To the crowd of towering Washington rowers gathered on the sidewalk outside the SIFF Cinema Downtown in early December; the wait was over. It was finally time to see the story of UW’s greatest athletic triumph.
Dec. 8 was a special night for the UW crew program, as dozens of former and current Huskies gathered at the newly reopened theater for an early screening of “The Boys in the Boat,” the upcoming film by George Clooney that tells the story of Sequim-native Joe Rantz and the rest of the UW men’s rowing squad that won a gold medal at the 1936 Berlin Olympics in Nazi Germany.
The movie, based on the book by Daniel James Brown, is full of drama, inspirational moments, and most important for the Washington alums in the theater: Husky triumph.
“The movie is awesome,” UW men’s coxswain Kieran Joyce said. “They do an awesome depiction of what it’s like to walk into the sport at Washington, and what you can accomplish. I think the most amazing portrayal is the experience of coming together and becoming this one unit from different backgrounds, different stories, and being able to accomplish such amazing things.”
In the hour leading up to the screening, the current Washington rowers waited for their chance to step into the lobby and take pictures on the event’s purple carpet. Once inside, they chatted with the crowd of former Husky rowers and local dignitaries who received an invitation to the event, while soaking in the smell of the theater’s signature chocolate popcorn.
The packed house made it clear, the program is beloved. But UW’s coaches hope that the movie will give Washington rowing yet another boost in popularity while also leading to an increase in things like fundraising dollars and recruiting success.
“I think there has been a strong ripple effect,” men’s head coach Michael Callahan said. “It has been a strong impact on the program, very positively. I think the international acclaim, more people are knowing about University of Washington, how strong our rowing legacy is in the Pacific Northwest and especially at the University of Washington. I think also, we do hope that there is an influx of people wanting to support the team, and we’ve already seen an uptick in that.”
While the book’s release in 2013 brought a lot of attention to the program, women’s coxswain Grace Murdock thinks the movie will take things to another level.
“It’s a book that we’ve all known for a long time, because it’s been part of the legacy and everything,” Murdock said. “But now that it’s a real movie, everybody’s going be able to see it and I think it’s gonna really help the sport of rowing. It’s going to show people like what UW’s about, but it’s also going to I think introduce a lot of people to the sport, which is going to be really cool.”
Though many of them hail from places outside of the Pacific Northwest, everybody who joins the program quickly learns about the heroics of the 1936 squad. It’s just one more piece of homework required for anyone who wants to row on a Husky boat, but the team’s history is about much more than just the heroics of the 1936 team.
The Huskies have had a long and storied run of success, with five NCAA championships since 1997 and 19 Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) titles over the past 100 years.
“The second you step in the door, we always talk about legacy and the people who came before us and what has built this team,” Murdock said. “You know the story of it, and I think it’s just really inspirational to know that what we’re doing today people were doing 100 years ago and it’s still happening, which is really cool.”
As a story about a ragtag group of inexperienced rowers that pull together to ultimately achieve sporting immortality, the UW coaches see it as a tool for teaching lessons about life, competition, and the history behind the uniform their athletes wear everyday.
Though the current crop of Huskies are much more experienced rowers than the 1936 team were when they qualified for the Olympics, there are plenty of valuable insights they can gain from studying the story.
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