LAKE LANIER OLYMPIC LEGACY CONTINUES

Gold! It was a cry first heard in North Georgia in the 1800’s. It was a cry heard again in the summer of 1996 as competitors in rowing, canoeing, and kayaking brought Olympic glory to a scenic lake not far from the hills in which prospectors first discovered gold. 

Building From Local Support. What became an Olympic success story began in the mind of Gainesville architect Jack Pyburn. A rower himself, he knew Lake Sidney Lanier would be an ideal location for the rowing venue. The idea gained momentum as Jim Mathis, a dedicated community leader, pitched in to work on building the community support network needed to make the dream into reality. 

Early in 1993, a steering committee of 45 community leaders was formed and became known as “Gainesville-Hall ’96,” an official Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games support group. This group of dedicated volunteers began a campaign of “polite persistence,” as Atlanta Olympics chief Billy Payne described it in his remarks at the groundbreaking ceremony in January 1995. 

Experience From Hosting Events. These community organizers knew that experience in handling and organizing major events would enhance their efforts. With this in mind, and with the help of the Atlanta Junior Rowing Club, Gainesville-Hall ’96 began to plan for the Southeast Regional Junior Rowing Regatta, scheduled for May 15, 1993. The City of Gainesville and the Gainesville Parks and Recreation Agency sponsored the event at Woods Mill Bay on Lake Lanier. Five hundred twenty seven rowers from four southeastern states participated, with more than 2,500 spectators attending. 

The coordination and success of this regatta attracted the attention of the German National Rowing Team, reigning world champions, who were seeking a training site to prepare for the 1994 World Championship in Indianapolis. Another step toward fulfilling the promise of Lake Lanier Venue was taken when the German team announced it would train on Lake Lanier in 1994. 

Olympic Bid Becomes Reality. “It’s Lanier,” The Times declared on December 23, 1993, when Jim Mathis received the historic telephone call announcing the Clark’s Bridge site on Lake Lanier as the rowing, canoeing, and kayaking venue for the 1996 Olympic Games. The concerted community effort has laid the groundwork for what is proving to be a strong sporting legacy well into the future. 

Our Legacy Continues. Besides the 1996 Olympic Games at the Clark’s Bridge venue, the resident Lake Lanier Rowing Club and Lanier Canoe-Kayak Club have hosted a number of important rowing and canoe and kayak events, including the 1997 Champion International Collegiate Rowing Regatta, the 1997 Canoe-Kayak Nationals, the 1998 NCAA Women ‘ s Rowing Championship, and the 1999 USRowing Masters Nationals — only to name a few! Recently, the venue was the site of the 2018 World Dragon Boat Championship, with crews from all over the world converging on Gainesville to compete. And, the end of May every year, the Lake Lanier Rowing Club and the Lake Lanier Olympic Park hosts ACRA, the American Collegiate Rowing Association national championship. Leading collegiate crews from all over the United States compete for number 1 over 3 days on the water. Manned entirely by volunteers, LLRC hosts more than 1,700 rowers from 75+ crews along with their boats and families. Finally, every winter/spring season as many as 1,000 rowers from colleges in colder climates spend their winter break training on on our Olympic rowing course and exercise in our boathouse. It is great to see all of the activity, rowers young and old, supported by the residents of Gainesville – a city that includes a drawing of rowers in a quad in the city logo! 

A final “gold” note: the finish line of the course is in view of the home of the late Bill Fields, one of the members of the 1952 US Rowing team that won the Olympic gold medal at the Helsinki, Finland Games. From start to finish, a true path of gold!

