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The Boys in the Boat summary

Name: The Boys in the Boat
Rating: 4.2 (21 reviews)
Author: Daniel James Brown

Daniel James Brown

An Epic Journey to the Heart of Hitler’s Berlin

4.2 (21 ratings)

21 mins

Brief summary

'The Boys in the Boat' by Daniel James Brown tells the true story of the University of Washington's rowing team and their quest for gold at the 1936 Olympics. It is a compelling and inspiring tale of resilience, determination, and the power of teamwork.

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Table of Contents

The Boys in the Boat
Summary of 11 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 11

What’s in it for me? Follow a few young men in a boat as they beat Nazi Germany.

From antiquity to the present day, politics have always played their part in the Olympic Games. But rarely have there been games so fraught with political propaganda as the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

As if to spur on the Nazis’ hubris, German oarsmen won five gold medals and one silver in six races. However, in sport, everything can change and the grand finale – the seventh race – was yet to come.

The story you’ll find in these gripping blinks climaxes in Germany, but it starts on the other side of the pond.

You’ll learn about the struggles of eight working-class kids fighting their way to college, to the Olympic team and, finally, to the winner’s podium.

On our way from Seattle to Berlin, you’ll also find out

about a lucky Stetson and the man attached to it;
about something called “the swing” and the difficulties and blisses of finding it; and
how a few hearty meals and some germs almost changed the course of a legendary race.

In 1933, many young men competed for spots on the University of Washington rowing crew, but few made it.

In 1933, the United States was right in the middle of the Great Depression. Back then, ten million people – a quarter of the population – were unemployed and roughly two million were homeless.

People could barely afford to spend money on food, let alone their educations. But the University of Washington offered part-time campus jobs to anyone who made the rowing team, so would-be rowers were even more motivated to try out.

The competition was high. On Monday, 9 October 1933, 175 young men showed up to try out for the freshmen team and go through the series of grueling tests designed by the coaches. The head coach was Al Ulbrickson, a no-nonsense man with two national championships to his name. The freshmen coach, Tom Bolles, was dubbed “the professor” by the sports media. He was pursuing his masters degree, and he wore a beat-up Stetson hat for good luck.

The candidates spent the next few weeks discovering the physical demands of competitive rowing. Their muscles, bones and lungs were pushed to their limits – all under the unpredictable conditions of the Seattle weather.

By 30 October, the number of candidates had dropped from 175 to 80.

Two of these candidates were Joe Rantz and Roger Morris, who both studied engineering. Many of the candidates were city boys, but Rantz grew up in a rural area and had built up his strength working with heavy equipment.

Morris, on the other hand, was one of the only candidates with prior rowing experience. When he was 12, he’d rowed 15 miles from his family’s summer home on Bainbridge Island all the way to Seattle.

Joe Rantz had a difficult childhood but kept his spirits up and did well in the end.

Joe Rantz was born in 1914 in the logging town of Spokane, Washington. His father Harry ran an automobile repair shop. Joe’s only brother, Fred, was 15 years older.

When he was four years old, Joe's mother died of throat cancer, which, unfortunately, was but the first of many setbacks. After his mother died, his father left for Canada and young Joe bounced back and forth between living with his aunt and living with his brother.

The eight rowers have to work together as a unit, so it’s challenging to put together the perfect team.

You can’t master the art of rowing overnight, as University of Washington rowing candidates would soon find out.

Perfect rowing technique comes down to getting the right swing, when the rowers are all in harmony with each other. The candidates for the freshmen team were competing for spots on a boat that would include eight rowers and one coxswain, the person who sits at the back of the boat and shouts orders to the person in the bow, the rower at the front who sets the pace.

George Pocock and his boats had a huge influence on rowing.

A good team also needs a good boat and George Pocock made the best. The legendary story of Pocock starts in England and ends in Washington.

