May 4, 2023 • 43 mins
On this edition of Going Great Across UW Women's Athletics, host Brian Posick highlights 50 years of UW Women’s Rowing and a documentary about the program that debuts Monday, May 8 at 7pm on BTN.
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(00:00):
I had five female athletes in class. Two were twins beach National Beach volleyball
champions, three lacrosse players or No. Three beach volleyball, two lacrosse players.
And I turned the light on aftershowing this, and they're crying,
and I said, Okay, youknow, tell me what you're failing here,
(00:20):
and they said, this is notour school, this is not our
sport, but this is exactly howwe feel about being a women's collegiate athlete.
So thank you. Welcome to GoingGreat Across UW Women's Athletics presented by
Great Clips, Great Clips. It'sgoing to be great. Going Great Across
UW Women's Athletics is a showcase onthe great thing student athletes are accomplishing on
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the field, in the classroom andbeyond. Now here's your host, Ryan
Posic. Hello and welcome to theiHeart podcast Going Great Across UW Women's Athletics
presented by Great Clips on Bryan Posic, father of a former UW women's hockey
player, an NCAA pole vault qualifier, brother of an All American basketball and
soccer player, and husband of aniron man. In this podcast, we
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talk with the guest or guests whohave made or are making an impact on
UW women's athletics. You know,we're celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of Title nine,
the federal civil rights law that prohibitssex discrimination in any federally funded school
or education program. The Wisconsin Women'srowing programs celebrated its fiftieth anniversary of intercollegiate
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status during a reunion celebration last Septemberthat drews six hundred alums, the largest
gathering of its kind ever at theUniversity of Wisconsin. And while planning the
reunion, an idea was presented todocument the history of the women's rowing program,
and that documentary will debut Monday,May eighth at seven pm Central Time
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on BTN. It's called Row onWisconsin, dedicated to the National Championship Varsity
eight crew of nineteen seventy five.We're sitting here outside or inside the beautiful
Porter boat House off the shores ofLake Mendota. It is a Wednesday,
May third, a few days beforethe debut of this documentary and joining us
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as the head coach of the WisconsinWomen's rowing program. BB Bryan's bebe thanks
for being here and one of theexecutive producers of row on Wisconsin. A
former badger rower herself, erit yellenErie. Thanks for your time too.
This is going to be a lotof fun. Bebe. You've been coaching
here for twenty years. You wereat Michigan State. Actually you were the
first coach rowing coach in Michigan Statehistory. You've been here twenty years,
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a two time Big Ten Coach ofthe Year, and this program is a
half century old. A lot ofreasons to celebrate this program, isn't there.
Absolutely? When I was first learningthat rowing was a sport, Wisconsin
had a women's team, and soit's always been on my radar and I'm
honored to have been able to comehere and continue that legacy. Yeah,
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when you first learned of where wereyou? How old were you? I
was eighteen years old starting college insouthern California and left that college but kept
on kept on rowing. So somethingsomething stuck with me there. Yeah,
A swimmer in a rower, right. I was a swimmer growing up,
among other things, but rowing wasthe thing that put it all together for
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me. It was the best ofall of the sports that I had done.
Nothing is more challenging, and yetwe have to do it as a
team, so it's the best combinationof everything. Yeah, Ereat is from
southern California, a basketball player,a track and field standout while living there,
came to Madison, and among otherthings, you joined the crew team
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in nineteen ninety five. So tellus about your experience at the University of
Wisconsin. You read, well,sure, as soon as as soon as
I visited the campus and at thespring of nineteen nighty five, I knew
I wanted to attend the university,that the city of Madison in the campus
is just beautiful. And I wasa high school athlete here in Los Angeles
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growing up, a basketball and shotput and discus like you mentioned, but
it was something I didn't want tocontinue in college, even though on the
throwing side, shop and discuss Icould have, but I wasn't as I
wasn't as my heart wasn't as muchinto it as I needed it to be.
And I thought that that was theend of, you know, my
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athletic career. And I was acamp counselor at a sleepaway camp the summer
of nineteen ninety five before I evencame out for sore and I got a
message saying that there was a woman'scoach from rowing at Wisconsin who wanted to
speak to me. And I rememberbeing on the pay phone in the lobby
at the camp saying what is this? And you know when she said,
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do you want to come out?We heard you're a really great athlete,
and I said sure, you knowit's one of those I said yes before
I really knew what it was,and it it was. You know,
I still remember walking up to theboathouse in the fall of nineteen ninety five
with hundreds of other women who looklike me, you know, five ten
and were born to uh, youknow, definitely a row crew. And
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I just kind of said, whynot? What's the worst that happens?
And I was one of the oneswho made it, And you know,
the story sort of starts from there. Sure, Sueila was the head coach
when you were here. What areyou doing now? Erie to explain to
us what your where your path wentfrom Wisconsin to where you are now.
Yeah, So, being exposed tothe most elite level in sports, which
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Division one athletics is, um Iwas hooked. I knew I wanted to
be around pro sports in some capacity. After that experience, being a rower
at Wisconsin, and I went onto create a career in professional sports,
first working for an NFL team,and then I came back to Los Angeles
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and a few years later started atits PR firm, working with pro athletes.
Then I went on to work fora global and geo in sports,
again working with athletes, and thelast handful of years, because you know,
so much of these, so manyof these stories for those of us
who worked in and day out withprofessional athletes and gold medalists and Olympians and
(06:20):
pall of famers, I think themajority of us feel that the stories and
the content don't do it, don'tdo the experience justice. And so starting
around twenty fifteen, I started producingcontent myself with a handful of really wonderful
iconic filmmakers, and I've been mentoredin such a great way. So so
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now I'm a full time filmmaker whereI find human interests, social issue stories
told through the sports lens, unscripted, scripted films that domestically internationally that cover
all kinds of issues. And thisfilm really, you know, started it
all for me. And it's it'sso much bigger than rowing, and it's
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so much bigger, you know,than women's collegiate sports, but it sure
tells such a powerful story in justtwenty two minutes about what it means to
be part of a program like this. So maybe do you recall when this
documentary was proposed? I do.I was a little surprised, but really
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psyched about it because that usually doesn'thappen with us. When was that?
Was it two and a half threeyears ago? Yeah, we were sitting
I remember the first time I remembertalking about it. We were sitting outside
of a coffee shop during COVID allspread out. It was cold, it
was it was like wintertime, Ithink, and it just was it was
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everything was still so far away thatit's like, of course we can do
that. Yeah, that sounds great. And then it as it came time
to do it, there was snowhesitation from anybody. It's like, yeah,
bring it, let's do this.Yeah. My question for you,
we read when did this idea firstcome into play? I know this had
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to do with the planning for thefiftieth three union, but that was a
few years ago when this really startedto be discussed. I guess, yeah,
absolutely, you know, and thisis really indicative to the spirit of
the program where even you know,a two and a half decades later,
I still keep in touch with alot of the girls that I rode with.
Um you know, even though Ionly rode one year, it was
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enough for me to keep those lifelongrelationships. And so some who were part
of planning the alumni weekend knew thatI had started making films and sports and
they said, would you want todo a documentary on the program, And
again I said sure, without knowingwho, I said yes, and then
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we'll figure it out. And thenI you know, it was a six
month process, and the you know, the process really was at first we
wanted to you know, not justget the permission of the women who started
the program, the Sue era andthe Naked seventy five vote, but we
also knew we actually, we definitelyneeded to get and I needed to get
(09:16):
the trust and belief in BB.And because you know that, as BB
actually so eloquently says in the film, you have to surrender to the girls
in the boat. And it's verysimilar to this process where you know,
you don't know what we're going tobe filming. You have to trust that
we have the best interest of theprogram, the women who are rowing,
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the you know who this represents.And so that takes a good, you
know, some six months of youknow, making sure that you know,
you know, coach trusted us andall of the other women and everyone else
involved, and the men um youknow, trusted us as well. You
had no reservations. I was readyto defend the program if I had to,
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you know, and that's a coach'sjob. But that once I met
everybody that was involved, I knewthat we could give ourselves over to them
and it wouldn't there would be nothingto worry about. And that is definitely
what came what came to be.Everything they did was extremely professional and I
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think like everybody else that comes incontact with our program, they fell in
love with this program, truly fellin love with the program, and that
just made it fun. It wasjust fun. Head coach BB Bryan's with
US former Badgers rower Eriet Yelling,executive producer of the documentary Role on Wisconsin,
which debuts Monday, May eighth atseven o'clock on BTN. I've had
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a chance to see the documentary,actually went through it a few times,
and the very start of the documentary, there is a gentleman that asks you
a question or says, you knowthe name, what are the naysayers say
about your sport? And you're sittingstraight up, full length, you know,
and you look at the camera andthen you turn to your left,
you clear your throat, and thenyou get this grin on your face.
