History of Marquette Crew

Marquette Crew got its humble beginning in the spring of 1990. Liz Shanahan and Beth Ohmann, two transfer students from St. Joseph, Minnesota, brought their love for rowing and their strong work ethic to Marquette and helped establish Marquette Crew as one of the many new teams forming in the Midwest.

At the first informational meeting that spring, over 150 interested students came to hear more about the sport. Despite this large turnout, there were only 18 charter members. Now that a team was formed, a coach was needed. Enter Nick Schroeder. Schroeder was a coxswain at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His resume included a seventh-place finish in the Elite Eights event at the 1971 Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston. Schroeder signed on to be the first coach of Marquette Crew, and helped build the team from inexperienced students to accomplished rowers. For the first four and a half years he coached all four squads: varsity men and women, and novice men and women.

Marquette Crew partnered up with the Milwaukee Rowing Club who graciously helped the team by allowing them to use boats, oars and other rowing equipment. The Milwaukee Rowing Club gave Marquette Crew a platform to grow the program for more than a decade. In the fall of 2015, Marquette Crew was presented with an opportunity to move to a new location half a mile south of campus, and function autonomously. Today, Marquette Crew has a training room on campus for erging, and currently rows out of the Marquette Crew boatyard on Canal Street near Marquette's Valley Fields.

The club has grown tremendously since those 18 brave souls first began rowing. Today, Marquette Crew is the largest club sport on campus with members from all over the United States. The club races throughout the Midwest and takes annual trips to participate in the Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston, Massachusetts, the Dad Vail Regatta, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the ACRA National Championship in Gainesville, Georgia.

From its humble beginnings, Marquette Crew has established itself as a serious competitor in collegiate rowing. Competing against other club teams as well as many varsity programs, Marquette Crew has found itself in a position to succeed on the highest level.