Ithaca College Crew

History

     The Ithaca College Men's Rowing team was formed during the administration of President Howard Dillingham in the fall of 1968. The first competition was on April 19, 1969, when the Bombers rowed against Buffalo, Buffalo State and Canisius. Two weeks later coach Gary Kilpatrick and team captain and stroke Tim McNell guided the Bombers to a victory over Manhattan, Canisius and Buffalo in the Metropolitan Championship in New York City.
        Brief coaching stints by Kilpatrick and Bill Cromwell were followed by the successfultenure of Bob Tallman. From 1972-79 he built the program into a small-college powerhouse. In the mid-1970's Ithaca's crews established themselves as medal winners at the annual Dad Vail Regatta in Philadelphia, recognized as the small-college national championship. In 1975 Ithaca's Heavyweights went 12-0 and finished third at the Dad Vail (behind Massachusetts and the Coast Guard). Two years later, led by Stew Leonard and Dave Pustell the Bombers repeated the bronze medal performance.
        Ward Romer joined the coaching staff in 1973 as an assistant and has remained a fixture with the Bomber crew since. He became Ithaca's fourth head coach after Tallman's retirement in 1979. Romer's arrival coincided with Ithaca's entrance into lightweight rowing. The Bomber's lightweights finished top 10 at the Dad Vails in each of their first 11 years.
        A women's varsity program was initiated in the spring of 1975. Competing under club status the Bombers went on to capture the 1976 Dad Vail varsity eight title the first year women's races were offered at the regatta. Jerry Dietz, a member of the bronze medal-winning men's heavyweight eight as an undergraduate, guided Ithaca to the crown in his first year as women's coach. The women continued to grow as a crew, going undefeated during the regular season in 1977 and 1978 against crews including Cornell and Syracuse. After winning their heat by 12 seconds in the Dad Vail Regatta, the women were forced to make a boat change for the finals which they lost to a crew that they had previously beaten in their qualifying heat. The women were then invited to the EAWRC Championships the same year, where they competed and qualified for the finals. However, the finals were then cancelled due to poor weather conditions. Although women's rowing grew nationally over the next few years, Ithaca claimed the Dad Vail championship again in 1979 under the watchful eyes of coach Julie Rife, the stroke of the 1976 crew, who took over the head women’s coach position in spring of that year.
        Peg Mallery who  rowed in Ithaca's top crew in 1981 and 1982 before transferring competed for the U.S. national team in the inaugural 1986 Goodwill Games and in the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea.
        In 1983 women's crew became a varsity sport at Ithaca College. After several inconsistent years, coach Jocelyn Kearing guided Ithaca's women's varsity to the first two of what is now 14 consecutive winning seasons. Included in that run were four New York State small-school titles. The state championship, first raced in 1990, now includes nearly 30 colleges and universities.
        A key performer in the emerging women's program was Becky Metz Robinson. After two letter-winning seasons with the Bombers, Robinson made the National team in 1991. A year later she was the final-day cut from the U.S. Olympic Team. She returned to help coach the Bombers and in 1995 became the first crew program representative to be inducted into the Ithaca College Athletic Hall of Fame.
        Another graduate, Dan Robinson, has been a consistent contributor to Ithaca Rowing. The current men's head coach, Robinson helped engineer the program's move from the Dad Vail Regatta, where the Bombers accumulated four varsity and 14 additional medals, to the CICR in 1993 (renamed the Avaya Regatta in 2001 and now permanently renamed the ECAC National Rowing Championship).
        The first NCAA-sponsored championship regatta for women was held in 1997. A women's four from Ithaca qualified for the all-division event and placed fourth in the petite final and 10th overall. Mary Obidinski '97, a member of that crew, now competes with the U.S. national team. In 2001 she won the women's lightweight double at Princeton's World Cup event. The Bombers returned to the NCAA championships in 1998, were the second-highest finishing Division II or III team at the 2001 championships and placed third at the 2002 event (the first championship exclusively for Division III teams) before placing third last Spring. In 2002, Tallman joined Becky Robinson in Ithaca's Athletic Hall of Fame.
        In 2004 the Women's Team was named Division III National Champions. The win came due to incredible performances from both the first and second varsity boats. For the first time in NCAA history a second varsity boat made the grand final. The Ithaca First Varsity boat took first place with a one tenth of a second win over Smith College in the Grand Final. With the two boats performing so well, Ithaca College was able to win the overall team trophy, and its first NCAA Championship in Women's Rowing.