The Rutgers crew team will be celebrating its 150 year history this year

Men's crew is Rutgers' oldest sport, dating back 152 years, and one of its most successful, as well.

(Andrew Malok/The Star-Ledger)

By Joe Rivera

I've seen a lot of things during my time at Rutgers. Some were crazy, like the guy perched on the roof of a moving car on College Avenue shouting, "I'm wasted!"

Some were beautiful, like watching the crew team practice on the Raritan River in the early morning hours just as the sun conducts the opening stanzas of the day. In the quiet on the gray water, the Rutgers rowing teams inched around the north bend of the river, gliding along with a delicate ease.

There's a romance to rowing. On the surface, it seems eerily calm. Yet, behind every precise movement, every burst of power from the rowers, there's a controlled chaos, a science that almost 100 Rutgers students, men and women, have mastered.

The elegance of the sport is a sight to behold, but beneath the surface there's a cruel joke that needlessly continues at Rutgers. This historic program -- which is the oldest sport on campus and has produced some of the best rowers and coaches this nation has ever seen -- continues to be disregarded and yes, disrespected, by the university.

Many Rutgers students, blinded by the churning storm of Big 10 basketball and football, aren't even aware of the 152-year illustrious history of men's rowing at Rutgers. Between 1992 and 2008, the program produced 17 Olympians, including six rowers sent to Sydney in 2000.

But in 2008, men's crew was relegated to club status as Rutgers chased its football power dream. The crew alumni has been trying to get varsity status restored -- and put up the money to do so -- but it seems university officials have forgotten the early traditions of all-amateur, non-revenue collegiate athletics, which this "old Eastern" school helped build.

As a student, I understand the importance of revenue sports to a school's growth and prestige. However, let's follow the money.

Crew alumni have documented it would cost just $120,000 to restore the program. The men's program is almost completely supported by alumni now, and this proud group says it will dig a little deeper to cover the cost of Div. I restoration.

The men's program is not asking for scholarships, so there would be no Title IX impact. In fact, men's crew supported the women's team financially for decades and is now asking for an expansion of the women's roster so it can be more competitive in the Big 10. By the way, three of the top Big 10 women's coaches are former Rutgers rowers.

They're not asking for a rigger (the assistant coaches handle that responsibility) or trainers. Uniform costs and travel expenses (the alumni buy the trucks and trailers) are minimal. All of their competition is within driving distance. Most don't require overnight stays. The crew team travels light; no student managers, no band, no dance team. Just a bunch of guys who row and pack their oars, equipment and racing shells themselves.

In a letter shared with the alumni, the university's athletic department countered that the cost to restore crew would be $40 million. This is absurd. Their estimate to build the new basketball practice facility is $70 million. How could restoring this working club program to varsity status that is asking for no scholarships, already owns their minimal equipment and uses a river to train cost more than half the price of a newly constructed building?

Now there is talk of spending another few (or tens) of millions to re-do the football program's Hale Center. It was supposed to be done when High Point Solutions Stadium got a $102 million renovation but the athletic department ran out of money.

In the last four years of its varsity status, Rutgers men's crew beat current Big 10 champ Wisconsin three times. It used to regularly beat some of the best programs in the nation, because it consistently ranked among the elite programs in the nation. Sadly, that is changing, and the men's team can no longer compete with Princeton, Harvard and Columbia, the powers of collegiate rowing.

Rutgers crew was always a walk-on team. Its identity mirrors that of our state: blue-collar and hard-working. These young men hose and scrub muck and grime from the industrial river they row on. They show up at daybreak, when most of their classmates are still in bed. They compete not for scholarships or fame or fanfare. They do it for the love of the sport, and the pride of their university.

This is what college athletics used to be about. The Rutgers athletic department should honor this tradition. It will cost them virtually nothing to give a small nod to the age when college sports weren't about TV exposure, naming rights and branding.

To deny these young men a varsity letter over what amounts to a few crumbs from the department's banquet table is crazy and wasted. Just like the guy on the car.

Joe Rivera is a senior at Rutgers and former managing editor of a student-run publication on campus.

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