PAMELA LEBLANC: FIT CITY

History of rowing in Austin dates back more than 100 years

International regattas of 1890s drew world's top rowers

Those long skinny boats that slice through the cool green waters of Lady Bird Lake? Turns out they've got a history in Austin that dates back further than the Driskill Hotel or the completion of the current Capitol.

Rowing in Austin got an official start in 1884, when the Austin Athletic Association sponsored a race between two four-person boats. They weren't modern shells — they didn't have moveable seats — but the rowers surged between the Congress Avenue bridge and the nearby railroad bridge in a sprint that hinted at things to come.

Then came three international regattas in the 1890s, which drew thousands of spectators to Austin to watch the world's top oarsmen race on the smooth waters just west of downtown.

Today, rowers congregate in Austin year-round. We've got balmy weather and 6 miles of smooth, motor boat-free waters in Lady Bird Lake. Five rowing clubs call the city home. It's not just Texans dipping their oars in the dammed-up stretch of the Colorado River between the Tom Miller and Longhorn dams, either. College and club crews come from Michigan, Wisconsin, Nebraska and other snowy climes to row here during the winter. Rowersalmanac.com calls Austin "arguably the perfect spot to row" and in 2003, Rowing News magazine touted Austin as one of "North America's 10 Best Places to Row."

But it wasn't nonstop, smooth rowing from the late 1800s to now. We got to this point with a long interruption.

Austin rower Virginia Hoffman is digging into the history of rowing in Austin, uncovering a colorful past that many folks thought didn't exist until a few decades ago. Hoffman, a retired computer software programmer who signed up for her first sculling class in 2000, found herself pondering an old photograph hanging on the wall at the Austin Rowing Club as she sweated away on a rowing machine.

Intrigued by the image of a dozen men wearing tank tops and broad mustaches, perched in wooden shells, she headed to the Austin History Center and other museums and libraries. In the past five months, she's logged about 20 hours a week sifting through old publications and reels of microfilm, tracking down the local history of a sport more commonly associated with Boston. She's considering writing a book, but even if that doesn't happen, she wants to record the history of the Austin Rowing Club.

"Clubs in the northeast have kept their history; they know their history. We've not done that," says Hoffman, 52.

What Hoffman has uncovered reveals a time when Austin residents flocked to the river in droves to get, in many cases, their first glimpse of professional rowing.

That first regatta in 1893 celebrated the completion of the Great Granite Dam near the site of modern-day Tom Miller Dam, which created a lake on the west side of the city called Lake McDonald (now Lake Austin).

John Crotty, a former rower living in Austin who had a knack for organizing citywide events, saw the dam as an opportunity to introduce his hometown to a sport wildly popular along the eastern seaboard.

"He realized he could have an incredible rowing venue on Lake McDonald," Hoffman says. He also saw a regatta as a way to advertise the city's economic health and attract growth. "It took someone with a real knowledge of rowing and real moxie to pull it off."

Crotty knew that big-name rowers would bring big-time crowds. He managed to lure the biggest name of all: Ned Hanlan of Toronto, who held the world champion singles title from 1880 to 1884. He also lined up other top rowers, including James Ten Eyck, Jake Gaudaur and the famous Modoc crew from St. Louis. He signed athletes from as far away as Canada, Australia and England.

Newspapers advertised the regatta as a carnival-type event that included rowing and at least one swimming race. Businesses and schools closed so people could attend, and spectators traveled from across the state by excursion train. They packed shoreline grandstands and clambered aboard a triple-decker steamboat named Ben Hur that chugged alongside the rowers (all male) as they raced to a marker, turned around, and raced back.

Crowds swelled to up to 10,000 people for some of the races, and fans reportedly included Gov. James Hogg. Spectators trained their field glasses on the crews, which wore colored caps as they sped along, chasing top prizes of up to $1,500.

The race course, with its protected waters, was one of the fastest in the world. Athletes set a world record here in 1894, and two more in 1895.

Despite the initial success of the international races, interest in rowing seems to have faded after 1895.

In 1899, Crotty and another Austin leader, Charles Newning, founded the Austin Rowing Club. Andrew Zilker (for whom Zilker Park is named) and Will and Ed Paggi (the family homestead is now the Paggi House restaurant) also had a hand in creating the club.

The heyday was short-lived, though.

In 1900, the once Great Granite Dam broke, flooding downtown Austin, destroying homes and killing 47 people. Records show the river crested at 60 feet and spread a mile wide. The mighty Ben Hur, the steamboat that had carried spectators during the regattas, was destroyed. Rowing essentially died.

It wasn't until 1981, when Sam Martin, Allen Beinke and Eric Stenning revived the old Austin Rowing Club, that the rowing scene came back to life in Austin.

Today, the nonprofit club counts between 300 and 400 members and hosts regattas in the spring and fall. Two other public rowing facilities — the Rowing Dock and the Texas Rowing Center — offer lessons. The University of Texas landed Olympic medalist Carie Graves to coach its women's varsity rowing program. The university also has a club program open to male and female students.

Rowing now is as much a part of Austin as music and barbecue.