“Take these Boats and Build Up

for Old Lafayette

a Fair and Honored Name

in the College Navy World.”

– Arthur C. Logan, Class of 1876

 

Rowing as a sport at Lafayette predates the official establishment of organized athletics.  The class of 1872 organized what was then known as the Lafayette Navy.  On May 24, 1870, having spent $250 on a four-oared shell named Nettle, the team took to the water for the first time ever.  Shortly after that, the Board of Trustees voted to pay $700 for a boathouse, and rowing at Lafayette was born for the first time.

 

In 1880, students of Lafayette College organized the Athletic Association, founded “Baseball, the Navy and the Field Sports.” Less than a week later, three more shells arrived on campus, gifts from the Alumni of Wilkes-Barre and Scranton.  A parade of students led by the marching band departed the Hilltop for the Jersey Central Station where the boats arrived by flatbed rail car. The boats were shouldered, marched through the streets of Easton, and taken back to campus where they would be stored in the basement beneath chapel.

 

What ultimately came of the short-lived Lafayette Navy is largely lost to history, but the College returned to the water – this time the Lehigh River rather than the Delaware – in the 1970s.

 

The fall of 1970 marked the first time that the current organization began rowing on the Lehigh River. Francis (Mike) Hope (’71) bought the first Pocock 8+ in Philadelphia after the boat was rejected by a local high school, and the crew was officially established as a viable club. That boat was stored initially at Sigma Nu and then in a garage at a Chevrolet Dealership. For a time, a Volvo dealer along the Lehigh River offered the team the use of a portion of his showroom – his ceiling. The boat had to be hoisted ten feet above his cars. With the engineers in the club working tirelessly, the task was completed in preparation for a December launching. The first launch was comprised of Mike and Sigma Nu brothers and friends.

 

Preparation for the day’s launching was extensive. Two newspapers, a photographer, and a radio station were alerted to the plans. At about this point, some of the guys started to clarify the extent of their experience. From the start, Mike had professed to be the brains of the outfit, but it was soon apparent that six of the eight knew about as much as he did – nothing.

 

Lacking a dock, the decision was made to board the shell from a rock about 150 yards upstream from the dam, one at a time. Having watched five get in easily, Mike figured his 66 inches would slide right in. He was wrong His right foot slipped ever so slightly through the tender belly of the boat. At first he thought that the break had been slight. But, gradually the bow of the boat started to vanish.

 

Despite that wet and inauspicious start, the team grew to 30 members and engaged Fred Guaraldo, a former LaSalle oarsman, to learn the fundamentals.  The Lafayette Navy was out of mothballs after 86 dry years.

 

In 1971, the team purchased two eights

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In the spring of 1971 the crew club purchased an eight and kept it at the Ingersoll Rand Plant, half a mile from the dock. In the fall of 1971 a second eight was purchased from the Philadelphia Athletic Club with a donation from Fred Kirby. The boat was damaged in its transit to Lafayette, but it was repaired. In the spring of 1972, the dock was moved upriver and across from the warehouse, but it was washed away by Hurricane Agnes. The team entered two races that season, including against Drexel. In 1973 the team purchased two more eights and one four.

 

In 1975, the team was kicked out of the warehouse where the boats were being kept because it was getting torn down. The boats were then stored at another warehouse in the area. In the spring of 1976 the dock was either washed away or stolen. After being replaced, it was stolen again in the summer of 1976. In the fall of 1976 the club purchased a used eight.

 

The spring of 1977 marked the first competitive season for the Lafayette College Crew Club. Dennis Loria, a junior, coached and rowed. The fall of 1977 brought two freshmen – Steven Brownlee and Peter Jacoby – with high school championship regatta experience, and Brownlee took over the coaching. The following year another experienced freshman rower, Bruce Braun, arrived having just competed at Henley. Having Brownlee and Braun together with returning rowers, the club began to grow substantially. With an increasing number of female rowers, a women’s eight took to the water for the first time.

 

In 1979, the club coerced Jim Cotter, an ex-Columbia rower and Pfizer engineer, into coaching on a volunteer basis. However, late in 1979, the boats were kicked out of their second warehouse home as it, too, was being torn down. In 1980, an eight was put in the pool at the field house for practice, using large springs to hold the shell and oars with huge holes drilled in them to practice. Much of the spring season was spent in the pool, but the team still rowed at races in Brigantine, NJ – winning its first race with only 30 minutes of on-the-water practice – on the Harlem River, and at the US Merchant Marine Academy.

 

The next home for the boats was a Pep Boys garage by the bowling lanes. Once again launching just upstream from the dam, this remained the team’s boathouse throughout the 1980s. In October of 1980, Lafayette entered a men’s eight in its first ever head race, the Head of the Schuylkill. The next year brought about the acquisition of 2 pairs, which were transported on top of cars. The first Lafayette Rowing Invitational took place against LaSalle on October 17, 1981. Ann Holder was hired as the coach of the women’s team and two new fours with two sets of oars were purchased.