THE FONDR VAULT & HISTORY PROJECT
The FONDR Vault is a collective archive of content collected and created by the Notre Dame Rowing Club
The FONDR History Project is led by Fred Heydrich, who rowed at NDRC from the spring of 1972 through the spring of 1975. Fred was instrumental in establishing the women’s team and served as the women’s crew coach from 1975 through 1977. He is now working on compiling a comprehensive history of the NDRC. Please share your memories, autobiographies, dates, teammates, memorable races, training anecdotes, old photos, and social events with Fred at Fhey1953@aol.com to contribute to this important project.
Sports Illustrated – May 24, 1965 | Up a Muddy River in a Beat-Up Shell
The Fighting Irish of Notre Dame (nautical division) have a long way to go before they catch up to Harvard’s oarsmen but, if tenacity and enthusiasm mean anything in crew, they are well on their way
Read full article here
The Notre Dame victory song is’ heard along the Schuylkill River here these days, and it’s no recording….Tue, Mar 23, 1965
Out on the river is the Notre Dame crew. And it’s no mirage. The team came here for a week of intensive training, tuning up for its first try at intercollegiate rowing. They will be coached by John T. Lyons, a Philadelphia area management consultant, who will coach them this spring by mail.
Read full article here
The Storied History of Notre Dame Rowing…
Notre Dame rowers have long been called to the St. Joseph River and the two lakes on the University’s campus. The first social rowing club was formed in 1867 and remained a casual pastime until 1964 when a group of young Notre Dame male athletes, desiring a higher level of competition established what would become known as the Notre Dame Rowing Club (NDRC). With the formation of the NDRC came the bonds of competition, sportsmanship, and friendship, setting the stage for rowing at Notre Dame for the years ahead.
The Storied History of Notre Dame Rowing Continues...
Notre Dame began admitting female students in 1972, a year later, in the fall of 1973 Clete Graham, then the men’s club team coxswain, started coaching a women’s team as a student.
1978 NDRC Mixed Eight: Cox. Terri Heinz, Str. Mike Hamerly, 7-Bob Flynn, 6-Laura Rohrbach (RIP), 5-Marty Murphy, 4-Jay Ferriero, 3-Mike “Sundance” Miller, 2-Kathy Dilworth, Bow-Mickey McGowan.
1978 NDRC Mixed Eight: Cox. Teri Hinz, Str. Mike Hamerly, 7-Bob Flynn, 6-Laura Rohrbach (RIP), 5-Marty Murphy, 4-Jay Ferriero, 3-Ginny Ott, 2-Kathy Dilworth, Bow-Mickey McGowan.
In the spring of 1973, male and female student athletes rowed side-by-side, competing against regional schools for coveted trophies and at the end of that first year, at the Midwest Sprints, the team won the first women’s trophy for Notre Dame. The ND women rowers went on to defend their Midwest Sprints Championship in 1975, representing the first undefeated women’s team and 1975’s only undefeated team at Notre Dame.
A camaraderie developed between the men’s and women’s teams that has continued to define the program decades later as evidenced when in 2015, the McConnell Boathouse, which houses both the women’s varsity and NDRC was completed.
In 1996 a group of female rowers from the NDRC presented a plan to athletics Director Mike Wadsworth to establish a varsity rowing program. During the 1998-99 school year women’s varsity rowing was born, marking the 26th varsity sport for Notre Dame athletics. Under the leadership of head coach Martin Stone, the program emerged on the national scene boasting many NCAA appearances.
Meanwhile, the NDRC powered on and in 2008 became one of the founding members of the American Collegiate Rowing Association. The men’s rowing team has had much success, including:
Men’s First Varsity Eight Won the Gold at ACRA 2024
Men’s Second Varsity Eight Finishes 6th in the Country at ACRA 2024
Winning the Collegiate 4+ event at the 2022 Head of the Charles
Placing third at the 2023 ACRA National Championships (ranked #2 in the nation in ACRA’s coaches poll as of May 7, 2024.)
NDRC’s Joe Kiely ’24 broke six minutes on the erg, setting the Notre Dame team record. He was selected to represent the United States’ U23 Eight that won a silver medal at the 2023 U23 World Rowing Championships in Bulgaria. Joe graduates in 2024 and will be serving his country in the United States Navy.
Notre Dame’s Molly Bruggeman has been a nine-time national team member and has been selected to represent the United States at the 2024 Olympics in Paris in the four.
