Offering a true tale of grit and glory, the 1936 University of Washington rowing crew that beat all odds to win gold at the Olympic Games in Berlin is back in the national spotlight with the anticipated "The Boys in the Boat" film premiering in cinemas on December 25. Based on the #1 New York Times bestselling book, " by Daniel James Brown, which focuses on crew member Joe Rantz, the story caught our attention years ago.
Before the 1936 University of Washington crew, the university's 1923 varsity rowing team became the first Western crew to win the IRA National Championship Regatta, in a time when the sport was dominated by the East Coast's elite Ivy League rowing teams. On the 1923 crew was Charles Dunn, the first president of Dunn Lumber retail. You can find more of his story here.
Interestingly, the 1923 national championship was also the first time a wooden Pocock boat, built by George Pocock in Seattle, was used in a championship. The win, along with the 1936 win, catapulted the boatmaker to long-lasting success. Today, the name is still synonymous with the industry's best racing shells. While they're now crafted from carbon and fiberglass, we still love the classic wooden shells and will be showcasing one of Pocock's beautiful, 60-foot wooden shells in our new Dunn Lumber Lake Union showroom, opening in 2024.
Of course, there was the Seattle and familial connection to rowing, but our interest went deeper than that, especially once we saw a PBS documentary about the legendary 1936 team that showed a large Dunn Lumber sign behind the crew as they practiced. Looking for the source of the clip and learning more about the team's incredible story led us to discover stories of intersecting generations: loggers' sons, farmers, and shipyard workers who overcame obstacles, banded together, and beat the German Olympic team in Nazi Germany.
While we continued our research, a longtime Dunn Lumber customer asked if we'd provide lumber to support building a boathouse for the North Cascades Crew in Lake Stevens, Washington. One of the crew members was Jennifer Huffman—an award-winning rower and granddaughter of Joe Rantz. The fortuitous connection led to us not only supporting the boathouse and Joe Rantz's legacy, but also to producing our own short documentary sharing another piece of this amazing ongoing story: "Us Against the World: A Washington Rowing Legacy," narrated by Jennifer.
If the boys in the boat story also resonates with you, we invite you to enjoy the documentary above while waiting in anticipation of the feature film. You can also learn more at usagainst.org.
