The University of Washington is known, in addition to its prestige as a research institution, for its top-tier athletic teams. Many of these teams can boast pedigrees going back well over a century, and have become integral to life on campus and alumni engagement. The football team played its first season in 1889, the same year that much of Seattle was destroyed by a fire. A decade later, in 1899, University of Washington students began working with local donors to develop a rowing program for the school, work that would come to fruition in 1903 with the first intercollegiate rowing race on the West Coast, in which the University of Washington bested the University of California.
In the same year that the men’s crew team enjoyed their inaugural victory, UW women were taking to Lake Washington informally to pursue the sport on their own. Over the next few years, this “women’s rowing club” would steadily gain prominence and acclaim on campus, ultimately finding a patron and advocate in Hiram Conibear, the athletic trainer for the football and track teams and coach of the men’s crew team. On October 22nd, 1907, women’s rowing made the leap from hobbyist clique to a university-sanctioned athletics team. The women’s crew team competed for a decade until the death of Conibear and the appropriation of campus aquatic facilities by the Navy during World War One forced the team to disband. Although several efforts were made to revive the women’s crew team over the subsequent decades, women would not compete again in rowing at the University of Washington until 1969.
For their part, the 1908 University of Washington football team enjoyed a successful season, going undefeated in seven games under the guidance of a new coach, Gil Dobie. The closest the team came to a loss that particular season was a tie-game, six to six, against Washington State University in the annual rivalry match that has come to be known as the Apple Cup.
These photographs may have been made by Broussais C. Beck, a member of the graduating class of 1910 who participated in both Varsity Crew and Varsity Football, as well as the Tyee, the Class Presidency, and Glee Club.
Photographs of the University of Washington 1908 football team members, men and women's crew team Canoe Club members, and University of Pennsylvania Men's rowing team at the 1908 Intercollegiate Rowing Association (Poughkeepsie) Regatta.
Arranged in 4 series.
The collection is open to the public, and the entire collection can be viewed on the Libraries' Digital Collections website.
Status of creator's copyrights is unknown; restrictions may exist on copying, quotation, or publication. Users are responsible for researching copyright status before use.
Donated by Daniel G. Wend, May 16, 2010.
Processed by Michael Lowry Lamble, December, 2018. Revised by Liam Patrick Bryant, March 2024.
Originally accessioned as PH2016-038.
These photos were taken at Denny Field (1895-1926), the University of Washington's first athletic field. The football team relocated to Husky Stadium when it was completed in November 1920.
The 1908 Varsity Husky Football team consisted of Warren Grimm (Left end), Burwell Bantz (Left tackle), Paul Jarvis (Left guard), Captain Fred Tegtmeier (Center), Frank Babcock (Right guard), Captain-elect Melville Mucklestone (Right half), William Mattson (Right end), William Coyle (Quarterback), Leonard Taylor (Left half), Ralph Westover (Fullback), and Maxwell Eakins (Right tackle). Additionally, Guy Flaherty, Broussais Beck, Arthur Clark, Hart Willis, G.L. Swarve, Louis Deither, Paul Kaylor, Walter Wand, and Keisling Thayer served as substitutes for the starting lineup. Joe Cutting (Assistant coach), W.B. Rasmussen (Assistant coach), and Gilmore "Gil" Dobbie (Head coach) comprised the coaching staff.
Probably a combination of the Varsity Husky Football team, different class football teams below the Varsity level, and/or other Husky Men's athletic teams.
The Canoe Club at the University of Washington began in "the fall of 1907 for the purposes of promoting the canoeing interests of the students." Canoeing was especially popular amongst crew athletes, like the students from the Women's and Varsity Men's Husky Crew teams pictured here: R.L. O'Brien (Seven seat), Edna Ficks (Two seat), Mabel Georgine Furry (Four seat), Josephine Bulkeley (Seven seat), Everett Voorhes Thompson (Coxswain), and Broussais C. Beck (Six seat). In 1908, O'Brien was the Captain-Elect for the upcoming Varsity Men's season, with Thompson as coxswain and Beck as seatmate. Ficks and Bulkeley were seatmates in the upper-level ("Sophomore") women's team, while Furry sat in the lower-level ("Freshman") craft.
The University of Washington attempted to compete in the Poughkeepsie Regatta in 1908 and 1909, but funding and "rowing politics" barred their attendance as a team. Broussais Beck probably attended anyway in June 1908 to photograph the Univerisity of Pennsylvania Men's Crew team. In 1913, after winning the Pacific Coast Regatta, the Husky Men's Crew team finally competed at Poughkeepsie, taking home third place.
Source: Marist College Archives and Special Collections, Intercollegiate Rowing Association Collection
Shows "PENN." boathouse, probably for the University of Pennsylvania Men's crew team.
Item 24 shows tugboat
Source: United States and United States Department of Commerce Bureau of Navigation (1913-1932). 1921.
The uncoxed four (sweep shells with four rowers raced without a coxswain) was the only other competition offered by the 1908 Poughkeepsie Rowing Regatta aside from coxed eight.
Item 49 shows advertisement for "Dutchess Trousers," a popular "indestructible" trouser brand sold by The Dutchess Manufacturing Company based around Poughkeepsie in the early 20th century.
Source: https://poklib.org/indestructible-trousers/.
Written on front: 56 velox 280. Mr. Beck.
Photographs probably taken by Broussais C. Beck, and developed commercially at the Webster & Stevens studio.