Trinity College

The Beginnings

Fueled by the overwhelming popularity of rowing in England and the rapid rise of boat clubs at New England colleges and universities, the Minnehaha Boat Club (a rowing club) was formed at Trinity in 1856. This was the first Trinity College team to be organized in any sport and the first rowing club in the Hartford area. The club was immediately popular but never was able to participate in an intercollegiate rowing competition. The club eventually became a casualty of the Civil War.

It wasn't until 1870 that crew at Trinity was revived with the formation of the Trinity College Boat Club. After several years of acquiring new equipment, recruiting members, and seemingly endless training, a Trinity crew finally appeared in an intercollegiate race was realized in 1873, at the Springfield Intercollegiate Regatta. The first annual Regatta of Trinity College was held on the Connecticut River on October 31, 1874.

Trinity played a significant role in the evolution of intercollegiate crew and intercollegiate athletics as a whole. Several members of the Trinity College Boat Club were active in organizing competitions and in 1875, Trinity sent two boat club members to Springfield, Massachusetts to help organize the Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletics of America, the first overall intercollegiate athletic association established in the United States.

Unfortunately, as a result of two natural events, the newfound enthusiasm for crew at Trinity College experienced a major setback in 1876.That winter, heavy snowfall contributed to the collapse of the boathouse roof, damaging all but one of the shells. The boathouse was then washed away in the following spring's floods. The program never fully recovered that century. Interest in crew waned from 1877 until the program’s ultimate demise in 1881. The Trinity College Boat Club had to contend with not only rival athletic interests including baseball, football, and track, but the foment caused by the college's relocation to the former Gallows Hill in Hartford.

Early 20th Century

In the Spring of 1940, after a 60-year hiatus,Trinity crew was reborn. Trinity oarsmen would carry a racing shell to Batterson Park Pond in Hartford to compete against Avon Old Farms School. The cumbersome trip and poor rowing conditions at Batterson Park Pond led the oarsmen to seek a venue on the Connecticut River. The inablility to find adequate indoor shelter for the equipment, and a fading interest in the sport contributed to its disappearance from Trinity in 1945.

The Modern Era

In 1961, the Trinity College Rowing Association was accepted as an Informal Sport by theStudent Senate. That same year, Trinity joined Clark University and Amherst College as charter members of the New England Small College Rowing Association. From 1961 to 1965, the crew used a tobacco barn in South Windsor as their boathouse. On April 7, 1965, ground was broken for the Bliss Boathouse on Riverside Drive in East Hartford. In May 1966, Trinity College finally recognized Crew as a formal sport. With formal status came financial backing and the appointment of an official salaried crew coach. In 1969, women were welcomed into Trinity College and, in 1972, the Trinity College Women's Crew Program officially began.
The Trinity College Crew programs continue to thrive to this day.

For more information on the Trinity College Crew Program, please use the links below:
Men's team: http://www.trincoll.edu/pub/news/sports_brochures/mcrew/2000-01%20Season/MCindex.html
Women's team: http://caribou.cc.trincoll.edu/depts_pub/news/sports_brochures/wcrew/WCindex.html

Page Last Modified: April 30, 2002

Site Created by Fitzgerald & Halliday, Inc.
for the Connecticut State Historical Commission