Rowing’s legacy is closely connected with London’s River Thames, where the Pocock family first began building their boats. George’s grandfather, uncle and father were all in on the family business, and his father specialized in building racing shells for Eton College.

The freshman competitions set the bar for the University of Washington team.

The University of Washington rowing team’s strenuous preparation all came down to two races: the Pacific Coast Regatta that takes place every April, and the Poughkeepsie Regatta, the national championship in June.

There was a lot on the line from the very beginning. Tom Bolles, the freshmen coach, hadn’t lost a Pacific Coast Regatta in six years on the job. And the team’s biggest rival, the University of California at Berkeley, coached by Kyle Bright, had won an Olympic victory in 1932.

The team’s sophomore year started out with Olympic dreams but uneasy team dynamics.

After their unprecedented victories in the Pacific Coast and Poughkeepsie Regattas, the University of Washington freshman team was singled out by the press as bound for the 1936 Berlin Olympics. But nothing was guaranteed.

The following year when the teammates were sophomores, Ulbrickson gathered them in the boathouse and told them that getting to the Olympics was now officially their goal. They cheered when they heard the news.

Despite the early winning streak, it was still unclear if they could send a boat to the Olympics.

The sophomores prevailed at the Pacific Coast Regatta but it was the junior varsity team that left the biggest impression on everyone. With the Poughkeepsie Regatta right around the corner, Coach Ulbrickson was still unhappy with the sophomores’ unreliable results.

The sophomore team’s fate rested on their training for the upcoming Poughkeepsie race. Their delight at their win in California didn’t last long: as soon as the teams started training for the next race, it was clear the junior varsity boat was stronger.

While the team trained, Hitler was preparing for a grandiose Berlin Olympics.

The United States was still unsure of what to make of Adolph Hitler and the Nazi party in the lead up to the Berlin Olympics of 1936. However, the country was still recovering from the Great Depression and the losses of World War One, so most Americans wanted to stay out of another foreign war.

But there was still a lot of opposition to Nazism and many called for a boycott of the Olympic Games. On 8 December 1935, the Amateur Athletic Union voted on whether or not they should boycott the games, but the union decided by a slim margin that they would compete.

Ulbrickson mixed up the oarsmen and eventually found the perfect team.

In January 1936, Al Ulbrickson gathered his teams and told them that anyone hoping to get to the varsity boat that year would have to face a grueling training season.

Ulbrickson was prepared to shake things up. The only thing he was certain of was that Bobby Moch would be the coxswain, steering the others. Bobby was a year ahead of Joe, Roger and Shorty and was widely considered one of the most talented people on the team.

The final US races tested the team’s drive, but their victory at Princeton secured the Olympic route.

After Joe was finally added to the team, the newly christened Husky Clipper varsity boat set out on the water.

The year started off well for the boys: the team aced both the Pacific Coast and the Poughkeepsie Regattas.

The Berlin Olympic race was the most difficult challenge the team had ever faced.

After making the journey on the ocean liner the SS Manhattan, the boys finally arrived in Berlin on 23 July 1936.

Trouble started as soon as they got there. Everyone except Bobby Moch had gained weight on the trip over, thanks to the on-board buffet. Even worse, Don Hume contracted a respiratory infection. He could hardly get out of bed, let alone practice.

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What is The Boys in the Boat about?

The Boys in the Boat (2013) tells the story of how a group of unassuming college boys from the University of Washington went from struggling through the Great Depression to securing a victory in the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

Best quote from The Boys in the Boat

Like so much in life, crew was partly about confidence, partly about knowing your own heart.

—Daniel James Brown

Who should read The Boys in the Boat?

Rowers and other athletes
Anyone interested in history, World War Two or the Olympics
Readers who like an underdog story

About the Author

Daniel James Brown is an award-winning historical narrative non-fiction writer. He’s also the author of Under the Flaming Sky: The Great Hinckley Firestorm of 1894 and The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of a Donner Party Bride.

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