The Boys in the Boat

“We were never ‘we’… we were ‘one’.” – Joe Rantz

The vast majority of Americans have never heard of Joe Rantz, and I imagine that’s exactly the way ol’ Joe would’ve wanted it to be.

Joe Rantz grew up in Boulder City, Idaho before moving to Sequim, Washington. Sadly, his mother died of throat cancer when he was just four. His father remarried, but Joe was never really accepted by his stepmother and so, by the time he was 15, Joe was living by himself in an unfinished and abandoned house.

Somehow, Joe managed to get accepted to the University of Washington where he struggled to pay his tuition until he earned a place on the school’s rowing team. Joe started with the JV squad but was eventually promoted to the “Varsity 8”, which won back-to-back national Intercollegiate Rowing Association titles in 1936 and 1937.

Joe went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering after which he worked for Boeing for 35 years. He and his college sweetheart, Joyce Simdars, were married for 63 years and had five children together. Joyce passed away in 2002, and Joe died five years later at the age of 93.

A very full and satisfying life indeed. And yet, the main reason why a few people remember Joe Rantz today is because his JV crew team upset the heavily-favored University of California “Golden Bears” and six other college eights (mostly from the Ivy League) to win the prestigious Poughkeepsie Regatta in 1936, earning them an automatic berth in the Olympic Games in Berlin.

No one expected the no-name Huskies to get that far and so, there was no money to pay for their trans-Atlantic trip. Given just seven days to raise $5,000 at the height of the Great Depression, Joe and his team somehow managed to pull it off. But that wasn’t the last miracle they performed on their never-say-die Olympic journey.

In their preliminary heat, the Huskies came from behind to set a new Olympic record and then outdid themselves by winning the gold medal in a photo finish over Germany and Italy.

The best-selling book, The Boys in the Boat, is the story of Joe’s hardscrabble life and how – against all odds – the University of Washington’s junior varsity rowing team stunned the world. Geroge Clooney was so captivated by the book and Joe’s story that he turned them into a major motion picture.

Eight men rowing as individuals would never have won a single race, but pulling on those oars as one man, they won Olympic gold.

That’s why, in His high priestly prayer, Jesus prayed for unity amongst His disciples. Working separately, we can accomplish a few things, but we are also easily discouraged and just as easily defeated. But working together as one – the Body of Christ – we are invincible!

Thanks for the lesson, Joe!

“Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are.” John 17:11b (NKJV)

“I am not asking on behalf of them alone, but also on behalf of those who will believe in Me through their message, that all of them may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I am in You. May they also be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. I have given them the glory You gave Me, so that they may be one as We are one – I in them and You in Me—that they may be perfectly united, so that the world may know that You sent Me and have loved them just as You have loved Me.” John 17:20-23 (BSB)

- Rev. Dale M. Glading, President