LLRC Honorary Members

(Click each name or scroll to learn more)

LLRC BOAT NAME AFFILIATIONS

JOHN FERRISS – 6/10/2017 HONORARY MEMBER & 7/18/2015 HUDSON QUAD NAMED

CHUCK LOGG – 8/9/2010 HONORARY MEMBER & 7/18/2015 HUDSON DOUBLE NAMED OLYMPIC GOLD MEDAL WINNER MEN’S PAIR 1952 HELSINKI

Charles Paul Logg Jr. was born February 24, 1931 in Princeton. Chuck’s father was the crew coach at Princeton University. The family moved to New Brunswick after his father was named crew coach at Rutgers in 1937. He held that job for 22 years. The crew team trained on the Raritan River, and eventually so did Chuck, who began taking the sport seriously when he enrolled at Rutgers in 1949. Within three years, he developed into an elite-level rower under his father’s tutelage.

In the spring of 1952, Charlie and his Scarlet Knight teammate, Tom Price, shocked the rowing establishment by making the U.S. Olympic team. Charlie had not set foot in a pair-oared shell until three months before the Summer Games. Even more amazing, Price hadn’t started rowing at all until 1951.

In Helsinki, the pair finished dead last in their first heat and actually collided with another boat. However, they won their next race, which qualified them for the finals. They won the gold medal—the first and only U.S. victory in the coxless pair event—finishing three seconds ahead of the second-place Belgians.

Chuck and Tom were celebrated as The Cinderella Kids after their boat, which they named after the fairy tale character. They were feted with a motorcade upon their return to New Brunswick. Following graduation, Chuck went into the military. He and Price reunited for the 1955 Pan American Games and won gold again. They fell short of qualifying for the 1956 Olympics, however. In 1981, Chuck was named to the National Rowing Hall of Fame.

During the 1960s, Chuck worked as an executive in the helicopter industry. He got into commercial farming in Florida starting in the 1970s. In 2014, Chuck was the featured speaker at the 150th Anniversary celebration of the Rutgers rowing program.

Chuck retired to the Gainesville area and became a member of LLRC in 2007. He has been an inspiration to our juniors and masters.

COMMANDER DAVID MARKEY, USCG, (RET.) AND FAYE MARKEY 4/18/2009 HONORARY MEMBERS & QUAD NAMED

Dave graduated from the U. S. Coast Guard Academy in 1957, with a Bachelor of Science Degree and a commission in the Coast Guard. His 20 year active duty career included 6 ½ years of sea duty aboard 5 cutters (commanding officer of 3 of those). His shore assignments included command of a loran station as well as assignments in personnel management, recruiting and training. Starting in New London, CT, he was stationed in New Bedford, MA, Pascagoula, MS, New York City (twice), Attu Island, AK, Groton, CT (twice), Gulf of Thailand, RVN, Washington, DC, Key West, FL and finally Miami, FL. Dave is a Vietnam war veteran. During his final active duty tour as Director of the Coast Guard Auxiliary for Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, he met Faye (an Atlanta native and career Bellsouth manager).

After retirement, Faye and Dave were married at the Chapel at Holiday Marina on Lake Lanier in 1978. Both were very active with the Coast Guard Auxiliary for the next 24 years and resided at the lake in Flowery Branch. Both served on all 4 levels of the Auxiliary organization including appointment for Dave as National Commodore’s Administrative Officer and as National Conference Staff for Faye for 6 years.

When the announcement was made that Atlanta was to be the site for the 1996 Olympics, it was decision time. Should they go to Savannah with the Auxiliary for Olympic Sailing or stay at home for Olympic Rowing? That was easy. Starting that year, they began volunteering with their boat for local rowing regattas in Atlanta to learn the sport and meet the people. As the action shifted to Gainesville, they joined LLRC in 1995. When the Olympics finally began, they worked as boat drivers mostly on the media side of the venue for both the rowing and the canoe/kayak competitions. As those events drew to a close, they were asked to manage the power boat fleet for the Paralympic sailing competition. They were now hooked. In 1996, they became qualified as USRowing officials and continued working at numerous regattas until 2011. For many years, Dave assisted with the installation and maintenance of the course as well as writing bid proposals for future regattas. Both were very active volunteering for ‘Dinner On The Docks,’ serving on the Board, maintaining the power boat fleet (for nearly 20 years), recruiting, training and managing the boat drivers for both LLRC and LCKC events plus whatever else needed doing. As close friends to Richard and Tricia Bunzl, they were instrumental in facilitating the Bunzls’ donation to purchase the power boat fleet. They also purchased (temporarily) one of the skiffs that was on loan to the club while waiting for the Bunzl donation to arrive.

