1965 to 1969 Era
Full History and Team Photos
Please enjoy the history narratives and photos of the NU Men's Rowing teams from this era. In the written narrative, click on the Read More... button to expand the narrative
and Read Less... to close the box.
Explore various team photos/images from each year by clicking on: GO TO PHOTO ALBUM
If you have any info or updates to add, please contact Membership at nuramembership@gmail.com
NU Crew The Beginning
Inspiration and Inception
Thanks to Dave Lister '69 and Tom Gates '73
The idea to have the sport of Crew at Northeastern came from student Harry Paulsen BA’64 of East Haven, CT (near Yale) who managed to get 1,666 fellow students (23% of the student body) to sign a petition to launch rowing at N.U. From there we can thank AD Herb Gallagher for supporting the idea and taking it to President Asa Knowles. President Knowles had spent time at Cornell, was familiar with rowing, and understood how it was revered within the Ivy League.
1965 History
NU’s first varsity race was on the Charles where they were victorious over Marrietta of Ohio, Amherst, and Harvard’s third varsity. As you might imagine, winning that first race, with no one knowing what to expect, was monumental. Coach Arlett would not forget it for the rest of his life.
Leading up to the Dad Vail Regatta, at the time considered the unofficial small colleges National Championship, NU went to Poughkeepsie, NY, where the varsity won over Drexel, Iona, St. John’s, Trinity and Marist. The JV also won and the Freshman were second, finishing the race with only six oarsmen, 7 seat having crabbed out causing the stroke’s seat to jam. NU also lost a close race to Brown in Providence.
​
At the Dad Vail Regatta in Philadelphia, there were 21 varsity boats and 14 JV and Freshman boats entered. That meant heat races on Friday, Semi-Finals Saturday morning and Finals Saturday afternoon. The JV ended up avoiding the Friday heats when 2 crews scratched, leaving 12 that could be handled in the semis.
1966 History
The 1966 varsity was somewhat of an overhaul from the ’65 boat, with Paul Lowell, Bob Kean and Malte Lukas moving up from JV, in effect trading places with Dick Linck, Vince Goglia, and Tom Waite. Filling out the boat were sophomores Dave Lister and Larry Gluckman, having moved up from the 1st and 2nd Freshman boats respectively. Dave and Larry would remain paired in the varsity for 3 years.
NU’s still novice oarsmen began this second year of competition with mixed results, but did have a good 17 second win over B. U. leading up to their first competition in the E.A.R.C Eastern Sprints against the most established crew programs in the country. To reach the finals you had to come in the top two or you would be in the second level final , the varsity was leading against Cornell and Princeton at 1000 meters and running second to Cornell at the 500 meter mark.
1967 History
In their 3rd season and only the 2nd in Division I, NU let it be known they belonged. In dual or triangular races the 1V had wins over BU (twice), MIT, and Brown. Surprisingly they were also granted a dual race with Harvard who had been unbeaten for the past 20+ races. I suppose they considered it a low risk event. Wrong! Dave Lister, 6 seat, recalls the race like this.
“The 2000 meter standard for college races had not yet been established. Ernie and Harry (Parker) had decided on a race distance of one and three quarter miles. According to newspaper reports the wind was blowing around 20 miles per hour and the water was very choppy. Our winter training had been all about beating Harvard. Harvard took a slight lead off the stake boats but as we settled after the racing start we had moved out to about a half length lead. Harvard took some power pieces during the race but we were able to hold them off and maintain a half to three quarter length lead. With about a quarter mile to go our bow man caught a “behind the back” crab in the extremely choppy water. We had to stop rowing so he could recover his blade.
1968 History
NU opened their season with a triangular varsity win over BU and MIT and then followed with a big win over Brown. Prior to the Sprints NU fell to Harvard and H
​
At the Eastern Sprints fortunes improved with all 3 NU boat qualifying for the finals and all finishing in 4th place, just out of the medals.
​
It’s worth noting that 1968 was Jim Dietz’ freshman year and that all members of his Freshman crew went on to be varsity oarsmen.
1969 History
Once again the NU varsity opened the season with an easy win over BU. This was followed by a split second loss to Brown and a sixth place finish at the Sprints. The JV also made the finals and also finished 6th.
​
In the Fall, at the Head of the Charles (shortened to 2-1/3 miles that year) NU’s Senior 8 finished 3rd behind Harvard and a Syracuse Alumni boat. Syracuse lost to Harvard by 0.1 seconds after 12 minutes of racing. NU’s Junior 8 with it’s all-sophomore crew finished 6th out of 29 boats and our Senior 4 finished 5th.