Green Lake Crew first went on the water on May 15th, 1948. Described only as “the junior rowing program” or “high school boys rowing” in the earliest days, and later “Seattle Junior Rowing” and “Seattle Junior Crew,” the “Green Lake Crew” moniker came into consistent usage somewhere in the 1970s to 1980s. GLC’s origin story — and how it has flourished for seven decades — is a tale very much grounded in the culture of Seattle and the Pacific Northwest. Rowing in the Pacific Northwest has always been a sport for all, attracting in its earliest days the sons and daughters of the working classes as well as those with greater means. The community-based, accessible clubs of today throughout the Pacific Northwest owe much to the hard-working, humble founders of more than a century ago.

Ours is a unique story of breaking barriers, of a community dedicated to getting kids on the water, of a special relationship with Seattle Parks and of the incredible dedication of a long list of passionate rowers, coaches, and volunteers. It is also a story starting an exciting new chapter after 75 years. The tale has touched nearly everyone who has picked up an oar in Seattle in one way or another. Yet most are unaware that our story started much earlier…and had its debut on an entirely different body of water. 

After the stunning success of the 1936 UW Varsity Crew’s gold medal victory in the Berlin Olympics (as told in Daniel James Brown’s The Boys in the Boat), coach Al Ulbrickson was thinking about a rowing program in Seattle’s high schools. He knew if his recruits came with some experience they would have a better start as freshmen in the ASUW Shell House. Ulbrickson loaned his 16mm films of the 1936 crew for showing in the schools. Rowing was hugely popular and enthusiasm was high for the idea, with support from parents, community leaders, and UW rowing alums who wanted to pass on their love of the sport. 

In 1940, Tom C. Logan (UW ’32), an assistant coach at the UW, headed up a committee at the Seattle Junior Chamber of Commerce in making preliminary plans. Green Lake, with its lack of motorized boats, was considered good water for practice and for 1000 meter races. The Seattle Parks board was supportive, the UW offered three used shells, and an architect drew up plans for a shell house on the eastern shore. But no one could figure out how to finance the project, and ultimately the realities of WWII caused the plans to be shelved.

After the war, planning began again in earnest. In 1946, urged on by the Parent Teacher Association, the Seattle Junior Rowing Commission was established, led by Alex Shults, the Seattle Daily Times sports editor. Shults recruited Clarence Massart, president of the Wallingford chapter of the Associated Boys Clubs and later president of the Seattle City Council, and Joel Woelfert, a sheriff’s deputy and director at the Greenwood chapter of the Boys Clubs. They were joined by representatives of the Young Men’s Business Club and the YMCA. Al Ulbrickson provided guidance. But the question of how to finance the program still remained. The solution came from a different sport: bowling!

Bowling was a wildly popular sport itself at the time. During WWII, a city-wide “Big 50” tournament was created to raise money for the war effort. No longer needed as a fundraiser after the end of the war, Shults and other bowlers hit on the idea of repurposing the tournament as a fundraiser for junior crew. In 1947, the Big 50 tournament raised $1500 which financed the building of a training barge for the new program. Materials shortages kept it from being completed that year, delaying the launch of rowing on Green Lake until 1948. In August 1947, eager to start but unable to row on Green Lake as planned, the very first group of boys — almost 200 of them — received a two-day introduction to rowing on Lake Washington instead, using the UW barge “Old Nero.” (The Big 50 continued as GLC’s funding source for many years. In the 1948 tournament, some well-known oarsmen were tournament sponsors: Roger Morris, Charles Day, Gordon Adam, Johnny White, and Joe Rantz of the 1936 UW crew.) 

With the completion of the juniors’ barge in early 1948 — named “Ten Pins” in honor of the bowlers who funded it — Green Lake Crew was nearly ready to launch. Al Ulbrickson arranged to loan several shells and sets of oars, and recommended as head coach UW oarsman (and future UW lightweight coach) Chuck Moriarty. Moriarty recruited Frank Cunningham, who had settled in Seattle after graduating from Harvard. In 1947, Cunningham had stroked the Crimson varsity to a record-setting victory in a 12-boat national regatta on Lake Washington, where the two had met. Chuck and Frank agreed to share the responsibilities of carrying out Ulbrickson’s training program for the junior boys, aided by a slew of past and present UW rowers, including Johnny White, 4-seat in the 1936 gold medal crew. Green Lake’s first junior crews launched in spring 1948. Using a borrowed launch and a quickly constructed wooden shell house purpose-built on the grounds of the Kon-Roy Boat Club at the east side of the lake, GLC was now a reality.

Moriarty (d. 1999) would go on to the state legislature in Olympia, where he served as minority floor leader before returning to private practice in Seattle. Cunningham (d. 2013) would continue to coach the junior crew program at Green Lake until 1968 as well as acting as its first boatman. He was critical to the program’s survival and growth in those years, buying GLC’s first 4+ (along with a wherry and a single) with his own funds. Along the way, Frank became a founding father of Lake Washington Rowing Club and a Northwest rowing icon.

GLC has innovated and led throughout the decades that followed. Junior women’s rowing joined the boys in 1963, nearly a decade before the passage of Title IX. Green Lake Adult Crew was founded in 1987, and Green Lake and Mt. Baker have co-hosted both USRowing’s national convention and the Masters National Championship Regattas. Of course there have been setbacks along the way: GLC survived nearly total boathouse destruction in the Nisqually Earthquake in 2001, and the pandemic brought a fresh set of challenges as all city programs shut down. But this is a program built on strength and adaptability, qualities which have seen us through a full 75 years and promise to carry us well into the future. 

As it moves into its ‘second seventy-five,’ the energy at GLC has never been higher. Continuing the effort to break down barriers and get more kids (and adults) on the water, the new Green Lake Community Boathouse will open in early 2024, allowing expansion of all the boating programs that call the lake home.

For more on the history of our program and its impact, we invite you to watch 70 Years of Pulling Together below, and read some of the highlights in our timeline, a constant work in progress. If you have corrections, photos, or stories to add, please see the contact form at the bottom of this page.