8 minute read
Cougar Crew Days 50th Gala Finale
from Summer 2023
by Cougar Crew
A diverse crew of the usual suspects including alumni, current rowers, family and supporters, were witnesses to a once-in-a-lifetime reunion in Pullman the weekend of March 17–18. Among the crowd were many original crew members and coaches from the early 1970s, summoned by legendary coxswain and effervescent organizer Mike Klier (75). High-risk for Covid-19, the Founders waited four years to celebrate what they started in 1970.
Together, we put a big exclamation point on a four-year marathon effort to celebrate our first half-century on the Snake. A happy and inspiring demonstration of Cougar Crew’s tenacity and resilience, CCD 2023 was a 72-hour whirlwind of community gatherings and personal reunions, celebrations and recollections on an emotional spectrum from thrilling to poignant.
Elite-level Tech Talk
The weekend began quietly on Thursday at 5:00pm in the Smith Center for Undergraduate Education. Room 202, an amphitheater facing a big pull-down screen, was the forum chosen for a detailed technical discussion by Paul Enquist (77) before an audience of current rowers, both club and varsity, plus a scattering of alumni and coaches. Paul’s subject? A stake boat to finish line description of his heart-stopping 2x Grand Final with partner Brad Lewis in the 1984 Los Angeles Games. Mass quantities of good pizza arrived soon and disappeared quickly. Minor issues with the PowerPoint presentation added comic relief to an otherwise stone-serious look at racing technique and strategy at the very pinnacle of our sport. A sharp Q&A concluded the presentation.
Rededication of the 101
Friday started with Class Day racing in the morning. Sophomores prevailed. Back on campus, up in the lofty Ergometer Room in the Field House, things kicked into high gear with the rededication of the 101, one of the first shells rowed on the Snake, loaned to the fledgling crew by UW Head Coach Dick Erickson. The shell was destroyed in the 1972 storm that collapsed the shell house at Boyer Park. The bow was returned to the Huskies and is part of the historic collection in Conibear shell house. A mostly-intact 23-foot fragment of the shell was transported by club member Bob Minnich to his family home in Puyallup, where it quietly collected five decades worth of dust in the garage rafters. This haunting talismanic remnant of the 101 was gifted back to the crew by Bob’s brother Scott, and, thanks mostly to the efforts of Mike Klier, returned to Pullman for permanent display high above the whirring fans in the Ergometer Room.
Remarks by Coach Brevick, Scott Minnich and Cougar Crew’s very first Head Coach, Bob Orr, nicely balanced the amusing and the serious. Coxswain Kathy (Figon) Kaatz (76) officially rededicated the 101 with a bottle of champagne, burst over the partial Pocock skeleton in near-classic style. (The bottle struck a hexagonal steel breaker bar, suspended over the boat. Glass shards were contained in a nylon-mesh bag.) Attendance was limited to
90 by the safety rules of the Erg Room, so a video of this unusual and moving event was shown to a crowd more than twice that number halfway through the Ice Breaker at the UREC Center later that evening.
Ice Breaker Celeb Gossip
One of the weekend highlights was a sharp focus on five Coug rowers (thus far) who have made it to the Olympics. (CCD organizers were unsuccessful in their diligent search for a sixth Coug rowing Olympian, Beth Redford). At the Friday evening Ice Breaker at UREC Center, a crowd of well over 200 assembled and your author was studiously minding her own business when who should stroll up but Paul Enquist, fishing from his pocket a pendant on tri-color ribbon and asking “Ever seen one of these?” Many times on TV, of course! But that didn’t prepare me for the size and weight of a bona fide Olympic gold medal. The downlow moment was tailor-made for a belated but sincere word of congratulations.
Take Me to the River
Saturday morning brought the customary entertaining chaos at the river with slow rowers and racers in a shouting, laughing hubbub of launchings and landings, including some of the oldest of the old guard wetting an oar. The long, striking figure of Original Founder #1, Rich Stager, was ubiquitous at the scene, striding briskly from the far end of the breakwater to the inside of the boathouse and back again before you could say Jack Robinson. In the final challenge sprint of the day, the Sophomores prevailed over all adversaries, including a couple of admirably competitive alumni crews.
