Georgia Tech Rowing Club Records

In 1985, two runners for the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), Michael May and Mark Turner, learned that they were no longer eligible to compete in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) track and field and cross country events, due to the fact that they had already participated for four years. The two men decided to form a rowing club at Georgia Tech. The next year, the Institute granted a charter to the Georgia Tech Rowing Club (GTRC), officially recognizing it as a sport club. In 1988, Mr. John P. Hunter, Jr., an alumnus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Crew Team (one of the elite crew teams in the nation) and a resident of Atlanta, helped to establish the club by offering financial, moral, and practical support as its largest benefactor. He worked with Saint Andrew Catholic Church (on the Chattahoochee River in Roswell, Georgia) to provide storage and practice space for the fledgling team. The church agreed to donate land to GTRC if they would help establish and coach a high school crew team, the Saint Andrew Rowing Club. GTRC readily agreed, and now that it had practice space, began to train for the many regattas in which it would participate.

The men's lightweight team, one component of the co-ed GTRC, earned its first medal, a bronze, at the Dad Vail, the national championship regatta for smaller collegiate teams, in 1993. Rob Canavan, an alumnus of Temple University's rowing team, was hired as Georgia Tech's head coach in 1995, and still serves as the head coach as of 2012. In 1996, on their way to the Dad Vail, the GTRC was involved in a trailer accident, destroying many of its boats and injuring some of the team members. Georgia Tech's administration demanded the team return to campus, but the team ignored these orders and competed in the regatta. It came in 3rd place overall during the Dad Vail, making it the best finish for both the women's team and the GTRC overall. Unfortunately, when the team returned to campus, it was placed on suspension for one year due to its disregard of Institute rules. Although it was allowed to practice off campus, the team was no longer officially sanctioned for the 1996 calendar year, and it did not receive funding from the Georgia Tech Student Government Association.

In 1997, with the team back on its feet, they competed in the Southern Regional Championships and other nationally recognized regattas, and at the end of the rowing season, the men's team finished as the ninth-best team nationally, placing along with historically successful Ivy League teams who had been competing for over one hundred years. The women's team also earned silver medals in two well-known regattas, making 1997 its best season to date.

Each year the GTRC continued improving, and although John Hunter died in 1999, the team continued to benefit from his guidance and support, and in 2009, the men's lightweight team won the gold medal at the ACRA National Championship regatta.

Throughout the years, the GTRC has fought valiantly to have crew recognized as a varsity sport by the Georgia Tech Athletic Association. This was one of John Hunter's foremost goals in acting as a liasion between GTRC and the Institute.

As of 2012, rowing is still recognized as a club sport by the Georgia Institute of Technology, as opposed to a varsity sport, but the GTRC is known as one of the premiere collegiate crew teams in the Southeast, and it has consistently medaled in the Dad Vail and American Collegiate Rowing Association (ACRA) National Championship regatta for the past twelve years.

Sources: Georgia Tech Rowing Club; Georgia Tech Crew Alumni.