The USA women’s eight racing at the 1976 Olympic Games in
Montreal, Canada. Current FISA Vice-President Anita L. De Frantz
is sitting in two seat.
The actions of the Red Rose Crew are seen
by Boyne as one of many stepping stones that
helped women become increasingly included
in competitive rowing. “The Red Rose Crew was
just one group of women who inspired others
to row,” says Boyne. “There are many others
whose stories are equally important. Women
like Ernestine Bayer, for example, who were
also pioneers. I am glad that the book is still out
there, letting younger women know what things
were like not too long ago, because things have
changed radically.”
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De Angelis saw nothing unconventional in what
she was doing. Both her mother and grandmother
had rowed. “It wasn’t unconventional because it
was one of the social things “young ladies” did
in San Diego. What was unconventional about
me was that I really liked the rowing part much
more than the social part at that time.”
FISA council representative, Tricia Smith raced for
Canada at the 1976 Olympics. Smith remembers
being at the “low end of the totem pole” in her
rowing club, but says she was oblivious to any
discrimination from being a female. “Maybe I was
just new and naïve,” says Smith. “We just worked
hard and when the national team concept
started it was designed so that there were good
opportunities to make the team, I would say the
same as for the men.”
The lack of knowledge and lack of exposure to
seeing the sport is the reason De Angelis says
that rowing had barely developed amongst
women. Having role models in her mother
and grandmother as well as other women
rowers at De Angelis’s club, ZLAC (America’s
oldest women’s rowing club), made it easy for
De Angelis to feel comfortable and, she says,
she never felt like she was doing something
unconventional.
Canada’s Betty Craig (b) and Tricia Smith (s) compete in the women’s
pair at the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games.
De Angelis was in Nottingham for the 1975
World Rowing Championships as a spare for
the United States team. De Angelis’s club coach,
Tom McKibbon was there as the US women’s
sculling coach. McKibbon found red roses and
decided to get them for the whole US women’s
team. De Angelis, being the spare, had the time
to help out. On finals day De Angelis helped
McKibbon place the flowers in the women’s
eight. The Red Rose Crew was born.
© Photo/COC/The Canadian Press
Debby De Angelis, FISA commission member,
started rowing on the west coast of the United
States in 1963. She looks back on women’s rowing
at that time with a very different view than how
she felt at the time. “Now my impression is that
we were pioneers. Then, I don’t think I really had
any impression beyond most women who rowed
were my friends and we all knew each other.”
