The book opens in the fourth year of the Great Depression (1933) when one out of four able bodied workers was jobless. Herbert Hoover is out and FDR is in. The story recollects Joe Rantz’s distressing life: Joe’s mom passed away at a young age; his dad, Harry, freaks out and leaves Joe abandoned but comes back to marry a woman named Thula, who hates Joe and ultimately kicks Joe out of the family. Joe falls in love with a girl named Joyce and tries to survive on his own. Joe works many exhausting jobs to save enough money to attend the U of W. He tries out for the nine man rowing team headed by Freshman coach Tom Bolles and makes the squad along with others who have never rowed before. The Freshmen are a success and catch the eye of the programs head coach, Al Ulbrickson. In an intriguing sidebar story, we learn about the school’s builder of their racing shells, George Pocock. The ensuing years are up and down for Joe as he struggles to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. FDR also struggles to turn the USA’s economy around while facing political foes and two Dust Bowls that threaten the ecology and agriculture industry. I thought Mr. Brown did a yeoman’s job of blending the country's problems with Seattle’s difficulties.
Meanwhile the story jumps back and forth from Seattle to Berlin as Hitler gets ready to host the Olympics while his propaganda maestro, the diminutive Joseph Goebbels, attempts to spread perfumed fog across the globe: all is well in peaceful Germany and to paraphrase, “willkommen athletes of all races and countries.” (Really?) Hitler hires German architect Werner March to knock down the old Olympic stadium (the original was never used because of the WWI cancellation of the Olympic games) and build a state of art stadium, which is still in use today. At the same time, Hitler authorizes Leni Riefenstahl (Goebbels is in love with her?) to make a propaganda movie about his 1934 Nuremberg Rally. On page 142, we find that, “The film that would emerge from her labors, Triumph of the Will, would come to define the iconography of Nazi Germany. To this day it stands as a monument to the ability of propaganda to foster absolute power and to justify unfettered hatred.”
Needless to say, as the boys from the U of W varsity team rowed towards their goal of Olympic gold, it became obvious how they were doing it. On page 241, Mr. Brown tells us, “There was a straightforward reason for what was happening. The boys in the Clipper had been winnowed down by punishing competition, and in the winnowing a kind of common character had issued forth: they were all skilled, they were all tough, they were all fiercely determined, but they were also good-hearted. Every one of them had come from humble origins or been humbled by the ravages of the hard times in which they had grown up.” This is truly a feel good "turnaround of fortunes" story for nine young men and an nearly curmudgeon head coach. I’ve left out most of this historical story, especially all the ins and outs of rowing that I learned by reading this book (do you know what it means when the rowers have ‘the swing’?) Anyway, grab a copy of this bestseller and enjoy.
RATING: 5 out of 5 stars
Comment: I was curious if any of the “boys” were still alive. Sadly, the last member died in July 2009. The following is the story (originally published 7/24/2009) from the Seattle Times reporting the death of H. Roger Morris:
“The last surviving link to one of Seattle's greatest sports achievements has died.
H. Roger Morris, 94, who manned the bow position on the University of Washington crew that won the eight-oared gold medal at Adolph Hitler's 1936 Olympics in Berlin, died Wednesday at his home in Maple Valley.
Mr. Morris was the only remaining member of the crew, four of whom lived into their 90s. Bonded forever by their come-from-behind victory in the last Olympics before World War II wiped out the Games in 1940 and 1944, the rowers for many years had annual, informal reunions, one with families, the other for themselves only.
"I couldn't help but think, he was going to miss the reunion this year," said Bob Ernst, longtime rowing coach at Washington. "He was all by himself."
Ernst called Mr. Morris "a very humble guy, such a good guy. I don't think the gold medal ever became the focus of his life."
A daughter, Joan Mullen, said her father lived most of his years in the Seattle area. He earned a degree at Washington and became a mechanical engineer, specializing in dredging at Manson Construction.
Mr. Morris grew up in Fremont, attended Lincoln High School, and often walked to or from classes at the UW, his daughter said.
"Fremont was just plain poor then," she said, referring to the Depression era. "One year, he had an old Model-T [Ford] from his father that he was able to drive to school. Then his father needed it for someone who worked for him.
"He'd go to classes, go work out and then walk home. He said he got rides once in a while."
All the members of that Olympics-winning shell were from Western Washington, and none had rowed until going to the UW. Mullen recalls her father being pointed toward the sport by teammate Joe Rantz, who died at 93 in 2007.
The rowers had a phenomenal 1936 season, but had to raise money to help finance their trip. They joined Olympic teammates in New York on a steamship for the eight-day journey to Germany.
There, they conquered adversity. Hitler, three years before his invasion of Poland, was in the stands, and a deafening crowd of 25,000 chanted "Deutschland! Deutschland!" Meanwhile, stroke Don Hume of Olympia had become ill during the Games.
In the final, the Germans were placed in Lane 1 and the U.S. in Lane 6, where, coxswain Bob Moch told The Times in 2004, "the wind was blowing and the water was rough."
The Americans got a late start and because of the crowd noise, relied on Moch rapping against the boat for cadence.
Legend has grown that Hume had temporarily passed out, eyes closed, but snapped back to consciousness, something Hume disputed in a 1996 Times story.
Last at the 1,000-meter halfway mark, the boat overtook Germany and finally Italy in the last 10 strokes as Moch called for a furious strokes-per-minute rate that he estimated at 44.
"At the time, we weren't a major-league sports city," Ernst said. "We hadn't won a national championship in football or basketball. People identified with the university rowing team.
"They were as good as they could be in the era they got to do it."
Mullen said her father cut grass regularly on a rider mower at his Maple Valley ranch within a month of his death.
He was joined by his three children and most of his grandchildren at a restaurant for his 94th birthday only last week.
He rebuffed any suggestion of moving off his property, she said. "He'd say, 'That's fine,' Ms. Mullen recalled, " 'but I'm not leaving.' "
Mr. Morris is survived by two daughters, Mullen and Susan Hanshaw, and a son, James Morris, all living in the Seattle area; seven grandchildren and eight great grandchildren. A memorial service will be at 3 p.m. Monday at Maple Valley Presbyterian Church.”
Picture of the fabulous nine:
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