THE SPORT OF ROWING professional rowing and sculling was the most popular spectator sport in America. Even after betting and race-fixing scandals, including those which involved Hanlan and Charles Courtney,1133 the sport continued to have a huge following in the United States. By the 1880s and ‘90s, the athletes who had raced in Philadelphia in 1876 were long past their primes, but they continued to trade on their considerable fame and made their livings by traveling from regatta to regatta, much the way professional golfers or tennis players or skiers or track and field athletes do today. Serious and spirited competition was mixed with equal parts of showmanship and media hype, and all was breathlessly covered by local and national newspapers alike. For example, in 1893, the city of Austin, Texas, about as far out of the way as one could get in the vastness of the United States interior back then, celebrated the completion of a dam which created a lake adjacent to its new downtown state capital by holding its first-annual Grand International Regatta. The city fathers assembled an impressive field of professional single scullers. Long Jake Gaudaur, “said to be descended from the staunch Indian warriors of the St. Lawrence in Canada,” then the U.S. Champion and a future World Champion, won the final and lowered the world record for three miles by twenty-five seconds in the process. Henry Peterson, “Silent Pete,” the Pacific Slope Champion, came in second with Jim Stanbury, the reigning World Champion “and Australia’s pride,” in third and Canadian Ned Hanlan, the most famous past World Champion, fourth.1134 1133 See Chapter 11. 1134 Quotes from Austin Daily Post, June 8, 1893 Also present in Austin at the regattas between 1893 and 1895 were an assortment of well-known rowing personalities who must have added enormous color to the events. Among others, there were Jim Ten Eyck “with his cheery smile and general good nature, Geo[rge] Lee, with his paunch that unfitted him for fast work, but added to his unceasing joviality and kindness, ‘George Fox’ [Fred] Plaisted, an ex- champion and a full-fledged clown, Harry Parker,1135 the herculean oarsman of St. Louis, who, being slightly out of condition, contented himself by pushing the others in fast, James Rice of Toronto, who came and saw but did not conquer.”1136 Historian Virginia Hoffman: “The Austin Daily Statesmen carried a column titled ‘The Regatta’ almost every week for months, perhaps a whole year prior to the 1893 Regatta. “Regatta coverage described a swimming race, a tub race and a consolation professional singles race for those who had not won prizes in any prior races – the oarsmen were John Teemer, Jim Ten Eyck, and a Mr. Rogers. It ended with Ten Eyck getting $100 (1st) and Teemer $50 (2nd).”1137 Austin Daily Statesman: “The sixth event on the program was an exhibition by Edward Hanlan and George Lee walking the water,1138 which amused the crowd that was only too glad to look at something laughable after having had their nerves such a strain for so long a time.”1139 1135 no relation to the Harvard coach of a century later 1136 Texas Industrial Review, October 1895, Austin, p. 61 1137 Hoffman, personal correspondence, 2007 1138 According to a news account from earlier in the week, the two had appeared each evening of the regatta wearing “tin shoes,” which must have allowed them to literally walk on water. Austin Daily Statesman, June 9, 1893. 1139 Austin Daily Statesman, June 11, 1893 300
