Project Editor: Joshua Vapenik, History 470: Digital History, Spring 2008

Getting Started

The process of starting the team took some time; the club was founded in 1969 but did not race until 1971. The act of actually getting the team equipped and on the water took some time, as did training those members to row. The hard work was not over by a long shot and much still needed to be done in order to continue on. Equipment needed to be found and somehow acquired despite a lack of money to pay for it. Interstingly, they acquired not one but two English made wooden eights. The newly recruited members needed to begin training on the water and learn how to row. Because none of them actually knew how to row, a coach was needed, and one was found in a young man named Bill Brush. Brush was a junior pre-med student at UNL, but he came from Andover, Massachusetts where he had rowed in high school. When they were ready to compete, the team held their own first regatta, squaring off against Washburn University on Capitol Beach Lake. In addition to holding their inaugural regatta at Capitol Beach, the first ever in the state of Nebraska, the team traveled to other regattas across the Midwest and sometimes to the East Coast as well to compete against other schools. Not satisfied with the size of the team and wishing to enlarge and improve it, a women's team was also started and began practicing and competing alongside the men. Once again, Nebraska was one of the first schools to start such a program.