Next up was the Cougar Crew Alumni Association board meeting in the Great Hall at Lewis Alumni Centre. Proceedings were marked by the formalization of board committees, something in the works for over a year. We will be hearing more about the committees and how to get involved very soon. More importantly, CCAA accomplished its first leadership transition. Tim “Haole” Richards (84), first elected Chair in 2005, is now a member of the Hawaii State Senate and has relinquished the CCAA tiller. Three candidates were nominated and Andi Day (90) was elected CCAA’s second Chair by a solid majority.
50-Year Feast
Beasley Coliseum was, for the second year running, venue for the weekend’s crowning event, a 42-table, close-to-300-guest buffet dinner staged Saturday evening on the basketball floor. Echoing President Elson Floyd’s participation in 2008, Dr. Elizabeth Chilton, Chancellor WSU Pullman, made the night’s welcoming remarks, thanking the crowd for leading by example: “This is what WSU alumni can do!” Women’s Head Coach Jane LaRiviere and other members of her coaching staff and rowers were in attendance as well.
Chancellor Chilton was accompanied by husband Michael Sugerman. Advised that Sugerman rowed for Brown University, the audience responded with applause and shouts of approval. Other VIPs included Dr. Ellen Taylor, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs and Kari Sampson, Director of Development in the Foundation’s Student Affairs Division. Chancellor Chilton placed winning bids in the live and silent auctions, stayed until the closing bell, and approached Coach Struckmeyer before leaving, thanking him for the invitation and parting with an enthusiastic “See you next year!” Mr. Sugerman expressed what seemed to be genuine interest in joining next year’s Class Day sprints.
Keynote and Olympic Panel
This year’s Keynote speaker was Bob Appleyard, Class of 1975. Bob played an integral role in the beginnings of Cougar Crew and went on to serve as a key leader and referee in US, international and Olympic rowing. In 2014, he was honored with USRowing’s Franklin Award for lifetime contributions to the sport. Bob’s remarks focused on the determination shown by the first WSU crews and the importance of club rowing today, as the sport continues to evolve.
Following his talk, Bob moderated a panel discussion with Olympians Paul Enquist (77), Sean Halsted (92), Lisa Roman (12)and Nicole Hare (16). Kristi Norelius (77), 1984 Olympic gold medalist, was planning to participate this year before obligations prevented. Kristi gave the keynote at CCD 2022. The Olympians shared memories of rowing on the international stage and the foundations laid by their Snake River rowing experiences.
As the panel discussion concluded, Lisa and Nicole briefly detoured the program, offering Nicole’s Canadian National team jacket, worn at the 2016 Summer Games in Rio di Janeiro and autographed by both, as a surprise live auction item. Bidding was brisk and the winner was one of Lisa and Nicole’s WSU teammates, Sara (Brevick) McCornack (16). This spontaneous expression of solidarity between the varsity and club sides was one of the evening’s brightest of many bright spots. Another highlight was a team video created by Nolan Hubbell (24). Watch it: https://tinyurl.com/3udbhwxj
21-Gun Salute
CCAA Chair Tim Richards’s (84) seventeen years at the helm were formally recognized by Mariah Maki, Executive Director of the WSU Alumni Association, on hand to present WSUAA’s Distinguished Service Award. Ever alert to his athletes’ grooming and attire, Coach Struckmeyer presented Tim with a wince-provoking necktie from his wonderfully egregious collection. A final round of paddle-bidding pushed the Tim Richards Endowment over the $25,000 (interest-income-generating) mark.
Reflecting on the evening, Maki reportedly told a colleague that in her role as Executive Director, she attends well over 100 WSU alumni events every year and “This is one of the best I’ve ever seen.”
Raising the Glass
Just past intermission, Paul Enquist took the podium and offered a formal toast saluting the first and next 50 years of Cougar rowing. Paul ran down a list of formidable obstacles faced and overcome, pointing each with a quietly triumphant “And we are still here!” This brief, thoughtful interlude was a deeply moving and pitch-perfect tribute to our first half-century of rowing on the Snake.
—Kari Ranten (80) and Rich Ray (80)
SPECIAL NOTE:
Cougar Crew Days 2022 was a major success, hindered only by the winter Covid-19 spike, which kept many at home.
Dave Arnold’s and Kristi Norelius’s keynotes available here:
Kristi: https://tinyurl.com/38twjrxt
Dave: https://tinyurl.com/msff5bby
