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

The Team Today

Today, nearly forty years later, Nebraska Crew is still alive and going strong. In many ways, things have not changed much from when the team was founded. Shells still slice through the pre-dawn waters of Branched Oak Lake on a daily basis each fall and spring. Members still meet to practice at the Boathouse that was claimed in their name on dark night decades ago. Student coaches still take what they have learned and pass it on new members, teaching them art of rowing. Rowers still travel to neighboring states on weekends despite the demands of school, jobs, or even the lure of Husker football, to compete against other teams from across the Midwest and nation. Though they receive some funding annually from Campus Recreation, the individual rower still pays his or her own race fees and fuel in addition to annual dues.

Above all, the spirit of doing more with less and finding a way to survive despite apparently insurmountable obstacles persists to this day. Though small by comparison to many of the other better equipped and funded teams they face, the men and women of Nebraska Crew still strive for success no matter where they go.