Rowing titles: 1966 IRA Champions
July 18, 2008 | Men's Rowing
In honor of the Wisconsin men's varsity eight winning the 2008 Intercollegiate Rowing Association national championship, we are taking a look back at all of the Wisconsin men's rowing titles. Today we take a look back at the 1966 IRA champions.
Historically speaking, men's rowing is an interesting beast. There have been different attempts over the years to determine a 'true' varsity eight national champion. There appear to be two successful stretches in determining an official national champion to date. The first came in the form of the National Collegiate Rowing Championships, which took place from 1983-96 in Cincinnati. The second success is the current format in place since 2002 at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association National Championships. Other than these two stretches, IRA Regatta conflicts with the Harvard-Yale race and various other circumstances prevented any kind of official championship. With all that in mind, Wisconsin can comfortably claim three official national championships and an additional six unofficial titles. The Badgers can argue for one more title, depending on how you spin things. Therefore, Wisconsin stakes its claim to three official national championships, and a total of either nine or 10 national championships.
A Haircut Helps Badgers Win 1966 IRA Championship
In what is a theme throughout the history the early IRA titles for Wisconsin, the Badgers entered the 1966 IRA Championships nowhere near the discussion as to the favorites for the varsity eight race. Washington was proclaimed the favorite by the New York Times and other publications, while Navy was a popular choice as a contender. Cornell, Brown and Pennsylvania also garnered some talk as title hopefuls, but Wisconsin was outside the conversation.
That isn't surprising as the Badgers were cruising along in a season with a loss in the Cochrane Cup race to Dartmouth and a ninth-place finish at Eastern Sprints. However, both those earlier races were over 2000 meters, while the 1966 IRAs would be raced over three miles.
Wisconsin would win by over a half boat length in a time of 16:03.4. Navy, which had beaten the Badgers over one and three-quarters of a mile on Lake Mendota the week before, placed second in 16:05.7. Prerace favorite and previously unbeaten Washington finished a distant 11th in the race.
Once again Harvard, the Eastern Sprints champion, did not race in the 1966 IRAs due to its annual conflict with its race against Yale. They did finish the season undefeated and claim the year as one of the school's unofficial national championships. At Eastern Sprints, Harvard won over second-place Brown and third-place Cornell, two boats the Badgers would later defeat comfortably at the IRA.
Making up Wisconsin's IRA title-winning varsity eight were senior coxswain Willard Witte (Fort Atkinson, Wis.), junior stroke Tom Sy (Madison, Wis.), junior Jim Tonn (Escanaba, Mich.), junior Don Lange (Columbus, Wis.), junior John Norsetter (Madison, Wis.), senior Tom Mitchell (Madison, Wis.), sophomore Greg Farnham (Waukesha, Wis.), senior Roger Seeman (Freeport, Ill.) and junior Bill Clapp (Arlington, Va.).
According to this article in Sports Illustrated . The UW title can be partially attributed to a haircut.
Read about how a haircut helped the Badgers win the national title in this Sports Illustrated article
A pdf with the 1966 team roster and a myriad of clippings is linked below.
Also, click here for the Wisconsin Rowing History Web site's comprehensive take on the 1966 season.