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It's not a real sport. Yesit is. Well I know that,
but most other people don't that don'thave anything to do with rowing, and
that's a shame. Yes it is. And that's one of the beautiful things
about this documentary is that people willsee it that wouldn't normally see it,
and it shows what is involved init, and it shows the beauty of
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it and the challenge of it.And you know what is so awesome about
athletics in college And we are,like I say in the in the in
the documentary, we're the quintessential teamsport that's perfect for college college athletics.
Ing though, And I'll talk withsomething with you about that here in a
little bit. The Wisconsin women's rowingprogram. Some say it dates back to
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eighteen seventy four, at least rowinghere at Wisconsin. Maybe the women in
eighteen ninety five, a woman bythe name of Kathy Woodkee now Smith,
back in nineteen seventy one when therewas no program. Really, it kind
of faded away after sorority races.I think in the thirties. It was
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met with a couple of gentlemen oneshe was dating and discussed the possibility of
bringing it back. And I knowyou weren't here at the time, but
you know the history of it.And really it started in nineteen seventy two,
restarted as a club sport at thattime, and boy, three years
later, as we'll talk about theseventy five national championship team, how far
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this program has come in fifty years. Absolutely, and again, when I
first started rowing, it was innineteen seventy five, and I actually thought
about transferring here, didn't, buteverybody knew about Wisconsin then everybody knows Wisconsin
has Everybody in rowing knows that Wisconsinhas a rowing program. We have had
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it forever, and we're really good. Your job, then, Eert,
was to document this program, whichmust have been I mean, because you
had a background in it and alove for it, and the friends lifelong
friends you were able to meet atthat time, I'm sure your head was
spinning You've probably had so many differentideas and this camera angle or this shot,
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let's let's encompass the city of medicine. So many things probably went through
your mind. But you had toreduce a few of those things to get
this to work, didn't you.Sure, So that you know through this
process, that's where I step awayand I bring in our amazing, brilliant
director, Stephen Orritt, who wehave very much lucked out because he also
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is the alumni University of Wisconsin,so he very much understands the beauty of
the school UM and so he's theone who has to has to make the
painstaking decisions which shots you know,of the hundreds of hours that he spent
for dozens of hours that he andthere and the film crew. By the
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way, this is the only projectwhere when we say crew, we have
to have between the four and UM. But so that's part of my job
where you know, I spent thesix months and what kept on coming up
for me really, you know,when I started to I didn't I didn't
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know the background or the history ofthe program at all. I definitely knew
Sue was around. I admittedly hadnot heard about Carrie grades um you know,
I had not in the Olympic workthat I have done. It wasn't
directly within growing and so it hadbeen swimming, track and field scheme.
But I do have to say anytime, and I think, Brian,
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you know, you and I spokeabout this that whenever I work with any
professional athletes, gold medalists or SuperBowl winners or Hall of famers, when
I say, you know, collegeathlete, I was a college athlete,
they go, okay, what whatdid you do? And I said rowing,
and they go, oh, oh, okay, you know a yeah,
like, oh, watch to meexactly and so and so. I
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think in the sports world, especiallyin the Olympic world, rowing is definitely
known as one of the toughest sports, but it's meant to not show that
because it's so eloquent and we're allsupposed to be in sync, and you
know, that's what gets the boatgoing. And so bringing on someone like
Stephen where you know, we putI spent six months putting together a couple
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of pages of what I thought thestory might be, and again it kept
going back to the seventy five voteand also just sort of the the again
eliteness of the Wisconsin women's rowing programthat it came up that since women's rowing
was in the Olympics UM from nineteenseventy six, there was at least one
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woman from Wisconsin in each boat witheach Olympics, I think, except for
one Olympics. And that's really hugein sports, you know. And it's
sort of and then it comes downto, well, what does why is
that? What's the work ethic,what's the culture, what's the spirit?
And it kept on just going rightback to that seventy five boat with Sue
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and you know, Carrie Graves andJackie Zoc and everyone else, everyone else.
Um. And so then I handedover to someone like Stephen um uh
and I and I say, whatdo you think um, And we knew
that we had twenty two minutes,you know, half hour TV. And
he just then starts to film andthen he started to you know, shape
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it himself as well. And thenand then you go and edit it um
And so you know, it sortof is toll three or four different times.
But he did just such a beautifuljob. And during the process,
you know, Carrigrays passed away,and Stephen and I have both experienced a
lot of loss in our lives,and we knew that we wanted to make
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sure that we honored Harry the waythat she wanted to be honored. So
we did speak quite a bit withher family to make sure, you know,
filming her memorial was okay. Andthe way that we pointed her out
in the film and what she meantto not just Wisconsin's program, but really
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women's rowing globally is really you know, what really came about. And so
so it was really you know,luck but also not luck that you know,
we all came together and understood theprivilege in telling this story, you
know, holistically all around to honorit. Yeah, the nineteen seventy five
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national championship team that was what threeyears into the existence of the return of
this program. I mean, couldyou imagine something like that in this day
and age with social media. Imean, I know some people don't think
your sport is a sport, butthe story itself was remarkable, absolutely,
and the whole challenge is to getit to a point where it can be
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seen because usually we're you know,out on the water somewhere, not around
a bunch of people. We're luckyin Wisconsin, We're lucky in Madison because
we're right in front of the Union, and I think that's something that's helped
the rowing team over the years,is that everybody here knows we have a
team, and everybody knows we're reallypretty good, whether we are or not
right at that moment. But togo back to something also that we were
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talking about, that sort of Ithink is super important that the better you
are, the easier it looks.The better you are, the less work
it looks like you're doing. Soit makes sense that people think, well,
what's the big deal, that's notvery hard because that's all they see.
But if you come out for apractice, you see exactly how hard
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it is, and it's an eyeopening experience, even more so than watching
them train indoors, which is reallybrutally difficult. But you know, if
you see that on the water andsee what they go through, that is
that's pretty cool. It truly takesan extraordinary woman or man, yes,
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to compete in this sport, doesn'tabsolutely you know, there's a lot of
people that can do it, butthere's very few people that want to do
it, and so in that way, it is a bit exclusive. But
it has nothing to do with youknow, having to be this tall,
or having to weigh this much ornot that much or whatever. It really
truly is what you want to doand how much you want to reach inside
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yourself and figure out what's worth it, and how how far am I willing
to go to get that? AndI think that is what life is all
about. S Mind over matter withhis sport too, absolutely right right and
Carrie Graves fearless, strong minded woman. I had the pleasure to interview her
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on a number of occasions. CarryGraves passed away in November of twenty twenty
one. As e red and mentionedduring the production of this documentary, Kerry
was the stroke on that nineteen seventyfive team that included Karen Ela, Mary
Grace Knight, Peggy McCarthy, JackieZach, Debbie Otsell, sue Ela Mary
Connell, Beth Trout was the Coxon, Barb Shaffer was the manager, and
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Jay Memyer the head coach, firsthead coach of the women's program nineteen seventy
three to nineteen seventy nine. Andin this documentary Rohan Wisconsin, Jay is
sitting next to sue Ela as theyshare different stories and as Jay was describing
it and I thought so eloquently too, kind of putting you back into nineteen
seventy five and actually proceeding that leadingup to the national championship in Syracuse,
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New York. It was right whereit was ninety five degrees or something crazy
like that. Um, and andtold his crew prior to the race,
all right, let's go piss withthe big boys, right right, And
um, you captured your entire filmcrew, you read captured that so well.
And I found myself as as hecontinued with a story and the footage
where you got the footage of backin the seventies was remarkable too. Um,
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I started choking up. You know, I'm not I'm not a rower.
I like the kayak and canoe,right, but I don't do what
what your gals do or you know, Um, but and so, and
much like I had mentioned before,with the start of the documentary and where
you know what naysay or say aboutyour sport, how you started that pulled
me in and then Jay's description ofwhat happened in seventy five kept me there.
