Season Results

Season Summary

Then Washington Coach “Rusty” Callow, who helped found the Dad Vail Regatta in 1934 for new or smaller crew programs, now held in Philadelphia in early May, once wrote, “I recall once when I was coaching at Washington (later at Penn) in '26 or '27 we stopped at Madison to row the Badgers on our way to Poughkeepsie. “Dad Vail had only a fair crew. He told me that his crew's showing against the Huskies spelled whether or not his Wisconsin crew would go to Poughkeepsie . So I told our coxswain to row around twenty-four and stay beside the Badgers until the last quarter mile, then go and win by a couple of lengths. They did, and right after the race “Dad” came right up to me, stuck out his hand and said with a warm grip, ‘Thanks Pal.' We both went on to the Hudson. Dad did have some very fine crews at Wisconsin , but that was not one of them.” Future Badger Crew Coach Norm Sonju was Captain of the Washington boat that visited Madison in 1927.

May 21, 1927, the UW Athletic Department announced the withdrawal of the school from the annual intercollegiate regatta at Poughkeepsie . Finances were probably part of the cause. Syracuse , too, was negotiating regularly with their Athletic Department. Also, in the opinion of “Dad” Vail, the varsity crew was “too weak to be a worthy representative of the University at Poughkeepsie .”

In the IRA:

The UW freshman crew later did enter the regatta and was 7 th of seven entries.

IRA results, before a crowd of 100,000 were as follows: varsity eights - Columbia (20:57), Washington, California, Navy, Cornell, Syracuse and Penn; junior varsity eight - Washington, Columbia, California, Penn and Cornell; and the freshman eight - Navy, Syracuse, Columbia, Cornell, Penn, California and Wisconsin.

The Badger freshman performance was described in the New York Times , “ Wisconsin , last at the beginning of the race, last all the way and last at the finish, brought up the rear.”

Photos

Various pictures of Vail with Callow, Meyer Coon, Steenboock

1024-587

Left to Right: Teckemeyer, Vail, Burros, Coulter

883-768

Vail and O Teckmeyer

883-768

Postcard with caption:

Columbia crew wins classic Poughkeepsie Regatta. In the biggest upset of the 1927 rowing season the Columbia University varsity eight won the four-mile varsity race, the feature of the Poughkeepsie Regatta, held recently on the Hudson. The Columbia crew defeated of the country's leading eights. The Columbia boat leading as they neared the finish line after passing the Poughkeepsie Bridge.

757-602

W-Winners

Doesey A. Buckley
Allan B. Bibbey
Jefferson D. Burrus, Jr.
John E. Cullinane
William Gerhardt
Eric Grunitz
Henry F. Hagemeister
C. J. Jax
Orville L. Jones
Homer E. Kieweg
Lawrence Kingsbury
Dietrick Lunde
John C. McCarter
Franklin L. Orth
John L. Parks
Richard V. Rhode
Foster C. Smith
Oscar Woelfel