunities to women by sponsoring national and regional competition; however, its focus was too broad to greatly impact women’s rowing. College athletic departments offered minimal, if any, financial or organizational support for women athletes, and women shared facilities with men, which meant their schedules revolved around the men’s, and they were forced to have early morning practices and Sunday contests.

That began to change in February 1971 when the first steps were taken toward formalizing competition in women’s rowing in the United States. The late Fred Emerson, a wealthy businessman and avid rowing supporter who resided in Old Lyme, Connecticut, and Connecticut College rowing coach C. Bart Gullong organized the first meeting of women’s rowing coaches from across the country. This marked the beginning of the New England Association of Women's Rowing Colleges. The newly formed organization made a commitment to sponsor a development program for rowers in light of the upcoming Olympic games and facilitated scheduling among members. The following spring, in May 1972, the NEAWRC held its first regatta on Rogers Lake in Old Lyme, thanks in great part to the generosity of Emerson, who designed the 1000-meter course, donated boats to many of the participating schools, and provided almost all of the financial backing for the event. One eight from each institution was allowed to participate, with the Princeton crew emerging victorious.

In 1974 the name of the organization was changed to better describe its members, to the Eastern Association of Women’s Rowing Colleges. The following teams took part in the first race known as the EAWRC Sprints: Barnard, Boston University, Connecticut College, Dartmouth, Drexel, MIT, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Middletown High School, Pennsylvania, Princeton, Radcliffe, Rhode Island, Syracuse, Washington, Wellesley, Williams, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and Yale. Because this was the first year in which five or more women’s teams from the Ivy League participated in a championship event, 1974’s regatta marked the beginning of championship competition for women in any sport, in any Division I conference. Radcliffe won that event and is thus considered the first Ivy League and EAWRC champion.

The sprints were moved to Lake Waramaug in New Preston, Connecticut, in 1979, after being held in various locales throughout the years — ’73 on the Charles River in Boston; ’74 and ’75 on Lake Besek in Middlefield, Connecticut; ’76 and ’77 on Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester, Mass.

The 680-acre lake in New Preston had a protected west basin that was excellent for racing, according to EAWRC officials. The organization also discovered a highly supportive town in New Preston. The Sprints have been held at Waramaug since 1979.

What began as a group of rowing coaches trying to fill a schedule of competition has become one of the premier competitions for collegiate women rowers. More than 35 colleges and universities have raced at the Eastern Sprints in its 25 years of existence. Eighteen of 28 medals won by American women in the past four Olympiad were garnered by EAWRC veterans. However, one of the EAWRC founders, C. Bart Gullong, emphasized that what the EAWRC has become is not the most exciting or important contribution that the organization has made to society. Rather, the confidence, determination, and strength that was gained by the first groups of women involved in the early days of women’s rowing have influenced women across the nation.

The opportunity to participate in a sport like rowing helped to develop a group of pioneers who created opportunities that were not traditionally available to women. Many of these women went on to become doctors, surgeons, lawyers, and CEOs, according to Gullong, career paths that may not have been open to them a decade before. “That time [in the EAWRC’s development] became a springboard for women to achieve,” explains the former women’s rowing coach. “These were women who became role models and inspirations to other young women.”

The rowing pioneers Gullong speaks of (Carol Brown, Princeton; Anita DeFrantz, Connecticut College; Carie Graves, Wisconsin; Angie Marion Greig, Cornell; Peggy McCarthy, Wisconsin; Gail Ricketson Heller, New Hampshire; Anne Warner Taubes, Yale; and Jackie Roth, Wisconsin) were the first women to bring home Olympic medals to America in the sport of women’s rowing. These women captured eight bronze medals for the United States in the 1976 Olympics, making waves in rowing that had a tidal effect for all of women’s collegiate athletics.