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

Getting the Equipment

Because they had no money, actually buying new or even old equipment was an unrealistic solution to the problem of acquiring equipment. There is a tradition in rowing, however, of established crews donating older equipment to new programs to help them start out. Knowing this, Maybee and the rest of his teammates decided to write other programs across the country requesting donations of their very old or even broken equipment for the new program in Nebraska. "We wrote 78 letters around the first of the year to rowing clubs and universities throughout the country looking for oars and shells," Maybee said in one interview (Allan, 1971). As coach Bill Brush put it, they "begged, borrowed, and connived" all of their equipment from others (York, 1971).

Once they had responses from willing donors, Maybee and four others set out on a trip across the nation to the east coast where they collected the donations that had been offered to them. Traveling 3000 miles, they collected the majority of the original equipment that got the team onto the water for the first time. First and foremost was an eight man racing shell donated by Dr. Oliver Brundage of Parkersburg, WV, who was a professor at MIT at that time. The shell was already 30 years old when the Nebraskans received it and was made in England. Dr. Brundage also donated 12 wooden oars to the team (Allen, 1971). Next came 8 oars from Syracuse University. Wayne State University in Michigan gave the team three oars. Purdue donated two four man shells. Washburn University in Kansas donated an eight. Finally, Kansas State University sold the team the "Northerner" for $350. The money for the shell was donated by Capitol Beach developer Marvin Copple.

An article from the National Observer describing the team's beginnings and promoting its first race. Click here for a larger image.