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And then knowing what was coming aboutCarrie graves life, Um, the
dedication of the boat, She's gother own boat um you read, I
mean that was put together beautifully andto accumulate the guests to find that footage
that I suppose because you're you're youlove this sport so much in this program,
it wasn't difficult for you at all. You know, it wasn't painstaking
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to go through this process to findthese different little pieces that you can tell
that story. So again this goesover to Stephen and the production team and
the producers who were really in andout of all of that. But also
you know, this was a dreamsituation where not only did we have alumni
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who had over fifty years, whohad kept personal photos and personal videos,
who were more than willing to shareeverything and to give us whatever, you
know, whatever the production team wasasking for. Then on top of that,
we had the university and the university'sarchive give over everything without question,
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without difficulty. And then on topof that we had Big ten say,
you know, give us everything aswell. And so this is it's a
giant, giant team effort, youknow, much like rowing and crew,
where it looks easy, that's thewhole point of it. It looks beautiful
and easy, but you know,the sifting through hundreds of pieces of archival
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footage and then putting in the musicand you know, the back the background
of Jay's interviews and Susan being ableto feel the emotion. Um. Again,
that's you know, that's very muchStephen and m and his vision,
but also exactly what Bbe was talkingabout. You know, Stephen had not
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been around women's rowing. You know, he was not a college athlete.
He has a daughter who is youngwho plays ice hockey. But it was
also one of those things where Iwas I was there for filming for maybe
a day and a half. Butthat's also where I need to trust someone
like Stephen, who I know isa beautiful filmmaker. Do I need to
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get out of the way so thatI hope that he can feel the feeling
that I have that everyone else hasand then be able to convert that onto
film. Um. But you know, it is it is so many people's
efforts to you know, just thesetwenty two minutes to get that in there,
um and to feel all of that, and then to be able you
(24:18):
know, with with personal videos,archival videos from the university from Big ten,
and then be able to you know, really properly without Stephen and I
ever knowing Carrie Graves directly, it'sso clear what her spirit um is and
being able to um to show thatand to feel that, and so same
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thing with you every time it getsto that point in the film, every
time we you know, the endwhere we where it's you know, singing
UM, the University UM song thatI choke up every single time as well,
and I know it's coming and youknow it's and it's like Stephen even
(25:03):
but you know that, But italso is the feeling that he was able
to get being around and then againit's the you know, it's the film
crew with the sound and the lightingand everyone else had to feel the same
feeling. So that also goes backto Baby, but it also goes the
fifty years that you know, theteam created Sue created UM. So we're
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hoping that you know, this doesjust catch fire and shows, you know,
Brian, what you and I spokeabout. There really has not been
a proper film done on the spiritof women's collegiate sports where it's such hard
work and at the same time we'rehaving so much fun and so we could
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work so hard where we fall tothe ground like you can see, and
then at the same time we're laughing, we're singing, there's joy and then
as baby you know, is ableto read from Red Rose crew. When
it's time to compete, we're allbusiness. Um, and then you know,
we go back into that and sothat you know that truly is the
(26:06):
spirit that so many of us haveexperienced. Certainly, Um, you know
there have been documentaries done about rowing. I think one of the most recent
ones, Dared to Be, hadcome out. I know I remember Oxford
Blues, the motion picture with RobLowe. I'm a Nick Cage fan dating
back to Raising Arizona, one ofthe funniest films I've ever seen, and
he was in one what was itcalled A Boy in Blue or something like
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that. But this is this isunique and um, and not only you
were talking about how it exposes itgives positive exposure to your program, but
to your sport as a whole aswell. Um. Eriott is an adjunct
professor at Southern Cow and you showedthis documentary to some of your students.
(26:51):
Could you share that story with us? Sure, Coach, do you know
about this? I don't know.So in the fall, when I was
teaching at USC, I teach acourse about how to communicate with professional athletes.
And I usually have a handful ofstudent athletes in my class, and
the whole class is about, youknow, the world of how professional what
(27:15):
professional athletes manage, and part ofthat is now creating content and storytelling.
And so coming back from the alumniweekend, after we showed the film at
the alumni weekend, um, youknow, I spent a class kind of
showing my film and some other filmsthat that have been out there. And
I had I had five female athletesin class. Two were twins beach national
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beach volleyball champions, three lacrosse playersor no. Three beach volleyball, two
lacrosse players. And I turned tolight on after showing this and they're crying
and I said, okay, youknow, tell me what you're failing here,
and they said, this is notour school, this is not our
sport, but this is exactly howwe feel about being a women's collegiate athlete.
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So thank you, and how canwe do more of these? And
so I said, you know,let me get back to you on map.
But I think like that's what wetake from this where um, it's
not just about Wisconsin, not justabout growing. But it's the feeling that
probably the hundreds of thousands of ussince titled nine who have been able to
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have the privilege to be collegiate athletes, and what that brings to us,
you know, for the rest ofour lives. So you know, I'm
excited for everyone else to see itpast, you know, the twenty five
students in my class, in thesix hundred at the n e Ement.
Yeah, your entire crew kind ofit really showed the spirit and the soul
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of being a female athlete and theportion of the doctory a number of portions
of the training. You know,some coaches wouldn't allow a film crew to
come in and film their training.A lot of the student athletes or athletes
period wouldn't want that camera in theirface, either as they're rolling off the
(29:15):
rower or right. But I thinkthat perfectly captured in a short period of
time. It showed how much workwhat they had to do, and that
was prior to you getting on thewater. If I'm not mistaken, that
may have been some winter training thatyou were doing, right, absolutely,
Yeah, because you get such greatweather here in Madison all the time.
Yeah, wider time is at apremium, so we definitely have to find
(29:37):
out the things to do. ButI think honestly, in a lot of
sports there's a lot less secrets thanwe'd like to think there are, And
with rowing, as far as I'mconcerned, there really aren't. There are
hardly any. And so you dowhat you do. It's just a matter
of how well you do it andhow passionate you are about it and how
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willing to go to that dark sideyou are, and how many people you
have that are in that situation.Yeah, going great across uw Women's Athletics,
presented by Great Clips bbe Bryant's headcoach of the Wisconsin women's rowing program,
and he reads a yelling executive producerof the documentary Row on Wisconsin,
which again is on BTN starting Mayeighth, but also will be available the
(30:22):
day after and from here on everon Wisconsin's YouTube channel. If you will,
you know, he reads a coupleof other subjects and YouTube BB I'll
ask you first, boebe there.Later on in the documentary, there is
a group of your student athletes sittingaround a couch chairs and what have you
prior to the big tents and ayoung woman I don't know who it was
(30:45):
had discussed how she had been inthe army, went through basic training and
rowing is harder than any of thatstuff. Who was that? That was
Jackie Garwood. Okay, yes,and she's a fifth year senior this year.
She will be commissioned in the boathousenext week, the morning that we
leave for big tents. So we'vehad we've had a number of women go
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through that program and they've all comeout at the top of their classes.
Usually the physical training is not aproblem for them, and their commanders know
that, so that's a little helpfulwith scheduling. But this again, the
thing about what we do and whatI've dedicated my professional life too, is
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using the sport to help bring outthe best in people and find what their
best is and use that going forwardfor their lives. And I think,
you know, we may or maynot be fast one year or the next.
