This month, Yale Athletics is honoring some of the Trailblazers for our women's teams. Betsy Sullivan '74 was the first varsity captain of the women's crew program in 1973-74 and was kind enough to share her memories of the early days.
 
I became a founding member of Yale Women's Crew in 1972 when I was recruited one fall day on Old Campus by Wyn Kelley '73 (the first women's crew captain; I was the first varsity captain) and Joe Ristuccia '72 (the first coach), who were standing by a shell looking for promising physical specimens. I guess I qualified – I was running two miles a day at Payne Whitney to shed the Durfee shake-and-fries poundage and was an expert canoeist. Did that count? Apparently so.
 
That first year, we trained on borrowed equipment from Yale's intracollegiate rowing program at the Lagoon (near the Yale Bowl), a nice early-morning's run from campus (and run back). I excelled at the running part. We were a somewhat ragtag group and not always enough to fill an eight. As long as it was an even number of rowers, that worked, but one memorable morning, there were only five of us, and Nat Case, '70, Joe's pal and the assistant coach, later the longtime head women's coach, had to row with us to even out the shell numbers. His dog Woody didn't like being left behind. Practice ended with a dog-over-shell rescue.
 
But we were there on Oct. 22, 1972, in Cambridge for the first Head of the Charles to race women's eights – finishing 12^th of 12 crews (Radcliffe finished 11^th.) The next spring, we faced Radcliffe again, this time in our own shell -- the Joel Ristuccia '72, donated by his mother; another loss, but progress.
 
From photographs, I have reconstructed what I think was the boating of that first Yale women's eight to compete at the Head of the Charles, although this is unconfirmed: (Bow) Chris Bird '75; (2) Molly McNickle '75; (3) Jane Beach '73; (4) Pam Kohlberg '75; (5) Jean Hopkins '75; (6) Janet Klauber '73; (7) Betsy Sullivan '74; (Stroke) Wyn Kelley '73 (Captain); (Cox) Timi Handelman '76.
  The next year, Wyn had graduated, Joe had moved onto graduate school in Boston, Nat was head coach (paid a stipend of $2,500), and I was captain – and suddenly things were in high gear. We had some big, athletic rowers and my scrawny self was banished to bow. We were now training fall and spring at Derby with Yale's other crews – though it would take the wonderful Chris Ernst, '76, the fourth captain of the team, to organize the protest that resulted in a heated trailer with showers so women rowers didn't have to risk illness shivering in wet trou on the long bus ride back to campus.
 
And Nat put us on a tough training regimen, running stadium steps, ergs and more ergs, lifting weights, racing the heavyweight men at Derby, all of which meant we were probably the toughest, most conditioned women's crew in the country at that time. Unfortunately, the rowing distance was only 1,000 meters, which did not favor us, and our attempts to get that fixed had to wait for a future year, but still, we were winning, consistently. Except against Radcliffe, our nemesis.
 
At our peak performance and conditioning, we handily won our final regatta, which Radcliffe didn't enter, the National Women's Rowing Association Mid-Atlantic Regionals on the Schuykill, beating by open water (nearly one and a half boat lengths) the nearest finisher, Vesper Boat Club. (Vesper went on to beat Radcliffe at the nationals in Oakland that year, which we didn't have resources to enter). But … it was the start of something marvelous, something lifelong, something elevating for so many of the women who have rowed for Yale -- attested to not just by trophies but by the close-knit group of Yale women rowers from that era and following years who still gather for races and reunions.
 
Until my work took me to Cleveland, I was able to row for fun while in graduate school, and go to races after that, becoming, for a time, one of the early women rowing officials. (Cleveland didn't have rowing then, so I took up white-water kayaking, instead.)
 
What was it like rowing for Yale? With an elite team like ours, it was unlike any high you can imagine, as that shell lifts up and almost skims across the surface because of the unstoppable momentum, the power and unity of the women rowing her.
 
Betsy Sullivan, '74 JE, '76 MA, now directs the editorial board for Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, where she's worked for 41 years, including as the paper's foreign correspondent in the 1990s, covering the Balkan wars and other hot spots – and circling the world twice, in opposite directions.