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Credit: Photo by: Nick Romanenko
A rower cuts through the waters of the
Raritan River during a recent afternoon
practice. Crew at Rutgers is 140 years
old and still growing up. Newark’s team
has yet to be born, Camden crew is in
its infancy and the ageing New Brunswick
/Piscataway boathouse needs some TLC.
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Nearly a century and a half after the first Rutgers crew team took to the water in competition, the sport of rowing is undergoing a renaissance of sorts on the university’s three campuses.
The crew program on the New Brunswick/Piscataway campus dates back to 1864, five years before the first intercollegiate football game. By contrast, the crew program at Rutgers-Camden has just completed its second season. Yet the Camden program is about to get a major boost from a $4.5 million boathouse soon to rise alongside the Cooper River, the site of the Intercollegiate Rowing Association’s National Championship Regatta for the past decade.
The new boathouse, a bilevel facility with an upper level dedicated to business and social functions, will form the centerpiece of the Camden crew program for the foreseeable future, says Jamie Stack, the program’s head coach. The boathouse is expected to draw top rowers from many high school programs in the Philadelphia-Camden area.
When the boathouse is completed in 18 months, Rutgers-Camden will manage the boathouse and its banquet facility. To pay for the boathouse, the Camden County Board of Freeholders will draw $1 million from its capital fund, and the New Jersey Green Acres program and Delaware River Port Authority will contribute $2 million each.
“The crew program at Camden is poised to enter intercollegiate competition,” Stack says. While the men’s team functions as a rowing club, the women’s team has been certified as a Division III intercollegiate varsity team. Both teams are eligible to compete with other Division III rowing teams: Delaware, Temple, Villanova, LaSalle and others in eight- and four-seat shells. “Now that we’re going to be considered an established, recognized sport by the athletic department, I think the women’s team will grow,” Stack says. Last year’s women’s team had 10 rowers; the men’s team had 12. Stack is hoping to boost each roster to 16 this year.
As construction begins on the Camden boathouse, the provost’s office on the Newark campus is investigating the possibility of launching what it hopes will become a first-rate varsity rowing program on the Passaic River. “We recognized that rowing is one of the oldest collegiate sports in the country, one practiced by many prestigious schools, so we thought what a great idea to have a program here at an emerging city that doesn’t have access to these kinds of sports,” says Marcia Brown, vice provost for student and community affairs.
The campus’s plans dovetail nicely with the city’s vision for its downtown riverfront redevelopment, which includes a boathouse close to the urban campus. “This is a great opportunity to raise the profile and reputation of our campus as well as that of the city of Newark,” Brown says. “If we could become a premier training and racing venue for rowing, it would be great.”
Brown says the concept of a top-notch rowing program in Newark has not expanded beyond the campus community. “We haven’t yet reached out to the city in a coordinated way to initiate discussions about the waterfront, facilities, resources and funding,” she says. To raise the idea from a concept to a plan, campus officials appointed Ronald K. Chen, associate dean for academic affairs in Newark, to work with Mark Griffin, the newly appointed director of intercollegiate athletics and recreation, on an exploratory initiative. Chen, who is vice president of the U.S. Rowing Association and on its board, rowed at Phillips Exeter Academy, and then at Dartmouth, during his undergraduate days. He later earned national and international licenses and officiated at the Olympics in Atlanta.
“Starting a community rowing program for inner-city youth has met with success in other urban areas,” Chen says. “Boston started one. So did Oakland and Pittsburgh. I think Newark would be very well situated to do it as well.” Three independent rowing clubs and three local high schools now row on the Passaic River. “If you drive along Route 21 in the afternoon,” Chen said, “you can see their crews or the high school crews out rowing.”
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