Ottawa Rowing Club

Ottawa Rowing Club

The Ottawa Rowing Club (ORC) is a rowing club based in the City of Ottawa. It is located on the south banks of the Ottawa River at 10 Lady Grey Avenue. It is a registered club with Rowing Canada and Row Ontario.

History

The Ottawa Rowing Club is the oldest rowing club in Canada. It was founded on 6 June 1867, the same year as the Canadian Confederation. One of its founders and first patron, Sir John A. Macdonald, was Canada’s first prime minister. In the early 1870s, the ORC ceased to exist before being re-introduced on 25 June 1875.[1] The original club house was a wooden building, initially built on pontoons, and moored to the shore of the Ottawa river at the foot of parliament hill, between the Rideau canal and the Chaudière falls (Akikodjiwan Falls under their Algonquin name). Whilst the view from the club house over the Chaudière falls was picturesque, the rowing conditions were difficult: vast field of sawdust and other refuse from an immense lumber mill situated about the falls, and logs escaping from the booms. Each spring, along with the melting ice, the club house floated downstream and came aground. Every year it was brought back up near the Rideau canal. In 1884 and 1885, the club house suffered important damage when it sank. In spring 1896, the members of the Club decided to purchase a piece of the river front property at 10 Lady Grey Drive and leave the club house in its current, permanent location. The club is just west of and below Sir John A. Macdonald's home Earnscliffe that is now the residence of the Britain's High Commissioner to Canada.

During the First and Second World Wars, the 1896 boat house was neglected and showed signs of deterioration. In 1949, the Ottawa Rowing Club accepted to contribute to the development of the rowing program at the University of Ottawa by offering equipment and coaches.[2] The rowing program was to end every year with a boat race against another university team for the P. D. Ross Cup.

The 1950s and 1960s was a period of decline for the Ottawa Rowing Club. In 1967, there were only nine members of the Club and the permanent closure of the club was being debated.[3] Volunteers, such as Peter King, supported the development of rowing in Ottawa in the 1970s. The rowing boom resulted in two new clubs (that do not exist anymore): the Nepean Rowing Club and the Ottawa Carleton Rowing School.

An additional boat house was added in 1987. Both boat houses are used today. In 1999, the old boat house was renovated by the City of Ottawa.

With close to 1000 members, the Ottawa Rowing Club is one of the largest clubs in Canada.

Ottawa Rowing Club 8+ crew of 1910 in front of old shell house.

The 1910 crew

In 1908 two four-man crews won numerous Canadian and American championships. These two crews were joined into a new shell in 1910: the "Bagnall", christened to the name of the person who provided the funds to purchase the boat. The eight won the 1910 Royal Canadian Henley Regatta and first holder of the Ned Hanlon Memorial Trophy. Within 24 hour of the victory, Ottawa citizens raised funds to bring the crew to the National Association Regatta in Washington, D.C. where the Ottawa crew won again.[4] The eight crew, but also a four-men crew, later competed at the Grand Challenge Cup of the Henley Royal Regatta where they finished second behind the Magdalen College of Oxford.[5]

The crew was made of the following persons: Harvey Pulford (stroke), Felix Sowden, Thayer Jolliffe, Bob Greene, Jim McCuaig, Bill Harrison, Eddie Philips, Marty Kilt, and Chester Payne (coxswain).[6] They are likely represented from left to right on the joint picture.

Club's colours

The colours of the Club are Navy Blue diagonal stripe with Cardinal Red background. In 1887, the Club’s uniform consisted of a Navy Blue jacket, trimmed with Cardinal Red, white flannel trousers, and a white guernsey, trimmed with the club colours; and a Navy Blue cap with Cardinal Red bars, or a straw hat with the club colours and Navy Blue and Cardinal Red stripped stockings.[7]

Uniform of the Ottawa Rowing Club

Facilities

The Ottawa Rowing Club rows on the Ottawa river (Kitchissippi under its Algonquin name). The rowers launch racing shells with bow pointing westward upstream, and effectuate a loop from the Alexandra Bridge to the Rockcliffe Airport, rowing downstream on the Quebec side and upstream on the Ontario side. The full loop is approximately 12 kilometres.

The ORC facilities includes two boat houses. The principal boat house (est. 1987) consists of a two-story building with four bays for shell and oar storage on the ground floor.[8] Administrative offices, change rooms, and ergometers and weight room are located on the second floor. The second boat (est. 1896) houses members’ privately owned shells on the ground floor. The second floor is an interpretation center that also serves as banquet facilities rented out for weddings and other conventions.

Membership

The Ottawa Rowing Club offers different memberships:

Regattas

The ORC participated to the first regattas organized by the Canadian Association of Amateur Oarsmen, starting in 1880. In the late 19th century, the ORC held two sets of regattas per year, one in the spring confined to four-oared crews, and one in the fall.