Crew of the Silver Jubilee, 1896
Crew of the Silver Jubilee, 1896 Arthur Chase, Charles Neizer (Niezer), Edward Gilmartin, Jenaro Davila, Captain John Mullen, Coxswain George McCarrick, Lucian Wheeler
Click Here to check out the Notre Dame Boat Club and Crew Archives
Knute Rockne was a Rower!
Freshman (Class of 1916, upper-left), Sophomore (Class of 1915, lower-right), Junior (Class of 1914, upper-right), and Senior (Class of 1913, lower-left) Class Crew teams who competed in the 1913 Commencement races. The Freshmen defeated the Sophomores, and the Juniors, with Knute Rockne on the team, defeated the Seniors.
GNDS 28/: A full page in the William Edward Cleaver Scrapbook, c1913.
*Commencement – Students swimming in the Lake [three scenes]
*Commencement – Freshman Class of 1916 Crew rowing team, 1913 [this photo was published in the 1914 Dome yearbook, page 171]
*Commencement – Junior Class of 1914 Crew rowing team, including Knute Rockne, 1913 [same image as GKLI 1/12; this photo was published in the 1914 Dome yearbook, page 171]
*Commencement – Senior Class of 1913 Crew rowing team, 1913 [this photo was published in the 1914 Dome yearbook, page 171]
*Commencement – Sophomore Class of 1915 Crew rowing team, 1913 [this photo was published in the 1914 Dome yearbook, page 171]
A Family’s Love for Rowing, Knute’s Rowing Buddy
A father’s obsession with rowing becomes a family’s passion, leading to unexpected adventures on the water Grandpa Thomas Dundon, 3rd from left. Grandpa John Dundon is the child. This is the 6 man team from Ishpeming, Michigan, 1896.Great Grandpa Thomas rowed in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan during the 1890s, and he taught Grandpa how to appreciate the sport from an early age. Grandpa continued his love for rowing boats during his undergrad years at Notre Dame, he often opined about rowing with his college buddy, Knute Rockne.
Click Here to Read the Full Article
1966-69: Four Seasons of Notre Dame’s Crew Club | the Pages of the ‘Dome’
The Notre Dame crew club’s inaugural season was in the spring of 1964. The men’s team was granted varsity status in the spring of 1996. The following blog story covers the four seasons of the crew team during the time the university’s class of 1969 attended the school from September 1965 to June 1965. The names of our classmates appear in bold. Click Here to Read the Full Article
Members of the crew club: Kneeling: F. Bonnet, M. Gennaro, P. Hopkins. K. Missina. Standing: J. Byrne, M. Grantham, T. Proz, R. Janisse, J. Powers. Left Shell: J. Misiak. T. Powers, C. Krebs, B. Toffer, D. Michenbeir, J. Radovich, B. Godfrey, P. Weathersly, W. McLoughlin. Right Shell: C. Benoit, R. Creagan, L. Pejeau, J. Moskal, J. Booman, C. Windle, E. Prerioso, J. Deschauer, D. Panel.
Notre Dame Crew Spring Training in the 70’s
Mar-18-1978. Some stories told to Rob Wettach’79 From Paul Shafer. President 1978. Here’s a couple of tid-bits for your time line:
Spring Training 1975. Crew travels to Washington DC and the Potamac for spring training. Much rain and wind force team to train by playing buck-buck and eating raw oysters.
Spring Training 1976- Team stays in South Bend and horrible cold, windy weather prevent the team from getting much water time. Running was more fun in DC.
Spring Training 1977- ND Crew rents RV’s and travels to Orlando for spring training. Sun, warmth, and a trip to Disney World highlight a tremendous week of practice.
Spring Training 1978 – If it ain’t broke, why fix it? Crew returns to sunny Florida in rented RV’s. We practice in Jacksonville and Shafer sinks launch while serving as “acting coach”. We travelled to Miami Beach to compete against Dartmouth, the London Boat Club, the Cuba National Team, and Holy Cross. We reveal just how “little” 5 days’ practice on the water provides. Despite rowing out of sight behind the leaders on the Intercoastal waterway, a bow ball battle between the Irish and the Holy Cross Crusaders at the finish line thrilled the crowd! Low point: all three RV’s were damaged – – ouch.
Spring 77- a trip to Nebraska provided an early season test and a humbling defeat for all boats except the lightweight mens’ eight. A Coach Bus was the right travel mode home though, as eight window oars propelled us along the highway.
