An amazing story of nine young men, who rowed the United States to a gold medal at the 1936 Olympics, in Berlin, spoiling Hitler's day. The heart of this piece of non fiction is Joe Rantz, who we follow from his early years, up and through his years as a member of the Washington crew team, eventually winning the Olympics. It reminds me of UNBROKEN, the amazing story of one man's perseverance in the face of overwhelming odds. In this case, we see young men, most growing up in poverty. They all end up as freshmen at the University of Washington, in Seattle, try out for crew, and end up making the freshmen team, nine out of 150 recruits.
Interspersed between the stories of the boys' crew is the story of Joe Rantz and his hardscrabble life, growing up in a shack, with little to eat, hardly a roof over his head when his mother dies and his father remarries. At the age of ten, he's abandoned by his step mother and father, left to survive on his own, which he does by 'shit, grit and mother wit,' a slang term from African Americans but it applies to Joe. He manages not only to take care of himself but graduate from high school, and save enough to get into college for a year and make the freshmen crew.
George Pocock, the master builder of crew boats, takes an interest in Joe and helps him throughout his college years, acting as a surrogate father, along with his coach, Al Ulbrickson. We follow both his crew, their victories in various regattas both on the East and West Coasts, as well as Joe's hardscrabble life, his need to make money to stay in school, working various jobs, both during the school year and summers. We get to know some of his crew, but it's mostly Joe's story, as told to the author, in the final months of Joe's life.
We learn how the Washington coach Al Ulbrickson narrows down his three crews to just one, one that is settled and made great by the addition of Joe Rantz. We see them beat California, their West Coast rival, then win the East Coast Regatta, and finally, the Olympic trails in Poughkeepsie. We also come to understand what a big deal crew was back in the 1920's and 1930's, as twenty to fifty thousand spectators might crowd the shores to watch the race. The pressures these young felt was enormous, their work ethic gargantuan, as they were pushed and pushed, at first by their coaches, then the expectations of others, then by their representing the US. All were tough, independent and self reliant, boy used to hard work and not having much, without complaints. What they found in crew was themselves, I suppose, being part of something that started small and got bigger and bigger.
Before their trip to Germany, they had never been on a ship and road a train for the first time when they rowed in the East Coast regatta as freshmen. Crew, for all of them, opened up the world, one they never could have imagined. The climax of the book, of course, is the final race, where the Americans, with the best time in the trials, are put in the least desirable position, a change in the rules implemented by the German officials, fearing the American victory. The boys fall behind early, scratch their way back, and win by a nose, much to the chagrin of the now silent German crowd, as Adolph Hitler and his entourage leave the stadium before The Star Spangled Banner is played.
It's a great story, of our young nation, of the kinds of young men that built this country, made it was it is today. All of the crew graduated, most were engineers, and ended up working for Boeing. A great America success story, the kind you rarely read about anymore unfortunately.
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