Currently, the ORC hosts three regattas during the rowing season, the first one is the National Capital High School Regatta which takes place each year at the end of May/beginning of June on the Ottawa River.

The second race event is the P.D. Ross Memorial Regatta on the Rideau Canal each year in September, between mixed women and men’s varsity and alumni crews from University of Ottawa and Carleton University. The first P. D. Ross Memorial Boat Race was held in 1950 on the Ottawa River between the University of Ottawa and McMaster University.

Finally, Head of the Rideau which is held at the end of September on the Rideau River. At its first edition in 1974, Head of the Rideau was raced on the Rideau canal.

Members of the club are also invited to participate in these different regattas throughout the year, in function of their membership and abilities.

Notable rowers

In addition to winning four times the Stanley Cup with the Ottawa Hockey Club and being a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, Harvey Pulford was a member of the 1910 Ottawa Rowing Club eight that defeated every one of its opponents, earning the Canadian and North American championships. Pulford later became president of the Ottawa Rowing Club. He served as president of Ottawa Rowing Club until resigning in 1936.

Olympic rowers born in Ottawa or having rowed with the Ottawa Rowing Club include the following:

Name Olympic year Game location Event
Athol Meech 1928 Amsterdam 8+ (bronze medal)
Gabriel Beaudry 1948 London 2x
Fred Graves 1948 London 2x
James Walker 1972 Munich 4+
Mike Neary 1972 Munich 2+
Mike Neary 1976 Montréal 2-
Beverley Cameron 1976 Montréal 2x
Vicki Harber 1984 Los Angeles 4x+
Jeff Lay 1996 Atlanta 4- lightweight (silver medal)
Alison Korn 1996 Atlanta 8+ (silver medal)
Alison Korn 2000 Sydney 8+ (bronze medal)
Morgan Jarvis 2012 London 2x lightweight
David Blair 2012 London 4+ mixed legs, trunk and arms
Cristy Nurse 2016 Rio de Janeiro 8+

Athletes born in Ottawa or have rowed with the Ottawa Rowing Club and have participated to World Rowing Championships (multiple participation indicated with *) include the following:

Name Championship year Location Event
Kevin Burt 2003 Milan 2+
Paul Amesbury 2008* Linz 8+ lightweight
Matthew Christie 2013 Linz 1x lightweight, U23
Dylan Harris 2013* Linz 2x lightweight, U23
Katharine Goodfellow 2015* Aiguebelette 2x
Andrew Todd 2015 Aiguebelette 4+ mixed legs, trunk and arms
Cristy Nurse 2016* Lucerne 8+

Four rowers on the 2016 edition of the Canadian national team have rowed with the Ottawa rowing Club: Kate Goodfellow, Sarah Black, Carolyn Ganes, Cristy Nurse, and Rosie Deboef.

References

  1. ↑ A History of American Amateur Athletics and Aquatics, 1888. http://books.google.ca/books?id=j2p68grSMFoC&pg=PA193&lpg=PA193&dq=ottawa+rowing+history&source=bl&ots=VGUY_ghXO_&sig=KY_7EjpdFncVMtd8U8kPQB09ydM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=zuwKUse6Hsb4yAHTtIGgBw&ved=0CC4Q6AEwATgK#v=onepage&q=ottawa%20rowing%20history&f=false
  2. ↑ Archives of the University of Ottawa. URL: http://www.archives.uottawa.ca/archive-fonds/en/index.php?id=318
  3. ↑ Ottawa Citizen Newspaper. 24 July 1986. URL: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2194&dat=19860724&id=PyM0AAAAIBAJ&sjid=k_UIAAAAIBAJ&pg=1529,1501969&hl=en
  4. ↑ California Digital Newspaper Collection. Article from Los Angeles Herald, Volume 37, Number 317, 14 August 1910. URL: http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=LAH19100814.2.99.31.13
  5. ↑ Ottawa Citizen newspaper, 28 April 1953, URL: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2194&dat=19530428&id=aNowAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Wd8FAAAAIBAJ&pg=7048,6467153&hl=en
  6. ↑ Ottawa Citizen newspaper, 28 April 1953, URL: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2194&dat=19530428&id=aNowAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Wd8FAAAAIBAJ&pg=7048,6467153&hl=en
  7. ↑ 1878 by-laws and rules of the Ottawa Rowing Club. URL: https://archive.org/stream/cihm_11574#page/n13/mode/2up
  8. ↑ Ottawa Citizen Newspaper. 14 October 1983. URL: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2194&dat=19831014&id=9q4yAAAAIBAJ&sjid=NO8FAAAAIBAJ&pg=4781,2483134&hl=en
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