Spring 78- Heading West again, we challenged Bob Jaugstetter’s (former Olympic coxswain) crew at Wichita State followed the next day by the U of Kansas. It’s nice that we have such a generous alumni network…. Stay away from reservoir rowing!
Modern Oarlocks 1978. May-7-1978
A story told to Rob Wettach’79 by Pups: From Bill Landuyt (Pupps) Captain 1978
Spring of 1976: At Dad Vail, Four-with borrows shell from Penn, with plastic versus brass oarlocks – a new technology. After practice row, boat flips at the Boathouse Row dock when crew unlocks oarlocks, unaware that plastic oarlocks bend, and the oars supporting the starboard side slip out.
Local photographer on hand, and a very wet ND crew makes Saturday’s sport page in Philly paper. Serious consideration as to whether tetanus shots is necessary given the quality of the Schuylkill River water. Four-with makes finals but equipment failure results in last 1000 meters being rowed by only three oarsmen.
Being Part of the Crew Becomes One of the Greatest Experiences of Your Life
April 1, 1975
Here is a blurb about ND Crew from the 1975 Dome Yearbook:
CREW* Will power is something the average student needs in abundance just to make an eight o’clock class. But getting up at 5 a.m. six days a week when you’re a college student indicates one of two things: you’ve either got a tragic case of insomnia or an extraordinary love of a sport.
For the Notre Dame Crew, it’s the latter for certain. Converging on Stepan Center long before the sun rises and more often than not having to push a rickety, blue team bus to get it started, the Crew makes its daily ten mile run to a Mishawaka boathouse on the St. Joe River, five waiting shells and two hours of rowing and rowing and rowing…
Whether you’re a novice learning your skills in the lumbering, slowly sinking Blue Beast, or a varsity oarsman enjoying the sport at its finest the shell knifing through the river while the coxswain shouts “power ten” and seven buddies join you in working up to “ramming speed” you recognize one fact: rowing does get into your blood and you can’t fight it. You just let being part of the Crew become one of the greatest experiences of your life.
Click to Read:
The History of the Notre Dame Crew Captain’s Jacket by Paul McEvily, Captain 1975 | April 1, 1975
April 1, 1975
Paul McEvily, Captain 1975
I’m sure that my memory would be better if I had the opportunity to attempt this recall in the company of some of our rowing buddies over a coupla pints of golden frosty refreshers, within the shadow of the Golden Dome, but I guess this will have to do….! About the origin of the purple jacket, that I am certain…..of the years following my graduation in 1975, I will recount what I recall…..
The purple jacket was a Varsity Club Jacket from Saint Rose High School in Belmar, NJ, Class of 1971 — of that I am certain, because it was my jacket! The high school’s nickname is the “Purple Roses”, hence the color….The kid who was responsible for ordering the jackets screwed up the order and they weren’t distributed until May of our senior year (1971)….As you might imagine, the thing got little or no use (who wants to be caught dead in a purple varsity jacket when you’re at Notre Dame!!!) until….
My Junior year, when I was casting about for some warm but loose clothing to wear on the Saint Joe for early morning practices…..Still wearing it in my Senior Year, when I thought to strip the “s” and the “e” and have it be “St. Ro,” our new “patron” saint….. Sometime later, we adopted the habit of intoning “St. Ro pray for us” (could we have been that desperate that we had to pray to a fictitious saint for assistance????!) before races…. Upon graduation, I bequeathed it to the next year’s captain (can’t remember who that was — could have been Bill “Pups” Landuyt, Ed Tagge or Kenny “Tits” Peluso) who, sometime after that, spruced it up with a “w” on the back, added “Captain” on the front as I recall and started the tradition of adding the names of each year’s Club Captain under my own….and a mighty fine tradition it is I might add…. I have always been pleased to be a part of that great tradition and now humbled to know that it continues 25+ years later! As for its loss and recovery….I recall Bill Landuyt and Ed Tagge telling me at an Alumni Race years ago that in its second or third year of service to the Rowing Club, the jacket was lost or stolen and that Godfrey (we regularly referred to Bill, and addressed Bill by his last name both out of affection and respect and because to many of us he was indeed a rowing “god”!), who was coaching the Club then, spied it on the back of some young local while driving the lamentable Crew Bus to or from practice…. Bill braked hard, leaped off the bus, chased the kid down and demanded the jacket’s return — a demand to which the kid was only to happy to accede, given the surely crazed monster snorting in front of him (Bill had those qualities too!). The story was told to me with such conviction and awe that I believe it to be absolutely true!!!! Please feel free to share this bit of history with our fellow mates, apologize to all for my inability to get to South Bend this weekend and be sure to raise a glass or two to all who have contributed to Rowing Club lore over the years….
