USRowing history

The year 1903 brought the formation of the Intercollegiate Rowing Association (later joined the NCAA) as the world’s first scholastic organization devoted to the oversight of rowing.

On March 30, 1907, Stanford University and the San Diego Rowing Club competed in a pair of four-oared shells on Alamitos Bay in Long Beach.

Photo of members of the original Long Beach Rowing Club ca 1934

Thanks to the generous donations by individual LBRA members for boat purchases, most notably the contributions of 1952 Olympian Boris Beljak, competitive LBRA masters enjoy access to top of the line equipment.

USC used part of the Olympic boathouse for a year before moving to the Los Angeles Harbor, so it wasn’t until 1956 when the United States Olympic Rowing Team trained in the stadium that Long Beach State College (now CSULB) and the reborn LBRA began to ply the waters of the Marine Stadium once again.

In the early 1960's the National Women's Rowing Association was formed.

In 1967, then club member and CSULB crew coach Bill Lockyer founded the long-standing Christmas Regatta, a late-season sprint regatta which carries his name and his legacy forward to this day.

The City of Long Beach modernized the Marine Stadium for the 1968 Olympic Rowing and Canoeing Trials, and the current boathouse was constructed near the 800 meter mark of the course.

In 1969, John Van Blom and Tom McKibbon teamed up to win the double sculls at the European Championships in Klagenfurt, Austria, to become world champions.

In 1970, Tom McKibbon began to coach women at LBRA, which significantly impacted the course of United States women’s sculling.

In 1971, Karen and Joan won LBRA’s first women’s championship medal when they won silver in the double sculls at the National Women’s Rowing Championships in Old Lyme, Connecticut.

At the 1972 National Women’s Rowing Championships in Seattle, LBRA women began their national domination in sculling by winning all the sculling events.

In 1973, Joan Lind qualified to represent the United States in the single sculls on the first full United States national women’s rowing team to compete in the European Championships, held in Moscow that year.

In 1976 a total of fourteen U. S. Olympic rowers (male and female) came from LBRA.

Mercer Lake was originally created in the early 1980’s.

Finally, in 1982, the NAAO and the National Women's Rowing Association joined together to become the co-ed United States Rowing Association.

In 1984, the Olympics returned to Los Angeles, fifty two years after Los Angeles hosted the Olympics for the first time.

LBRA had been in existence since 1988, and the members had spent their own money to buy boats and equipment.

Chris Klemek, then a student at UAHS, started Crew as a co-ed club sport at the high school level in the spring of 1993 with 25 rowers and a used boat.

At the close of the 1995 spring racing season, Upper Arlington High School (UAHS) gave out its first "Crew" varsity letters.

In 1998, the schools moved into the boathouse.

In 2000 the Princeton International Regatta Association (PIRA) was formed.

After four years of design, negotiations, securing coastal and building permits, and continuous fundraising, construction finally began in 2001.

In 2002 PIRA built on this success by hosting The Princeton International Invitational Regatta, another major international event.

Many members faced a dilemma in 2003 as to whether to close the doors of Lake Brantley Rowing Association and whether the efforts made by so many during the preceding fifteen years would be wasted.

The land was purchased in August of 2004 for $430,000, with the expectation that a boathouse would cost approximately $275,000.

In 2005 PIRA was renamed the Princeton National Rowing Association (PNRA) to reflect the greater mission of the organization to promote rowing at all levels.