VOLUME 12, NO. 2     JANUARY 1999

The Wait For Varsity Crew May Soon Be Over

ince the establishment of the WPI crew program 55 years ago, members of the teams have had many reasons to raise their arms in a V for victory. Next fall, if the Athletic Council approves, a recommendation will be made to President Parrish for a final decision that could make that V also stand for varsity.

The crew program began in 1943 with boats borrowed from Shrewsbury High School and a volunteer coach, Kenneth Burns, a member of the Rowing Hall of Fame who later became Shrewsbury's police chief and also coached the high school team. "Burns was a man who gave generously of his time to develop rowing in the Worcester area," says Irving James "Jim" Donahue Jr. '44, who was a member of that first crew team. "He instilled in me the value of cooperating and working together to get things doneÑwhich must be done in an eight-oared shell."

Donahue never forgot his coach's lesson. In 1993, he and his family were the major contributors that facilitated the completion of the rowing center on Lake Quinsigamond for area colleges and high schools. The center now bears the Donahue name.

Crew had a short life during those war years; it disbanded in 1945. Twenty years later the program was re-established with help from James Raslavsky '68 and mathematics Professor Richard Olsen. Women's crew was established in the fall of 1971, not long after WPI went co-ed, when Nancy Wood Popinchalk '73 and Sue Dawson, who had been a coxswain for the men's JV team the year before, approached Olsen for assistance. Dawson, who left WPI in 1972, "was real outgoing and got the girls psyched up for crew," recalls Popinchalk, who served as team captain for the first two years. "By December, we had at least 15 women signed up and in October 1972 we actually rowed in the Head of the Charles Regatta. With only about 60 women on campus back then, it was amazing we pulled it off!"

Doug Michel '71 signed on as women's crew coach for the 1971-72 winter season. F. David Ploss, who was already coaching the men, assumed the post in the spring, and Jeff Shaw, who was WPI's director of graduate and career plans, coached the women in 1972-73. Ploss returned to coach the women's team from 1979 to 1982, and also coached the 1972-80, 1982-87 and 1996-97 men's teams.

Both teams have enjoyed many successful seasons and have competed and often medaled in several categories in the U.S. National and Intercollegiate Rowing Association championships, the U.S. Rowing Team Trials, and the Dad Vail and Henley Royal regattas. In October WPI finished fourth out of 58 teams in the Men's Club Four event in the Head of the Charles Regatta.