In an effort to capture the early history of men's rowing at USD, program founder Tom Cosgrove, along with several early program alums, collaborated recently to create an account of those early years.

"Michael Gerhart '86, spent several weeks writing the account," stated head coacdh Broos Dagman. "I can't thank him enough for those efforts. It is extremely important for the complete story of such a successful program to be printed. It is worth noting that there were several points in those early years where the program could have withered and failed. Due to the steadfast efforts of the athletes, as well as parents, alums, administrators, and the larger rowing community in San Diego, that never happened. How lucky are we to have that kind of support? Luck indeed!"

::Origin ::::::::::::::::::
The origins of USD rowing can be traced back to an August night in 1976 at a window table overlooking Newport Harbor at the Rusty Pelican in Newport Beach, CA where Tom Cosgrove, USD Associate Dean of Students, and wife Karen were enjoying dinner and wine with some friends. Throughout that dinner, Tom's eye would gaze through the window onto the harbor and observe rowing shells slicing elegantly through the silky smooth water.

USD had at the time an undergraduate enrollment of 1,200 students, had merged the women's college with the men's college in 1972 to form one University and was looking to establish a new identity within San Diego. With crew being associated with class and elegance Tom thought rowing would be a natural fit within USD. Then President Arthur Hughes would later have discussions with Tom to pledge his full support for establishing a rowing program. In his mind, rowing was the kind of sport that represents world class Universities and it fit the values of the University of San Diego.

With his interest in rowing growing, the following week after the dinner in Newport, Tom signed up for a beginning rowing class taught on a barge at the Mission Bay Aquatic Center (MBAC).

The barge class alone, however, was not enough to satisfy his rowing interest; there had to be more. Tom was soon invited to row with the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Tritons in the fall of 1976 to fill in for empty seats in the UCSD JV boat on an as-needed basis. At the ripe age of 35, the USD Graduate Student found himself practicing in a boat with collegiate oarsmen nearly half his age.

Throughout that fall, Tom developed an understanding of how the system of rowing was conducted at UCSD. First there was identifying candidate athletes to row, then barge classes, followed up by rowing in cedar racing shells. One of those "aha" moments struck Tom when he said to himself "Given that USD already offers a rowing class for credit at the MBAC, we too could have a collegiate rowing program at USD".

With nothing more than a motley group of students who had previously taken the barge class, including Tom himself, USD found itself on the waters of Mission Bay coached by Duke Robinson (the son of Patty Wyatt - Founder of the San Diego Crew Classic). Tom had coaxed Duke to take on the task to coach a group of USD oarsmen fresh off the barge class.


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