The team members were working together more swiftly and their technique improved as well. In March, the team got better and the coach felt as if things were improving. The coach believed that Joe was the reason why the team was failing and Joe was feeling that he couldn't fit in anywhere. Despite the coach’s efforts, the team’s efficiency seemed to be dropping. In January, the team began training again despite the harsh weather and the coach hoped to prepare the team for competitions. Almost immediately, Joe became more famous because of his place on the team. His hard work paid off and towards the end of the year, Joe was told that he made first boat alongside another man named Roger. Joyce, who also joined the college, found work as a maid and they both worked hard to sustain themselves. To support himself, Joe worked as a janitor and played in a jazz band. After Joe decided to work for a year, he proposed to his longtime girlfriend, Joyce Simdars.īy November, more than half of the original men who tried out for the rowing team dropped out.
Then, in his last year of high school, Joe moved in with his brother and he lived there for a year. Joe’s father had a number of children with his new wife and because the economic situation became hard, Joe was forced to live alone. When Joe was young, his mother died and then his father remarried quickly a woman much younger than he was. Joe had a rough childhood so he was used to having a hard life. Joe Rantz was accepted in the rowing team, and he was pleased to see that the first ones to give up were the ones coming from wealthy families who were not accustomed to pain. Rowing became popular in the US after the First World War and being a member in a rowing club became an honor. The boat builders were often subject to injuries and they sometimes lost some of their fingers. Rowing was a sport invented by the English and it was considered an aristocrat sport in the 17th and 18th century. Rowing was considered in those times as being the most demanding sport and many people were known to give up after a few months. Even though Hitler was against the Olympics in the beginning, he was advised by his Propaganda director to accept hosting them since it would portray Germany in a positive light. In the same year in Germany, Werner Marcht renovated some old buildings and drafted plans for new one to be constructed for the 1936 Olympics.
Ulbrickson was confident about his team’s chance of winning the Olympics and he dreamt of going against the most powerful teams in the world. The coaches of the team, Tom Bolles and Al Ulbrickson came from modest families as well and knew that most of the boys applying for a place in the team were farm boys that never rowed a boat. Many students applied for a place on the team but they knew that the chances of being accepted were slim because they had little to no experience with rowing. Joe was a good athlete and he hoped that by joining the team, he would be able to pay for his tuition fees. In October, two students at the University of Washington, Roger Morris and Joe Rantz, registered to join the University of Washington freshmen crew team. At the same time in Germany, Adolf Hitler was elected as the new leader and he as well was trying to solve the economic problems in his country. While things were grim, there was some hope as a new president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was elected and he tried to make things better.
In 1933, America was entering its fourth year in the Great Depression and more than a quarter of Americans were unemployed. The first chapter opens in the year 1933, in Seattle. The author of the book begins with a prologue, revealing that he had the opportunity to meet the main character, Joe Rantz, and that they spent long hours talking about Joe’s experience and about his past.