We may or may not be assuccessful as we want to be one
year or the next, but Ithink consistently that's something that we've been able
to do is really help these womengrow into the people that they want to
(31:57):
be. And so we're super proudof that. Yeah, and you reach,
She shared her story, You've heardsimilar stories, Yes, all walks
of life from the student athletes thatyou've been able to coach here. And
because we are a walk on dominantsport, I think that's another reason that
people don't think it can be veryhard or very you know whatever, if
walk ons can do it. Wethink of walk ons like Everet as women
(32:22):
who were born to row but justhaven't had the chance to find that out
yet. And again, it's alot more about toughness and character than it
is about experience. So most ofour Olympians, including the current women that
are training now, we're walk onshere and so the national team is very
interested in what we're doing. Yeah. Cindy Rusher, Julie Van Cleave also
(32:45):
executive producers of this documentary, withthe Erite Yelling and with all the people
that you spoke with during this documentary. As if you needed to validate the
importance of rowing, the importance ofthe Wisconsin Women's program, portants of female
athletes and being accepted um you youwere able to speak with Wisconsin's Athletic Director
(33:07):
Chris McIntosh, who had um well, some some poignant comments that you shared
in this documentary, didn't you absolutely, and this is where things come full
circle for me personally with this project. Mack and I were athletes together,
his wife and I wrote Crew together, UM. And so as I've you
(33:28):
know, seen him go through hiscareer in sports, going from being an
NFL player and then eventually, youknow, coming on board to be the
athletic director. You know, Iam was so pleased that he wanted to
sit an interview for this piece andhe said something just so profound and on
(33:50):
record, that is that, youknow, the elephant in the room of
how what we all know that youknow, college athletics is a big business
and the majority of schools because becauseathletics is sort of the marketing arm of
the entire school, UM, youknow, medical school, engineering and in
each school. You know, Ideal with this at USC and other places
(34:14):
that so much of the focus interms of media funding UM does need to
go towards the sports that are bringingin the most amount of money that support
all of the other sports. UM. But that's never really been said publicly
by a large university's athletic director.And Matt came straight out to say,
(34:37):
this is just the reality that inorder to fund all of the other sports
that exist at Wisconsin. I believethere's twenty six um that yes, football
and basketball and men's hockey fund allof the others. And but he you
know, very much stated not onlybecause his wife was a college athlete as
(35:00):
well, Dan, but his daughtersare athletes as well, that women's sports
deserve the attention too. Just sometimeswe run out of the hours of the
day, and sometimes we run outof the days of the year. And
so for him to you know,come in and be so supportive, and
the entire athletic department he's so supportive, from Chad Kimmel and Jesse Harrison to
(35:24):
Julie Van Cleeve who's now on theathletic board, and Cindy Rusher's you know,
also a former athlete. That itjust you know, goes to show
you. I think that if therewas more hours in the day or there
is a larger front office there,that they would put just they would put
in an equal amount of attention ontosports like growing and I think that they
(35:46):
really want to try to get there, and I think that that's why MAC
is there to sort of build thisout more so that so again that goes
towards why we were allowed to filmthat and why you know, we were
trusted to film even you know,so many of the things that typically film
(36:07):
crews are not allowed to film,and it you know, really we felt
very privileged to do that. MBut again it was you know, the
coaches and the athletes trusting us aswell to show really what what you know,
Again, like we've talked about thebeginning of the stories of what it's
(36:29):
like to be a female, afemale athlete all around, and what you
see in this film, you know, it's very similar to the spirit and
the hard work and the joy andthe like what we talked about, Brian,
the whole dynastic of emotions that women'sfemale athletes are allowed to feel and
encouraged to feel. That even whenI've spent time around the US women's national
(36:52):
team for soccer, you know,or women's water polo, track and field,
that's specifically in women's sports, it'sencouraged to feel and to show your
feelings, whether it's you know,you're angry or sad or joyful or ready
to compete. And I don't seethat in men's sports as much, and
so I think that that's where thisfilm, like this is so exciting to
(37:14):
see the huge range of all ofthe emotions that we experience and how it's
accepted, encouraged, and how ithelps to create not just a championship type
program, but it allows us tothen carry these relationships through the rest of
our lives. And as a headcoach, Baby, you're dealing with all
(37:35):
the emotions that Erich could just explainwhile trying to motivate your student athletes to
do something that most people wouldn't wantto do and they don't want to do
sometimes absolutely, although I don't seeit, It's my job is not to
motivate them at this level. Myjob is to encourage them and to uplift
them and sometimes to have to,you know, push them a little bit,
(38:00):
but creating that internal motivation as partof this too. You know,
this was an uplifting conversation, anuplifting documentary role on Wisconsin. I love
the title, and before I letyou both go, I mentioned the start
of it and you said you wereactually uncomfortable with the way the documentary started.
Why why that hook eerie? Whywhy was that taken first? Why
(38:23):
why lead with that? I meanagain, it drew me in immediately.
Yeah, Well that's a good question. I might try to speak on Steven's
behalf, just because we do knoweach other so well. But I think
then you start with that, andthen the rest of the film shows why
the opposite of it. You knowthat the stereotype, like Phoebe was talking
(38:45):
about, is that rowing is nota real sport. It's not that difficult
that those outside of the you know, Olympic sports just think it's because it
looks like it's easy. And thenwe send the rest of the film proving
White the contrary um and so itis. Sometimes you do need that hook
to sort of you know, it'snever prove you know, prove others wrong,
(39:08):
it's really proving bb right that youknow it is. No, this
is one of the most difficult sportsyou can ever partake in, and even
even the most elite of the elitewill tell you that. But you know,
as as the most elite athletes andas the most as you know,
the highest level of sports is reallyOlympics and gold medalists that you won't ever
(39:30):
see any elite rower walk in andtalk about how my sport is this hard
and it's the hardest and nope,they're just quiet and they show it and
either you know it or you don't, and if you don't, then nope,
that person doesn't get any time.You know where it's it's one of
(39:52):
those with you know, it's beinghumble and modest when you're when you are
truly the most elite. And soyou know that, I think is why
the hooks started to sort of thenshow exactly why it's not true. Yeah.
I loved it Rowan Wisconsin again atdebuts Monday night, seven o'clock May
(40:12):
eighth on BTN and then available onthe UW YouTube page the following day and
then you can watch at any timeyou'd like. And like I said,
I've watched it a few times andit was erite you and in the entire
film crew and did a wonderful joband it was fun watching watching you being
filmed. And um, I don'tknow, I don't think you pulled any
punches. I mean you were youright, Yeah, and that's the way
(40:35):
way. Yeah, that was thedeal. Yeah. So again I thank
you Erit for bringing in Stephen.Um. Yeah, he's he is everything
that we hoped he would be inmore. Yeah, great talking with you
both, and uh enjoy the watchparty, right and uh I don't know
if it's going to be anything likeyour fiftieth three union celebration was what was
(40:58):
I have to ask you what wasthat like? Lean? You have six
hundred people back? You know whocatered in? Well, you know,
did you bring it? Was itbring your own? Or what did you
have? Can I say the nameof the company? Blue plate? Okay,
which was fabulous in my opinion.I didn't get to eat very much,
but what I was really good.You were talking right, I was
telling weren't sing I was not singing, No, but I have You never
(41:20):
know what to expect, especially withwomen rowers. You never know what exactly,
you know, five generations of them. It was the best thing I've
ever been to. And I wasbasically you know, I'm a spectator more
than a participant. Um. Itwas the best. It was. It
was the most wonderful thing I've everbeen to. Start to finish, you
two read, Yeah, it wasso special. You know the food was
(41:44):
really really good. Yeah it wasgood. Yeah. I wasn't part of
the planning my you know, thejob was just through the documentary. But
you know, this is one ofthose examples that the majority of us who
rode together had not all been togetherin twenty five years, and you would
have thought we had just gotten togetherlast week, yea and so, and
then multiply that times the decades andsix hundred of us and you know,
(42:08):
the buzz you could have lifted upthe Coal Center with, you know,
the energy that was there. Andthen you know, kind of going off
weeks of that afterwards. And I, you know, was privileged and lucky
because I had been part of leadingup to it for a year and some
change at least, and so itwas really tremendous and special. Again,
(42:29):
I've been to so many other alumnievents from men's sports, and just you
know, women's sports and the loveand the joy, the fun, the
feelings. You know, there's nothinglike it. And so hopefully, you
know, we'll be able to continuemore and more. And then this also
inspires other women's programs throughout the country, you know, not just at Wisconsin,
(42:52):
but another university is to continue dothe same thing. Sure celebrating the
fiftieth anniversary of the Wisconsin women's rowingteam and dedicated the national championship Varsity eight
crew of nineteen seventy five rowan WisconsinMonday, May eighth, seven pm at
debuts on the Big Ten Network beenon the UW YouTube channel. You read,
thanks so much for your time.I look forward to your next body
(43:13):
of work as well because this wasoutstanding and BB thank you so much for
your time, and it was itwas great that to get get your program
some exposure and h and just enjoywhat you've been doing for virtually all of
your life, right. I appreciatethat. Thank you. Thank you.
Also like to thank our producer DaveMcCann and Paul capel Bianco from UW Athletic
Communications for his help as well.This has been the going great across UW
(43:38):
Women's Athletics presented by Great Clips andiHeartRadio, Going great across UW Women's Athletics
presented by Great Clips, Great Clips. It's going to be great.
I had five female athletes in class. Two were twins beach National Beach volleyball
champions, three lacrosse players or No. Three beach volleyball, two lacrosse players.
