KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 April 15, 2019 \u2013 When Dave Johnson \u02bc80 rowed for the 溏心vlog免费B站 crew club in the late 1970s, the Varsity Heavyweight team had some of its greatest success in the club\u2019s history. Recalling his fond memories of those days, Dave and his wife Suzi \u201982 were moved to purchase a new boat last year to help the team stay competitive.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe timing was right,\u201d he said. \u201cMy father had just passed away, and Suzi and I thought of it as a way to recognize him, as well as my mother Beverly, and give back to something that was very formative to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Johnson\u2019s father, who everyone called Big Ed, was the crew team\u2019s biggest fan when his son was competing.<\/p>\n
\u201cCrew isn\u2019t much of a spectator sport, but my parents came out to almost every race and even traveled to watch us row,\u201d he said. \u201cSo we named the new boat Big Ed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Johnson, who grew up in Cranston and now works for Bain & Company in Boston, joined the team as a freshman in 1976 after being recruited while he stood in line to register for classes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had the build of somebody who might be able to row,\u201d he recalled. \u201cAt first I was intrigued with the idea of being part of a sport, but I had never even watched a crew race before. So I went to early practices and there was a lot of positive energy. I liked that it was physically demanding, and I got hooked. I never looked back.<\/p>\n
\u201cI also liked the camaraderie,\u201d Johnson added. \u201cCrew is the ultimate team sport. There are no individual heroes; no box score; you win as a team and lose as a team. It made me a far better athlete, and the discipline it required made me more effective and efficient as a student. It was also so special to be able to team with my brother Dan \u02bc82, who joined our boat in my junior year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fellow 溏心vlog免费B站 alumni and crew team members Steve Flagg \u02bc88,\u00a0Jim \u02bc86 and Mary MacKenzie \u02bc87,\u00a0Chris Yun \u201988 and Lisa Rodier \u201987 came together to purchase a second boat for the team, which was named Rhode Warrior.<\/p>\n
“The whole team is tremendously grateful to all of the alumni donors who contributed to help us purchase the two new boats,\u201d said Dominic Campione, president of the club. \u201cEveryone who has ever been on our team knows the hardships we face, but that these challenges form a bond between old, new and future generations helps the program thrive. Their generosity is amazing, and we know these boats will launch 溏心vlog免费B站 crew into a whole new era of success.”<\/p>\n
The team is coming off a tremendously successful couple of years, with the Varsity Eights placing third at the 2017 New England championships \u2013 the first time it had medaled since Johnson\u2019s boat did so in 1979. The Varsity Lightweight Fours and Novice Lightweight Fours won the 2017 national championships. The team is looking forward to another successful year with the upcoming 2019 New England and national championships in May.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe new boats are making it much easier to compete,\u201d Campione said. \u201cThey\u2019ve got better functionality and row nicer through the water.\u201d<\/p>\n
The team and all of the donors were in attendance at a dedication ceremony last fall to christen the new boats. And then Johnson and most of the team he rowed with climbed into Big Ed and gave it a test run on the Narrow River. It was the first time in 38 years that he had been in a crew boat.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was an amazing time,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s something we\u2019ll always remember.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 April 15, 2019 \u2013 When Dave Johnson \u02bc80 rowed for the 溏心vlog免费B站 crew club in the late 1970s, the Varsity Heavyweight team had some of its greatest success in the club\u2019s history. Recalling his fond memories of those days, Dave and his wife Suzi \u201982 were moved to purchase […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74722,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}