NDames
The boat that won Ltwt 8 at Midwest Springs in spring of 74. The first win for women’s rowing, and also first win for any women’s sport at Notre Dame.
Mary Bustin, Class of 1978, Founding member of NDames & FONDR Treasurer
Mary Bustin graduated from Notre Dame in 1978. She joined NDRC as a freshman, the second year of women as a part of the club. She is a founding member of NDames and still an active participant. She shares this story below.
The logo says it all! The women of the ’70s, the members of the first several years of the Notre Dame Women’s Crew, have reunited.
In 2012, they had such a great time just being together again at the ND annual rowing reunion that many decided to train together (from afar) and enter a boat in the Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston in October 2013. Since then, the women have held multiple camps (in Florida, Seattle, and ND) and, on October 19, 2013, raced together again as a team. However, that was only the beginning for these now senior alums. In addition to the camps, the NDames have raced annually in the Head of the Schuylkill in Philadelphia, the OARS Masters Invitational; and a number of them have entered additional National Masters races in various cities. One of the most poignant moments for the women is holding hands just prior to the race and praying the Hail Mary, a tradition that has carried over from their early days at Notre Dame.
The women who arrived at Notre Dame those first years and many of the women from St. Mary’s joined forces and worked together to lay the groundwork for what is now a very successful women’s sports program at Notre Dame.
These women braved the lovely South Bend weather, 5:00 a.m. practices, many Rock and ACC workouts, and quite a few student-funded cross country car trips to be a part of the ND Women’s Crew, which was then part of a successful men and women’s joint club sport. Most likely, though, none of them envisioned the camaraderie that would still be there thirty-plus years later. Some have described it as the feeling of a true sisterhood. As a group, they are now geographically spread out from New York to Florida, across the Midwest, California, and Washington. They include architects, artists, businesswomen, doctors, educators, lawyers, retirees, moms, and yes, even grandmas. There’s been lots of living in those last thirty to forty years.
In regrouping, we called the first women’s coach, Clete Graham ’75, a student coach in the early ’70s, and he enthusiastically said yes to coaching the women again. The NDames include about nineteen women who rowed in the ’70s. The group has expanded with members from the ’80s and ’90s who rowed for NDRC, and a couple of long-time ND employees who are active rowers. The NDames now include about thirty-five members, strong and growing.
The ND women of the ’70s and ’80s (along with numerous St Mary’s women) who have participated are:
Jule Weatherbee ‘75, Beth Corbin Murphy ’77, Mary Fitzsimons ’77, Jody Gormley ’77, Carol Latronica ’77, Mary Spalding Burns ’77, Mary Brady Bustin ’78, Debbie Dean Hansen ’78, Jill DeLucia ’78, Kathleen Dilworth ’79, Charmaine Ortega ’79, Virginia Ott Elliott ’79, Lauren Wood ’79, Mary Hayes ’80, Vreni Hommes ’82, Maria Carbone Coyne ’82, Mimi Dobrowski Troy ’82, Rita Dailey Harrington ’82, Mickey McGowen ’82, Kate Corbett Freund ’83, Sharon DiNicola Angulot ’84, Patti Gontarz Hilal ’89
1978 NDRC Mixed Eight
Cox. Terri Heinz, Str. Mike Hamerly, 7-Bob Flynn, 6-Laura Rohrbach (RIP), 5-Marty Murphy, 4-Jay Ferriero, 3-Mike “Sundance” Miller, 2-Kathy Dilworth, Bow-Mickey McGowan.
1979 HOCR Club Eights Boat
1979 HOCR Club Eights Boat: Cox-Billy Mackay, Stroke- Paul Devitt, 7-seat Rob Wettach, 6 Dick O’Malley, 5 Mark Davis, 4 Chris Lyons, 3 Kurt Weber, 2 Carl LaFrance, Bow Mike “Sundance” Miller.
Check out the 1979 Head of the Charles Program Here
1978 Former coxswain gets Notre Dame letter jacket 50 years later
It took more than 50 years, but Diane Johnson Speck was finally recognized for her contributions to University of Notre Dame athletics. Read full article here:
