Summer 2023
Cougar Crew shell
A wooden relic hangs in the training room » More ...
Rowing
Summer 2023
Resurrecting the remnants
It might sound odd but the Winlock W. Miller and the 101 were sisters. They died together, on the same day, at Almota.
In early 1971, University of Washington head rowing coach Dick Erickson provided the newly formed Cougar Crew with two used Husky shells on a long-term loan. The Miller and the 101 didn’t row on the Snake River until December 4 that year. Just 37 days later, they were gone.
The second week of January 1972, winds on campus reached 75 mph. Gusts of 150 mph were recorded at Pasco. The recently built Almota shellhouse was designed to sustain winds … » More …
Spring 2022
Pull Hard!
Finding Grit and Purpose on Cougar Crew, 1970–2020 » More ...
Winter 2019
Cougar Crew profiles
Out here, among the rolling hills of the Palouse, generations of rowers have pulled hard.
They’ve learned life lessons on the Snake River, where conditions can change instantaneously and team work is essential. They’ve forged lifelong friendships. They’ve made memories.
Here, a few former WSU oarsmen share theirs.
The Idea Man
Rich Stager (‘74, Civ. Eng.) started his freshman year at WSU Pullman in fall 1970. His parents had recently moved to Pullman; his father had taken a job as a project manager for the construction of Lower Granite Dam.
Winter 2019
Good as gold
They came from behind—counting their strokes, catching the Belgian boat, and gliding to gold on California’s Lake Casitas.
Theirs was the first Olympic gold medal in men’s double sculls for the U.S. since 1932. To date, it remains the last medal of any kind for America in that event.
While they took first place, neither had been selected by U.S. Olympic coaches.
Rowing partners Paul Enquist (’77 Mech. Eng.) and Brad Lewis earned their spot at the 1984 Summer Olympics by challenging—and besting—the national team.
“We didn’t take no for an answer,” says Enquist, who—along with Lewis—was cut from the Olympic selection camp.
About three … » More …
Winter 2019
Quite a crew
Different strokes for half a century of Washington State University crew, a scrappy bunch of rowers in WSU's club. » More ...
Fall 2013
Cougar Crew Days
In March, alumni and team members of men’s crew, the oldest sport club at WSU, gathered for Cougar Crew Days, as they do each year. But this year’s celebration had special significance: 40 years of rowing competitions.
Rich Stager ’74 and Ken Abbey, vice president of business affairs, formed the crew team in 1969, built the Cougar Shell House on the Snake River, and appointed landscape architecture professor Ken Struckmeyer as the first coach. The team entered competition in 1973.
The Cougar Crew Days included a banquet, auction, and the annual race between team members and alumni. According to Doug Engle ’80, they raised … » More …
Fall 2010
Tools for training
Early one afternoon in June, former head football coach Jim Walden drops by the newly-renovated WSU Athletics weight room to check in on the project.
Just a few students are working out. However, Walden observes, the relative tranquility belies how active the room usually is in the fall when scores of athletes from a variety of sports are in for training.
When he ran the football program between 1978 and 1986, getting his team quality time in the weight room was a regular challenge. “Having coached my entire career, and college especially, time is of the importance to athletes,” said … » More …
Fall 2007
Marilyn Conaway: Charting new waters
Ten years ago, as Marilyn Eylar Conaway (’56 Hist.) rowed an inflatable boat on an Alaskan lake, she pictured herself as a girl working the oars of her father’s handmade boat.
The thought recalled the simple joys of an idyllic childhood in Grand Coulee, where her father had helped build the dam. But both of Conaway’s parents and three of her six siblings had since died, her husband Gerry’s heart was faltering, she herself had heart disease, and she was about to end a storied career in education.
That day, memory became mission: Conaway didn’t want to rock a chair; she wanted to row a … » More …
Summer 2009
Rowing 101
So here I am, about to row with the Washington State women’s rowing team on the Snake River.
This is not the first time I have rowed. That occurred a week before when I took some strokes in the new indoor rowing facility at the Bohler Athletic Complex. This is, however, to be my maiden voyage on an actual body of water.
A benefit of the indoor facility is that it allows coaches to provide one-on-one instruction, rather than shouting commands from a distance at the river.
After my first few strokes of the oar, Head Coach Jane LaRiviere walked over and grabbed my hands. … » More …