It's been a summer of glory for former Rutgers' sports stars. Carli Lloyd stole show in the women's World Cup soccer final. Todd Frazier of the Cincinnati Reds won the home run derby at the All-Star Game.

But there is another incredible Rutgers alum accomplishment on the horizon you won't hear much about. If all goes right, a former Rutgers rower will coach his team to its 10th consecutive world championship later this month in France.

Tom Terhaar (Class of '91), head coach of the U.S. women's national rowing team, was a member of the now-extinct Rutgers men's lightweight crew.

It no longer exists because former athletic director

Bob Mulcahy killed it 2006, when he took away the varsity status of several sports to free up more money and scholarships for football.

Those sports, alternately called "non-revenue" or "Olympic" sports, included men's lightweight and heavyweight crew, men's swimming and diving, fencing and tennis. Women's crew and swimming and diving remained to keep Rutgers in Title IX compliance. Title IX says there must be an equal number of athletic scholarships and participation opportunities for women and men.

Men's heavyweight crew didn't die. It survived as a club, fully supported by alumni -- from the coaching salaries to the boats and oars, and the truck that pulls them to regattas. Some of the money comes from a $3.5 million crew alumni endowment, and the alumni contribute another $100,000 annually to cover operating costs.

The team still rows hard but, without varsity status, is no longer eligible to compete in the national college championships.

"That makes it hard for us to attract really good high school rowers," said Steve Wagner, the head coach since 1987.

It wasn't that way when Terhaar was rowing for Rutgers Back then, Rutgers was a Top 10 program, year in and year out. Terhaar took that experience and made his women's crew one of the most dominant teams in sports. His women's eight has won nine successive world championships, including gold medals in the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics.

Terhaar's success is part of Rutgers' rich crew legacy on the national scene. Men's rowing was not only the oldest sport at the schools, but the most decorated.

Rutgers men started rowing on the Raritan in 1864 -- the year Abraham Lincoln put Ulysses S. Grant in charge of the Union army -- and they were formidable right up until they were devalued by Rutgers.

Over the years, Rutgers' men won Olympic gold medals and world championships. On many occasions, they beat the Princetons, Dartmouths and Cornells of the rowing world, which is a little like Rutgers football beating Ohio State. They even beat the famed Leander Club of England, which is a little like Rutgers football beating the New England Patriots.

Then came 2006.

"It was disgraceful then and it is disgraceful now," said state Assemblyman Patrick Diegnan (D-Middlesex).

Diegnan is one of the state legislators who want the Rutgers men's crew restored to varsity status - now. Not in 2020 when Rutgers gets its first full share of Big 10 revenue, as the university has suggested. But now.

"The (crew) alumni have shown great fortitude and tenacity in keeping their program alive," said state Sen. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Union). "They've done an extraordinary job keeping their legacy alive. The university has to partner with them now before that legacy slips away."

Kean knows about that legacy first hand. He was one of the Dartmouth who "got our clocks cleaned" by Rutgers in 1990. Princeton was also left in Rutgers' wake in that race. Three members of that Rutgers eight-man crew would go on to make the national team and win a world championship team.

Diegnan and Kean said there's an "urgency" to getting the program restored so Rutgers can compete again at that level.

Terhaar agrees. "The farther we fall away from our success, the harder it is to build back up," he said.

Tom Luicci, a spokesman for the athletic department, said crew might again get varsity status in the future, but not "any time soon."

Crew alumni have been told the issue is money, and that a $20 million endowment would be needed to cover the costs of a varsity level team, because of medical and insurance expenses.

Thomas McKay III, disputed that number in a letter to Rutgers athletic director Julie Hermann and said there are no Title IX issues with men's crew because the women's team has equal numbers.

The team is also not asking for scholarship money for men, and says it will fund more scholarships for women rowers.

"(The men) never had any, anyway," Wagner said. "If we gave scholarships, they didn't amount to much. Maybe a few hundred bucks. We don't need scholarships to be competitive nationally."

Wagner said his team was always "built on walk-ons and kids who never rowed before. We've always had good, tough kids. All they want is a chance to earn a varsity letter and compete for a national championship."

That's what the legislators want, too. Kean and state Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Union) co-sponsored a bill that was approved to send $25 million in economic growth grants and tax credits toward the improvement of Rutgers facilities. Diegnan said he would sponsor a companion bill in the Assembly as his "top priority."

What they want in return is to have Rutgers crew restored, quickly, and let it again become the flagship sport that turned out 17 Olympians in the decade or so before it was dismantled.

"All Rutgers sports should be brought up to Big 10 levels," Lesniak said. "And the crew team should be restored to national prominence."

In the interest of full disclosure, I have covered this issue since Mulcahy's decision. I rowed briefly at Rutgers in 1979 and now have a son who is entering his fourth year on the team. So I know first-hand, calluses and all, the work these athletes put in.

"It's a sport that develops tremendous character," Kean said. "It's about discipline and teamwork. It's all the things college sports should be."

Mark Di Ionno may be reached at mdiionno@starledger.com. Follow The Star-Ledger on Twitter @StarLedger and find us on Facebook.