Four “Brawny Lads” and a Boat: The Four Oarsmen Bring Hillsdale National Acclaim

Four “Brawny Lads” and a Boat: The Four Oarsmen Bring Hillsdale National Acclaim

Written by Monica VanDerWeide, '95 They had no coach. They had no formal training. They had no experience. Yet in 1879, four young men from Hillsdale decided to form the Hillsdale Rowing Club and pursue the gentlemen’s sport of rowing. These four, three of whom had attended Hillsdale College in the early 1870s, comprised the rowing team that would catapult Hillsdale into the national spotlight with three National American Amateur Rowing Champion…