Rowing is the oldest intercollegiate sport in the United States. The first intercollegiate race was a contest between Yale and Harvard in 1852. In the 2018–19 school year, there were 2,340 male and 7,294 female collegiate rowers in Divisions I, II and III, according to the NCAA. The sport has grown since the first NCAA statistics were compiled for the 1981–82 school year, which reflected 2,053 male and 1,187 female collegiate rowers in the three divisions. Some concern has been raised that some recent female numbers are inflated by non-competing novices.
University rowing in the United Kingdom began when it was introduced to Oxford in the late 18th century. The first known race at a university took place at Oxford in 1815 between Brasenose and Jesus and the first inter-university boat race, between Oxford and Cambridge, was rowed on 10 June 1829.
Team Durham is a student-run organisation responsible for sport at Durham University. Durham University's sports programme, run by Team Durham, has produced more professional sports people than any other UK university and has twice seen Durham named Times and Sunday Times Sports University of the Year. It has ranked in the top three institutions in British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) every season since 2011–12. Eight Team Durham alumni or current athletes have won nine Olympic and Paralympic medals since 1996.
Durham University Boat Club (DUBC) is the rowing club of Durham University. In recent years, DUBC has cemented itself as one of the strongest university boat clubs in Great Britain. Under the leadership of former British Olympian Wade Hall-Craggs, DUBC notably won the BUCS Victor Ludorum for ten consecutive years (2004-2013), and has produced a number of athletes that have competed internationally at European and World Championship level.
University of Nottingham Boat Club (UoNBC) is the rowing club of the University of Nottingham based in the UK on the River Trent. Founded in 1892, the club has over 120 current active members, equally split between men’s, women’s and novice squads. The club is recognisable by its yellow blades and its green and yellow racing kit.
Newcastle University Boat Club (NUBC) is the rowing club of Newcastle University, UK. Established in March 1911 as the boat club for Armstrong College, it celebrated its centenary in 2011, when was also appointed High Performance Programme for heavyweight men and women by British Rowing. In the past 20 years current students and alumni won 60 international vests for GB.
University of London Boat Club is the rowing club for the University of London and its member institutions, many of which also have their own boat clubs. The club has its boathouse on the Thames in Chiswick, London, UK. It is a designated High-Performance Programme funded by British Rowing.
Queen Mary University of London Boat Club (QMULBC) is the rowing club of Queen Mary University of London. The club was founded in 1910.
Caryn Davies is an American rower. She is the winner of the 2023 Thomas Keller Medal, the most prestigious international award in the sport of rowing, and the only American to have ever won this award. She won gold medals as the stroke seat of the U.S. women's eight at the 2012 Summer Olympics and the 2008 Summer Olympics. In April 2015 Davies stroked Oxford University to victory in the first ever women's Oxford/Cambridge boat race held on the same stretch of the river Thames in London where the men's Oxford/Cambridge race has been held since 1829. She was the most highly decorated Olympian to take part in either [men's or women's] race. In 2012 Davies was ranked number 4 in the world by the International Rowing Federation. At the 2004 Olympic Games she won a silver medal in the women's eight. Davies has won more Olympic medals than any other U.S. oarswoman. The 2008 U.S. women's eight, of which she was a part, was named FISA crew of the year. Davies is from Ithaca, New York, where she graduated from Ithaca High School, and rowed with the Cascadilla Boat Club. Davies was on the Radcliffe College (Harvard) Crew Team and was a member on Radcliffe's 2003 NCAA champion Varsity 8, and overall team champion. In 2013, she was a visiting student at Pembroke College, Oxford, where she stroked the college men's eight to a victory in both Torpids and the Oxford University Summer Eights races. In 2013–14 Davies took up Polynesian outrigger canoeing in Hawaii, winning the State novice championship and placing 4th in the long-distance race na-wahine-o-ke-kai with her team from the Outrigger Canoe Club. In 2013, she was inducted into the New York Athletic Club Hall of Fame and in 2022 into the Harvard University Athletics Hall of Fame.
York St. John University Boat Club (YSJBC) has a history beginning in 1852, eleven years after the founding of the institution where it is based. YSJ BC is notable for being the longest standing club of the university and has an affiliation to British Rowing.
Durham School Boat Club (DSBC) is a school club offering rowing to students, parents, friends and other local schools. Based at Durham School in the city of Durham, England.
University College London Boat Club (UCLBC) is a rowing club on the River Thames, based at Hartington Road, Chiswick.
The Swansea University Rowing Club (SURC) is the rowing club of Swansea University, Wales, and is situated on the west bank of the River Tawe in Swansea. It is unknown when the club was founded, but was re-founded in 2004. Rowing with SURC is open to all members of Sport Swansea, who provide a nominal level of funding and insurance for all university clubs.
Lancaster University Boat Club (LUBC) is the rowing club of Lancaster University. The club was founded in 1964 with the inception of the university by Sir Harold Parkinson and is the oldest sports club at the university. The club is based in the old Halton railway station and trains on a 3 km stretch of the River Lune, 3 miles north of Lancaster.
Southampton University Boat Club (SUBC) is the rowing club for students of Southampton University. The club has no definite founding date, and although the earliest evidence of the club to be found existed in 1904, it was not registered as a club with British Rowing until 1929. SUBC is a member of the University of Southampton's Student Union, has over 100 active members, and attracts over 80 new members at the start of every academic year. The boathouse is on the River Itchen, a tidal river in Southampton.
Cantabrigian Rowing Club, known as Cantabs, is a 'town' rowing and sculling club in Cambridge, UK.
The University of East Anglia Boat Club (UEABC) is the rowing club of the University of East Anglia in the UK. It currently has 60 members and rows year round from September to July.
The Oxford University Women's Lightweight Rowing Club was established in 1984 to represent the University of Oxford in the race against the Cambridge University Boat Club at the Lightweight Boat Races. Throughout the season, the Club races as Tethys Boat Club.
The University of St Andrews Boat Club (UStABC), founded in 1962, is the rowing team affiliated to the University of St Andrews. Operating under the University of St Andrews Athletic Union, the club competes in head races and regattas across Scotland and England, including the Head of the River Race (London), British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) Regatta and Henley Royal Regatta. Its national governing body is Scottish Rowing and the registration code of 'SAU'.
Reading University Boat Club is the rowing club for the University of Reading in the United Kingdom. It is based at a boat house in Christchurch Meadows on the River Thames in the Reading suburb of Caversham. The club has a focus on sculling. It has consistently been one of the more successful university rowing clubs in Britain, including topping the medal table at the BUCS regatta in 2011 and at the BUCS small boats head in 2014 and 2015, as well as wins at Henley Royal Regatta in 1986, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2013, and is considered one of the top six university rowing clubs in the UK. A number of former members have competed at the Olympics, including double gold-medallists James Cracknell and Helen Glover. The club has organised the Reading University Head of the River race since 1935.