JACK PYBURN – HONORED 11/11/1997 AS PRESIDENT EMERITUS FOR LIFE, 5/15/2004 VESPOLI EIGHT NAMED FOR HIM, INSTRUMENTAL IN GETTING 1996 OLYMPIC ROWING EVENTS TO LAKE LANIER, CLUB FOUNDER

JAY AND LINDEN GASPAR 6/13/2013 HONORARY MEMBERS 2/1/1999 HUDSON DOUBLE NAMED

JOEL WISE – 10/13/2016 HONORARY MEMBER & 2/1/1999 HUDSON DOUBLE NAMED FOR HE & HIS WIFE KITTY

RICHARD C. AND PATRICIA H. BUNZL – 7/14/2007 HONORARY MEMBERS & QUAD NAMED

SARA NEVIN 10/13/2016 HONORARY MEMBER & 8/5/2001 VESPOLI EIGHT NAMED

First Coach and Executive Director – In June of 1996, LLRC hired Sara Nevin to be the Head Coach and Executive Director for the Club.  Sara guided the club’s move into the boathouse in the fall of 1996, and led it through its very important formative years. Sara was also an accomplished rower as well as coach. During her rowing career at University of Washington, Sara won three varsity eight national championships between 1983–85 and was undefeated in U.S. collegiate competition. She was a member of the U.S. national team in 1985 and 1986.

During her five years in Georgia, Sara coached all levels of rowers from beginners to U.S. national team members. Sara acted as Regatta Director for the NCAA Women’s Rowing Championships in 1998 and 2001, the 1999 Masters Nationals, and the 1997 Champion Regatta.

From 1990–96, Sara coached the varsity boys rowing team at the Mount Baker Rowing Club. There, Sara grew a program of 16 athletes to over 50 and won four USRowing Junior National Championships, including the school-boys’ eight in 1991 and 1993.

Sara coached members of the 1988 Olympic Team. Between 1989–92, Sara coached at the Seattle Training Center, coaching a group of elite and pre-elite rowers. Her stint culminated with all eight women earning spots on the 1992 Olympic team. Jack Pyburn recruited Sara to LLRC to implement the legacy vision.

After her time leading LLRC, Sara spent 10 years as Assistant Coach for the Cal Golden Bears, starting in 2001. At Cal, Sara led the varsity four through an undefeated season to win NCAA championships in 2011. Sara lead the Cal 2008 novice eight to capture the Pac-10 crown for the first time since 1989 and followed that victory with an undefeated title and an open-water win at the Pac-10 Championships: a college athletic conference on the West Coast. That year, Sara was also honored as the Collegiate Rowing Coaching Association’s (CRCA) Assistant Coach of the Year and the CRCA West Region’s Assistant Coach of the Year.

Sara became head coach for the Mills Cyclones in 2011, then started advising and part-time coaching East Bay Rowing Club of Oakland, CA in December 2013. She’s been instrumental in getting the EBRC Learn to Row programs running strong, sharing her love of rowing with those who’ve never seen the inside of a racing shell.