And I turned the light on aftershowing this, and they're crying,
and I said, Okay, youknow, tell me what you're failing here,
(00:20):
and they said, this is notour school, this is not our
sport, but this is exactly howwe feel about being a women's collegiate athlete.
So thank you. Welcome to GoingGreat Across UW Women's Athletics presented by
Great Clips, Great Clips. It'sgoing to be great. Going Great Across
UW Women's Athletics is a showcase onthe great thing student athletes are accomplishing on
(00:45):
the field, in the classroom andbeyond. Now here's your host, Ryan
Posic. Hello and welcome to theiHeart podcast Going Great Across UW Women's Athletics
presented by Great Clips on Bryan Posic, father of a former UW women's hockey
player, an NCAA pole vault qualifier, brother of an All American basketball and
soccer player, and husband of aniron man. In this podcast, we
(01:08):
talk with the guest or guests whohave made or are making an impact on
UW women's athletics. You know,we're celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of Title nine,
the federal civil rights law that prohibitssex discrimination in any federally funded school
or education program. The Wisconsin Women'srowing programs celebrated its fiftieth anniversary of intercollegiate
(01:29):
status during a reunion celebration last Septemberthat drews six hundred alums, the largest
gathering of its kind ever at theUniversity of Wisconsin. And while planning the
reunion, an idea was presented todocument the history of the women's rowing program,
and that documentary will debut Monday,May eighth at seven pm Central Time
(01:51):
on BTN. It's called Row onWisconsin, dedicated to the National Championship Varsity
eight crew of nineteen seventy five.We're sitting here outside or inside the beautiful
Porter boat House off the shores ofLake Mendota. It is a Wednesday,
May third, a few days beforethe debut of this documentary and joining us
(02:12):
as the head coach of the WisconsinWomen's rowing program. BB Bryan's bebe thanks
for being here and one of theexecutive producers of row on Wisconsin. A
former badger rower herself, erit yellenErie. Thanks for your time too.
This is going to be a lotof fun. Bebe. You've been coaching
here for twenty years. You wereat Michigan State. Actually you were the
first coach rowing coach in Michigan Statehistory. You've been here twenty years,
(02:36):
a two time Big Ten Coach ofthe Year, and this program is a
half century old. A lot ofreasons to celebrate this program, isn't there.
Absolutely? When I was first learningthat rowing was a sport, Wisconsin
had a women's team, and soit's always been on my radar and I'm
honored to have been able to comehere and continue that legacy. Yeah,
(02:58):
when you first learned of where wereyou? How old were you? I
was eighteen years old starting college insouthern California and left that college but kept
on kept on rowing. So somethingsomething stuck with me there. Yeah,
A swimmer in a rower, right. I was a swimmer growing up,
among other things, but rowing wasthe thing that put it all together for
(03:21):
me. It was the best ofall of the sports that I had done.
Nothing is more challenging, and yetwe have to do it as a
team, so it's the best combinationof everything. Yeah, Ereat is from
southern California, a basketball player,a track and field standout while living there,
came to Madison, and among otherthings, you joined the crew team
(03:42):
in nineteen ninety five. So tellus about your experience at the University of
Wisconsin. You read, well,sure, as soon as as soon as
I visited the campus and at thespring of nineteen nighty five, I knew
I wanted to attend the university,that the city of Madison in the campus
is just beautiful. And I wasa high school athlete here in Los Angeles
(04:06):
growing up, a basketball and shotput and discus like you mentioned, but
it was something I didn't want tocontinue in college, even though on the
throwing side, shop and discuss Icould have, but I wasn't as I
wasn't as my heart wasn't as muchinto it as I needed it to be.
And I thought that that was theend of, you know, my
(04:27):
athletic career. And I was acamp counselor at a sleepaway camp the summer
of nineteen ninety five before I evencame out for sore and I got a
message saying that there was a woman'scoach from rowing at Wisconsin who wanted to
speak to me. And I rememberbeing on the pay phone in the lobby
at the camp saying what is this? And you know when she said,
(04:49):
do you want to come out?We heard you're a really great athlete,
and I said sure, you knowit's one of those I said yes before
I really knew what it was,and it it was. You know,
I still remember walking up to theboathouse in the fall of nineteen ninety five
with hundreds of other women who looklike me, you know, five ten
and were born to uh, youknow, definitely a row crew. And
(05:14):
I just kind of said, whynot? What's the worst that happens?
And I was one of the oneswho made it, And you know,
the story sort of starts from there. Sure, Sueila was the head coach
when you were here. What areyou doing now? Erie to explain to
us what your where your path wentfrom Wisconsin to where you are now.
Yeah, So, being exposed tothe most elite level in sports, which
(05:36):
Division one athletics is, um Iwas hooked. I knew I wanted to
be around pro sports in some capacity. After that experience, being a rower
at Wisconsin, and I went onto create a career in professional sports,
first working for an NFL team,and then I came back to Los Angeles
(05:58):
and a few years later started atits PR firm, working with pro athletes.
Then I went on to work fora global and geo in sports,
again working with athletes, and thelast handful of years, because you know,
so much of these, so manyof these stories for those of us
who worked in and day out withprofessional athletes and gold medalists and Olympians and
(06:20):
pall of famers, I think themajority of us feel that the stories and
the content don't do it, don'tdo the experience justice. And so starting
around twenty fifteen, I started producingcontent myself with a handful of really wonderful
iconic filmmakers, and I've been mentoredin such a great way. So so
(06:43):
now I'm a full time filmmaker whereI find human interests, social issue stories
told through the sports lens, unscripted, scripted films that domestically internationally that cover
all kinds of issues. And thisfilm really, you know, started it
all for me. And it's it'sso much bigger than rowing, and it's
(07:04):
so much bigger, you know,than women's collegiate sports, but it sure
tells such a powerful story in justtwenty two minutes about what it means to
be part of a program like this. So maybe do you recall when this
documentary was proposed? I do.I was a little surprised, but really
(07:25):
psyched about it because that usually doesn'thappen with us. When was that?
Was it two and a half threeyears ago? Yeah, we were sitting
I remember the first time I remembertalking about it. We were sitting outside
of a coffee shop during COVID allspread out. It was cold, it
was it was like wintertime, Ithink, and it just was it was
(07:49):
everything was still so far away thatit's like, of course we can do
that. Yeah, that sounds great. And then it as it came time
to do it, there was snowhesitation from anybody. It's like, yeah,
bring it, let's do this.Yeah. My question for you,
we read when did this idea firstcome into play? I know this had
(08:09):
to do with the planning for thefiftieth three union, but that was a
few years ago when this really startedto be discussed. I guess, yeah,
absolutely, you know, and thisis really indicative to the spirit of
the program where even you know,a two and a half decades later,
I still keep in touch with alot of the girls that I rode with.
Um you know, even though Ionly rode one year, it was
(08:31):
enough for me to keep those lifelongrelationships. And so some who were part
of planning the alumni weekend knew thatI had started making films and sports and
they said, would you want todo a documentary on the program, And
again I said sure, without knowingwho, I said yes, and then
(08:54):
we'll figure it out. And thenI you know, it was a six
month process, and the you know, the process really was at first we
wanted to you know, not justget the permission of the women who started
the program, the Sue era andthe Naked seventy five vote, but we
also knew we actually, we definitelyneeded to get and I needed to get
(09:16):
the trust and belief in BB.And because you know that, as BB
actually so eloquently says in the film, you have to surrender to the girls
in the boat. And it's verysimilar to this process where you know,
you don't know what we're going tobe filming. You have to trust that
we have the best interest of theprogram, the women who are rowing,
(09:41):
the you know who this represents.And so that takes a good, you
know, some six months of youknow, making sure that you know,
you know, coach trusted us andall of the other women and everyone else
involved, and the men um youknow, trusted us as well. You
had no reservations. I was readyto defend the program if I had to,
(10:03):
you know, and that's a coach'sjob. But that once I met
everybody that was involved, I knewthat we could give ourselves over to them
and it wouldn't there would be nothingto worry about. And that is definitely
what came what came to be.Everything they did was extremely professional and I
(10:28):
think like everybody else that comes incontact with our program, they fell in
love with this program, truly fellin love with the program, and that
just made it fun. It wasjust fun. Head coach BB Bryan's with
US former Badgers rower Eriet Yelling,executive producer of the documentary Role on Wisconsin,
which debuts Monday, May eighth atseven o'clock on BTN. I've had
(10:52):
a chance to see the documentary,actually went through it a few times,
and the very start of the documentary, there is a gentleman that asks you
a question or says, you knowthe name, what are the naysayers say
about your sport? And you're sittingstraight up, full length, you know,
and you look at the camera andthen you turn to your left,
you clear your throat, and thenyou get this grin on your face.