FRANK AND ANN MARIE HYNES – 7/18/2015 VESPOLI FOUR NAMED

HENRY AND CECILY KANNAPELL – 11/21/2015 VESPOLI EIGHT NAMED

JIM MATHIS JR. – 11/1/1999 VESPOLI FOUR NAMED

JUDGE SIDNEY O. SMITH, JR. – 2/1/2001 HUDSON QUAD NAMED

Sidney O. Smith Jr., one of Gainesville’s all-time outstanding citizens and who had rowed at Harvard, helped get the commitment of the Harvard and Yale crews for the Harvard/Yale/Oxford/Cambridge Head-to-Head Race held on the Lake Lanier Olympic course in 1995. It turns out that up to that time the four collegiate rowing powerhouses head never raced head to head in the sport’s history. Sid was one of the early club members, serving as a Board member at large.

Former U.S. District Judge Sidney O. Smith Jr. was a long-time and influential member of the Brenau University Board of Trustees.

Brenau President Ed Schrader described Smith as the “moral and intellectual compass” for the university and its leaders. Smith was so important to the evolution of Brenau as a doctoral degree-granting institution that trustees voted unanimously two years ago to name its graduate school for him.

Judge Smith was the fourth generation of his family to serve on the leadership board of the institution, and until his death, he remained an active member.  Smith or one of his ancestors was involved in every major development at the institution since its inception in 1878. He was the leader in the movement in the early 1990s to acquire full university status for Brenau and was instrumental in the university’s winning approval from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to become a doctoral degree-granting institution.

Sidney Oslin Smith Jr. was born and raised in Gainesville, Ga., where in 1878 his great-grandfather, Reconstruction-era Congressman William Pierce Price of Dahlonega, Ga., was a member of the founding board of what is now Brenau. Price’s son-in-law and Smith’s grandfather, William Arthur Charters, was on the board in 1911 when Brenau became a chartered institution of higher learning. In addition, Smith’s father, Sidney O. Smith Sr., the first licensed insurance agent in Georgia, and mother, Isabelle Price Charters Smith, served simultaneously on the Brenau board.

Following service in World War II, Smith graduated cum laude from Harvard, where he played on the football team with future U.S. Attorney General and U.S. Sen. Robert Kennedy. In 2008, Smith was in the audience when Kennedy’s daughter, Rory, presented a program of her award-winning documentary films in Brenau’s historic Pearce Auditorium. Afterward, Kennedy and Smith engaged in one of the judge’s favorite pastimes, swapping stories.

Smith graduated magna cum laude from the University of Georgia law school. After private law practice and service as a Georgia superior court judge, President Lyndon Johnson appointed him to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, where he served for nine years, including six years as chief judge.

His service to both public and private education began as chairman of the Gainesville Board of Education. In addition to Brenau board membership, which comprised a period as chairman of the board for the private, not-for-profit institution, Smith also served on the state Board of Regents, the governing body for Georgia’s public colleges and universities. Although he offered to step down from the Brenau board to remove possible conflict of interest questions, members of both bodies collectively dissuaded him.

Although Brenau historically is a women’s college, the trustees in the 1970s expanded its charter to offer coeducational programs in Gainesville and on other campuses. In the 1990s, Smith was instrumental in expanding graduate programs and winning approval for Brenau’s university status. Fittingly, moments after the Brenau board voted to name the graduate school after Smith, he made the motion, which the board also approved without dissent, for Brenau to launch its first doctoral degree program. The Doctor of Nursing Practice program seated its first candidates in 2011. The university’s strategic plan envisions enrollment increasing to about 5,000 students by 2025. Most of the growth will occur in graduate programs.

“Judge Smith was a classic southern gentleman and a scholar,” Schrader said. “The judge was perhaps the most thoughtful person I have ever known. He carried on his family’s legacy of leadership at Brenau with integrity, enthusiasm and energy. In many ways, he was our moral and intellectual compass. He will be missed and remembered, but he will never be replaced. It was indeed very rewarding that he was able to see the graduate school carry his name forward, passed on through many new generations of students.”

LOU AND JEAN FOCKELE – 2/1/2000 DOUBLE NAMED

THE TASTE OF GAINESVILLE – 6/18/2016 HUDSON QUAD NAMED