(11:18):
It's not a real sport. Yesit is. Well I know that,
but most other people don't that don'thave anything to do with rowing, and
that's a shame. Yes it is. And that's one of the beautiful things
about this documentary is that people willsee it that wouldn't normally see it,
and it shows what is involved init, and it shows the beauty of
(11:41):
it and the challenge of it.And you know what is so awesome about
athletics in college And we are,like I say in the in the in
the documentary, we're the quintessential teamsport that's perfect for college college athletics.
Ing though, And I'll talk withsomething with you about that here in a
little bit. The Wisconsin women's rowingprogram. Some say it dates back to
(12:05):
eighteen seventy four, at least rowinghere at Wisconsin. Maybe the women in
eighteen ninety five, a woman bythe name of Kathy Woodkee now Smith,
back in nineteen seventy one when therewas no program. Really, it kind
of faded away after sorority races.I think in the thirties. It was
(12:26):
met with a couple of gentlemen oneshe was dating and discussed the possibility of
bringing it back. And I knowyou weren't here at the time, but
you know the history of it.And really it started in nineteen seventy two,
restarted as a club sport at thattime, and boy, three years
later, as we'll talk about theseventy five national championship team, how far
(12:46):
this program has come in fifty years. Absolutely, and again, when I
first started rowing, it was innineteen seventy five, and I actually thought
about transferring here, didn't, buteverybody knew about Wisconsin then everybody knows Wisconsin
has Everybody in rowing knows that Wisconsinhas a rowing program. We have had
(13:09):
it forever, and we're really good. Your job, then, Eert,
was to document this program, whichmust have been I mean, because you
had a background in it and alove for it, and the friends lifelong
friends you were able to meet atthat time, I'm sure your head was
spinning You've probably had so many differentideas and this camera angle or this shot,
(13:33):
let's let's encompass the city of medicine. So many things probably went through
your mind. But you had toreduce a few of those things to get
this to work, didn't you.Sure, So that you know through this
process, that's where I step awayand I bring in our amazing, brilliant
director, Stephen Orritt, who wehave very much lucked out because he also
(13:54):
is the alumni University of Wisconsin,so he very much understands the beauty of
the school UM and so he's theone who has to has to make the
painstaking decisions which shots you know,of the hundreds of hours that he spent
for dozens of hours that he andthere and the film crew. By the
(14:16):
way, this is the only projectwhere when we say crew, we have
to have between the four and UM. But so that's part of my job
where you know, I spent thesix months and what kept on coming up
for me really, you know,when I started to I didn't I didn't
(14:37):
know the background or the history ofthe program at all. I definitely knew
Sue was around. I admittedly hadnot heard about Carrie grades um you know,
I had not in the Olympic workthat I have done. It wasn't
directly within growing and so it hadbeen swimming, track and field scheme.
But I do have to say anytime, and I think, Brian,
(14:58):
you know, you and I spokeabout this that whenever I work with any
professional athletes, gold medalists or SuperBowl winners or Hall of famers, when
I say, you know, collegeathlete, I was a college athlete,
they go, okay, what whatdid you do? And I said rowing,
and they go, oh, oh, okay, you know a yeah,
like, oh, watch to meexactly and so and so. I
(15:22):
think in the sports world, especiallyin the Olympic world, rowing is definitely
known as one of the toughest sports, but it's meant to not show that
because it's so eloquent and we're allsupposed to be in sync, and you
know, that's what gets the boatgoing. And so bringing on someone like
Stephen where you know, we putI spent six months putting together a couple
(15:46):
of pages of what I thought thestory might be, and again it kept
going back to the seventy five voteand also just sort of the the again
eliteness of the Wisconsin women's rowing programthat it came up that since women's rowing
was in the Olympics UM from nineteenseventy six, there was at least one
(16:07):
woman from Wisconsin in each boat witheach Olympics, I think, except for
one Olympics. And that's really hugein sports, you know. And it's
sort of and then it comes downto, well, what does why is
that? What's the work ethic,what's the culture, what's the spirit?
And it kept on just going rightback to that seventy five boat with Sue
(16:29):
and you know, Carrie Graves andJackie Zoc and everyone else, everyone else.
Um. And so then I handedover to someone like Stephen um uh
and I and I say, whatdo you think um, And we knew
that we had twenty two minutes,you know, half hour TV. And
he just then starts to film andthen he started to you know, shape
(16:49):
it himself as well. And thenand then you go and edit it um
And so you know, it sortof is toll three or four different times.
But he did just such a beautifuljob. And during the process,
you know, Carrigrays passed away,and Stephen and I have both experienced a
lot of loss in our lives,and we knew that we wanted to make
(17:11):
sure that we honored Harry the waythat she wanted to be honored. So
we did speak quite a bit withher family to make sure, you know,
filming her memorial was okay. Andthe way that we pointed her out
in the film and what she meantto not just Wisconsin's program, but really
(17:32):
women's rowing globally is really you know, what really came about. And so
so it was really you know,luck but also not luck that you know,
we all came together and understood theprivilege in telling this story, you
know, holistically all around to honorit. Yeah, the nineteen seventy five
(17:53):
national championship team that was what threeyears into the existence of the return of
this program. I mean, couldyou imagine something like that in this day
and age with social media. Imean, I know some people don't think
your sport is a sport, butthe story itself was remarkable, absolutely,
and the whole challenge is to getit to a point where it can be
(18:18):
seen because usually we're you know,out on the water somewhere, not around
a bunch of people. We're luckyin Wisconsin, We're lucky in Madison because
we're right in front of the Union, and I think that's something that's helped
the rowing team over the years,is that everybody here knows we have a
team, and everybody knows we're reallypretty good, whether we are or not
right at that moment. But togo back to something also that we were
(18:42):
talking about, that sort of Ithink is super important that the better you
are, the easier it looks.The better you are, the less work
it looks like you're doing. Soit makes sense that people think, well,
what's the big deal, that's notvery hard because that's all they see.
But if you come out for apractice, you see exactly how hard
(19:03):
it is, and it's an eyeopening experience, even more so than watching
them train indoors, which is reallybrutally difficult. But you know, if
you see that on the water andsee what they go through, that is
that's pretty cool. It truly takesan extraordinary woman or man, yes,
(19:25):
to compete in this sport, doesn'tabsolutely you know, there's a lot of
people that can do it, butthere's very few people that want to do
it, and so in that way, it is a bit exclusive. But
it has nothing to do with youknow, having to be this tall,
or having to weigh this much ornot that much or whatever. It really
truly is what you want to doand how much you want to reach inside
(19:48):
yourself and figure out what's worth it, and how how far am I willing
to go to get that? AndI think that is what life is all
about. S Mind over matter withhis sport too, absolutely right right and
Carrie Graves fearless, strong minded woman. I had the pleasure to interview her
(20:10):
on a number of occasions. CarryGraves passed away in November of twenty twenty
one. As e red and mentionedduring the production of this documentary, Kerry
was the stroke on that nineteen seventyfive team that included Karen Ela, Mary
Grace Knight, Peggy McCarthy, JackieZach, Debbie Otsell, sue Ela Mary
Connell, Beth Trout was the Coxon, Barb Shaffer was the manager, and
(20:33):
Jay Memyer the head coach, firsthead coach of the women's program nineteen seventy
three to nineteen seventy nine. Andin this documentary Rohan Wisconsin, Jay is
sitting next to sue Ela as theyshare different stories and as Jay was describing
it and I thought so eloquently too, kind of putting you back into nineteen
seventy five and actually proceeding that leadingup to the national championship in Syracuse,
(20:59):
New York. It was right whereit was ninety five degrees or something crazy
like that. Um, and andtold his crew prior to the race,
all right, let's go piss withthe big boys, right right, And
um, you captured your entire filmcrew, you read captured that so well.
And I found myself as as hecontinued with a story and the footage
where you got the footage of backin the seventies was remarkable too. Um,
(21:23):
I started choking up. You know, I'm not I'm not a rower.
I like the kayak and canoe,right, but I don't do what
what your gals do or you know, Um, but and so, and
much like I had mentioned before,with the start of the documentary and where
you know what naysay or say aboutyour sport, how you started that pulled
me in and then Jay's description ofwhat happened in seventy five kept me there.
(21:48):
And then knowing what was coming aboutCarrie graves life, Um, the
dedication of the boat, She's gother own boat um you read, I
mean that was put together beautifully andto accumulate the guests to find that footage
that I suppose because you're you're youlove this sport so much in this program,
it wasn't difficult for you at all. You know, it wasn't painstaking
(22:10):
to go through this process to findthese different little pieces that you can tell
that story. So again this goesover to Stephen and the production team and
the producers who were really in andout of all of that. But also
you know, this was a dreamsituation where not only did we have alumni
(22:30):
who had over fifty years, whohad kept personal photos and personal videos,
who were more than willing to shareeverything and to give us whatever, you
know, whatever the production team wasasking for. Then on top of that,
we had the university and the university'sarchive give over everything without question,
(22:52):
without difficulty. And then on topof that we had Big ten say,
you know, give us everything aswell. And so this is it's a
giant, giant team effort, youknow, much like rowing and crew,
where it looks easy, that's thewhole point of it. It looks beautiful
and easy, but you know,the sifting through hundreds of pieces of archival
(23:12):
footage and then putting in the musicand you know, the back the background
of Jay's interviews and Susan being ableto feel the emotion. Um. Again,
that's you know, that's very muchStephen and m and his vision,
but also exactly what Bbe was talkingabout. You know, Stephen had not
(23:34):
been around women's rowing. You know, he was not a college athlete.
He has a daughter who is youngwho plays ice hockey. But it was
also one of those things where Iwas I was there for filming for maybe
a day and a half. Butthat's also where I need to trust someone
like Stephen, who I know isa beautiful filmmaker. Do I need to
(23:56):
get out of the way so thatI hope that he can feel the feeling
that I have that everyone else hasand then be able to convert that onto
film. Um. But you know, it is it is so many people's
efforts to you know, just thesetwenty two minutes to get that in there,
um and to feel all of that, and then to be able you
(24:18):
know, with with personal videos,archival videos from the university from Big ten,
and then be able to you know, really properly without Stephen and I
ever knowing Carrie Graves directly, it'sso clear what her spirit um is and
being able to um to show thatand to feel that, and so same
(24:42):
thing with you every time it getsto that point in the film, every
time we you know, the endwhere we where it's you know, singing
UM, the University UM song thatI choke up every single time as well,
and I know it's coming and youknow it's and it's like Stephen even
(25:03):
but you know that, But italso is the feeling that he was able
to get being around and then againit's the you know, it's the film
crew with the sound and the lightingand everyone else had to feel the same
feeling. So that also goes backto Baby, but it also goes the
fifty years that you know, theteam created Sue created UM. So we're
(25:25):
hoping that you know, this doesjust catch fire and shows, you know,
Brian, what you and I spokeabout. There really has not been
a proper film done on the spiritof women's collegiate sports where it's such hard
work and at the same time we'rehaving so much fun and so we could
(25:45):
work so hard where we fall tothe ground like you can see, and
then at the same time we're laughing, we're singing, there's joy and then
as baby you know, is ableto read from Red Rose crew. When
it's time to compete, we're allbusiness. Um, and then you know,
we go back into that and sothat you know that truly is the
(26:06):
spirit that so many of us haveexperienced. Certainly, Um, you know
there have been documentaries done about rowing. I think one of the most recent
ones, Dared to Be, hadcome out. I know I remember Oxford
Blues, the motion picture with RobLowe. I'm a Nick Cage fan dating
back to Raising Arizona, one ofthe funniest films I've ever seen, and
he was in one what was itcalled A Boy in Blue or something like
(26:30):
that. But this is this isunique and um, and not only you
were talking about how it exposes itgives positive exposure to your program, but
to your sport as a whole aswell. Um. Eriott is an adjunct
professor at Southern Cow and you showedthis documentary to some of your students.
(26:51):
Could you share that story with us? Sure, Coach, do you know
about this? I don't know.So in the fall, when I was
teaching at USC, I teach acourse about how to communicate with professional athletes.
And I usually have a handful ofstudent athletes in my class, and
the whole class is about, youknow, the world of how professional what
(27:15):
professional athletes manage, and part ofthat is now creating content and storytelling.
And so coming back from the alumniweekend, after we showed the film at
the alumni weekend, um, youknow, I spent a class kind of
showing my film and some other filmsthat that have been out there. And
I had I had five female athletesin class. Two were twins beach national
(27:44):
beach volleyball champions, three lacrosse playersor no. Three beach volleyball, two
lacrosse players. And I turned tolight on after showing this and they're crying
and I said, okay, youknow, tell me what you're failing here,
and they said, this is notour school, this is not our
sport, but this is exactly howwe feel about being a women's collegiate athlete.
(28:06):
So thank you, and how canwe do more of these? And
so I said, you know,let me get back to you on map.
But I think like that's what wetake from this where um, it's
not just about Wisconsin, not justabout growing. But it's the feeling that
probably the hundreds of thousands of ussince titled nine who have been able to
(28:30):
have the privilege to be collegiate athletes, and what that brings to us,
you know, for the rest ofour lives. So you know, I'm
excited for everyone else to see itpast, you know, the twenty five
students in my class, in thesix hundred at the n e Ement.
Yeah, your entire crew kind ofit really showed the spirit and the soul
(28:55):
of being a female athlete and theportion of the doctory a number of portions
of the training. You know,some coaches wouldn't allow a film crew to
come in and film their training.A lot of the student athletes or athletes
period wouldn't want that camera in theirface, either as they're rolling off the
(29:15):
rower or right. But I thinkthat perfectly captured in a short period of
time. It showed how much workwhat they had to do, and that
was prior to you getting on thewater. If I'm not mistaken, that
may have been some winter training thatyou were doing, right, absolutely,
Yeah, because you get such greatweather here in Madison all the time.
Yeah, wider time is at apremium, so we definitely have to find
(29:37):
out the things to do. ButI think honestly, in a lot of
sports there's a lot less secrets thanwe'd like to think there are, And
with rowing, as far as I'mconcerned, there really aren't. There are
hardly any. And so you dowhat you do. It's just a matter
of how well you do it andhow passionate you are about it and how
(30:00):
willing to go to that dark sideyou are, and how many people you
have that are in that situation.Yeah, going great across uw Women's Athletics,
presented by Great Clips bbe Bryant's headcoach of the Wisconsin women's rowing program,
and he reads a yelling executive producerof the documentary Row on Wisconsin,
which again is on BTN starting Mayeighth, but also will be available the
(30:22):
day after and from here on everon Wisconsin's YouTube channel. If you will,
you know, he reads a coupleof other subjects and YouTube BB I'll
ask you first, boebe there.Later on in the documentary, there is
a group of your student athletes sittingaround a couch chairs and what have you
prior to the big tents and ayoung woman I don't know who it was
(30:45):
had discussed how she had been inthe army, went through basic training and
rowing is harder than any of thatstuff. Who was that? That was
Jackie Garwood. Okay, yes,and she's a fifth year senior this year.
She will be commissioned in the boathousenext week, the morning that we
leave for big tents. So we'vehad we've had a number of women go
(31:08):
through that program and they've all comeout at the top of their classes.
Usually the physical training is not aproblem for them, and their commanders know
that, so that's a little helpfulwith scheduling. But this again, the
thing about what we do and whatI've dedicated my professional life too, is
(31:32):
using the sport to help bring outthe best in people and find what their
best is and use that going forwardfor their lives. And I think,
you know, we may or maynot be fast one year or the next.
We may or may not be assuccessful as we want to be one
year or the next, but Ithink consistently that's something that we've been able
to do is really help these womengrow into the people that they want to
(31:57):
be. And so we're super proudof that. Yeah, and you reach,
She shared her story, You've heardsimilar stories, Yes, all walks
of life from the student athletes thatyou've been able to coach here. And
because we are a walk on dominantsport, I think that's another reason that
people don't think it can be veryhard or very you know whatever, if
walk ons can do it. Wethink of walk ons like Everet as women
(32:22):
who were born to row but justhaven't had the chance to find that out
yet. And again, it's alot more about toughness and character than it
is about experience. So most ofour Olympians, including the current women that
are training now, we're walk onshere and so the national team is very
interested in what we're doing. Yeah. Cindy Rusher, Julie Van Cleave also
(32:45):
executive producers of this documentary, withthe Erite Yelling and with all the people
that you spoke with during this documentary. As if you needed to validate the
importance of rowing, the importance ofthe Wisconsin Women's program, portants of female
athletes and being accepted um you youwere able to speak with Wisconsin's Athletic Director
(33:07):
Chris McIntosh, who had um well, some some poignant comments that you shared
in this documentary, didn't you absolutely, and this is where things come full
circle for me personally with this project. Mack and I were athletes together,
his wife and I wrote Crew together, UM. And so as I've you
(33:28):
know, seen him go through hiscareer in sports, going from being an
NFL player and then eventually, youknow, coming on board to be the
athletic director. You know, Iam was so pleased that he wanted to
sit an interview for this piece andhe said something just so profound and on
(33:50):
record, that is that, youknow, the elephant in the room of
how what we all know that youknow, college athletics is a big business
and the majority of schools because becauseathletics is sort of the marketing arm of
the entire school, UM, youknow, medical school, engineering and in
each school. You know, Ideal with this at USC and other places
(34:14):
that so much of the focus interms of media funding UM does need to
go towards the sports that are bringingin the most amount of money that support
all of the other sports. UM. But that's never really been said publicly
by a large university's athletic director.And Matt came straight out to say,
(34:37):
this is just the reality that inorder to fund all of the other sports
that exist at Wisconsin. I believethere's twenty six um that yes, football
and basketball and men's hockey fund allof the others. And but he you
know, very much stated not onlybecause his wife was a college athlete as
(35:00):
well, Dan, but his daughtersare athletes as well, that women's sports
deserve the attention too. Just sometimeswe run out of the hours of the
day, and sometimes we run outof the days of the year. And
so for him to you know,come in and be so supportive, and
the entire athletic department he's so supportive, from Chad Kimmel and Jesse Harrison to
(35:24):
Julie Van Cleeve who's now on theathletic board, and Cindy Rusher's you know,
also a former athlete. That itjust you know, goes to show
you. I think that if therewas more hours in the day or there
is a larger front office there,that they would put just they would put
in an equal amount of attention ontosports like growing and I think that they
(35:46):
really want to try to get there, and I think that that's why MAC
is there to sort of build thisout more so that so again that goes
towards why we were allowed to filmthat and why you know, we were
trusted to film even you know,so many of the things that typically film
(36:07):
crews are not allowed to film,and it you know, really we felt
very privileged to do that. MBut again it was you know, the
coaches and the athletes trusting us aswell to show really what what you know,
Again, like we've talked about thebeginning of the stories of what it's
(36:29):
like to be a female, afemale athlete all around, and what you
see in this film, you know, it's very similar to the spirit and
the hard work and the joy andthe like what we talked about, Brian,
the whole dynastic of emotions that women'sfemale athletes are allowed to feel and
encouraged to feel. That even whenI've spent time around the US women's national
(36:52):
team for soccer, you know,or women's water polo, track and field,
that's specifically in women's sports, it'sencouraged to feel and to show your
feelings, whether it's you know,you're angry or sad or joyful or ready
to compete. And I don't seethat in men's sports as much, and
so I think that that's where thisfilm, like this is so exciting to
(37:14):
see the huge range of all ofthe emotions that we experience and how it's
accepted, encouraged, and how ithelps to create not just a championship type
program, but it allows us tothen carry these relationships through the rest of
our lives. And as a headcoach, Baby, you're dealing with all
(37:35):
the emotions that Erich could just explainwhile trying to motivate your student athletes to
do something that most people wouldn't wantto do and they don't want to do
sometimes absolutely, although I don't seeit, It's my job is not to
motivate them at this level. Myjob is to encourage them and to uplift
them and sometimes to have to,you know, push them a little bit,
(38:00):
but creating that internal motivation as partof this too. You know,
this was an uplifting conversation, anuplifting documentary role on Wisconsin. I love
the title, and before I letyou both go, I mentioned the start
of it and you said you wereactually uncomfortable with the way the documentary started.
Why why that hook eerie? Whywhy was that taken first? Why
(38:23):
why lead with that? I meanagain, it drew me in immediately.
Yeah, Well that's a good question. I might try to speak on Steven's
behalf, just because we do knoweach other so well. But I think
then you start with that, andthen the rest of the film shows why
the opposite of it. You knowthat the stereotype, like Phoebe was talking
(38:45):
about, is that rowing is nota real sport. It's not that difficult
that those outside of the you know, Olympic sports just think it's because it
looks like it's easy. And thenwe send the rest of the film proving
White the contrary um and so itis. Sometimes you do need that hook
to sort of you know, it'snever prove you know, prove others wrong,
(39:08):
it's really proving bb right that youknow it is. No, this
is one of the most difficult sportsyou can ever partake in, and even
even the most elite of the elitewill tell you that. But you know,
as as the most elite athletes andas the most as you know,
the highest level of sports is reallyOlympics and gold medalists that you won't ever
(39:30):
see any elite rower walk in andtalk about how my sport is this hard
and it's the hardest and nope,they're just quiet and they show it and
either you know it or you don't, and if you don't, then nope,
that person doesn't get any time.You know where it's it's one of
(39:52):
those with you know, it's beinghumble and modest when you're when you are
truly the most elite. And soyou know that, I think is why
the hooks started to sort of thenshow exactly why it's not true. Yeah.
I loved it Rowan Wisconsin again atdebuts Monday night, seven o'clock May
(40:12):
eighth on BTN and then available onthe UW YouTube page the following day and
then you can watch at any timeyou'd like. And like I said,
I've watched it a few times andit was erite you and in the entire
film crew and did a wonderful joband it was fun watching watching you being
filmed. And um, I don'tknow, I don't think you pulled any
punches. I mean you were youright, Yeah, and that's the way
(40:35):
way. Yeah, that was thedeal. Yeah. So again I thank
you Erit for bringing in Stephen.Um. Yeah, he's he is everything
that we hoped he would be inmore. Yeah, great talking with you
both, and uh enjoy the watchparty, right and uh I don't know
if it's going to be anything likeyour fiftieth three union celebration was what was
(40:58):
I have to ask you what wasthat like? Lean? You have six
hundred people back? You know whocatered in? Well, you know,
did you bring it? Was itbring your own? Or what did you
have? Can I say the nameof the company? Blue plate? Okay,
which was fabulous in my opinion.I didn't get to eat very much,
but what I was really good.You were talking right, I was
telling weren't sing I was not singing, No, but I have You never
(41:20):
know what to expect, especially withwomen rowers. You never know what exactly,
you know, five generations of them. It was the best thing I've
ever been to. And I wasbasically you know, I'm a spectator more
than a participant. Um. Itwas the best. It was. It
was the most wonderful thing I've everbeen to. Start to finish, you
two read, Yeah, it wasso special. You know the food was
(41:44):
really really good. Yeah it wasgood. Yeah. I wasn't part of
the planning my you know, thejob was just through the documentary. But
you know, this is one ofthose examples that the majority of us who
rode together had not all been togetherin twenty five years, and you would
have thought we had just gotten togetherlast week, yea and so, and
then multiply that times the decades andsix hundred of us and you know,
(42:08):
the buzz you could have lifted upthe Coal Center with, you know,
the energy that was there. Andthen you know, kind of going off
weeks of that afterwards. And I, you know, was privileged and lucky
because I had been part of leadingup to it for a year and some
change at least, and so itwas really tremendous and special. Again,
(42:29):
I've been to so many other alumnievents from men's sports, and just you
know, women's sports and the loveand the joy, the fun, the
feelings. You know, there's nothinglike it. And so hopefully, you
know, we'll be able to continuemore and more. And then this also
inspires other women's programs throughout the country, you know, not just at Wisconsin,
(42:52):
but another university is to continue dothe same thing. Sure celebrating the
fiftieth anniversary of the Wisconsin women's rowingteam and dedicated the national championship Varsity eight
crew of nineteen seventy five rowan WisconsinMonday, May eighth, seven pm at
debuts on the Big Ten Network beenon the UW YouTube channel. You read,
thanks so much for your time.I look forward to your next body
(43:13):
of work as well because this wasoutstanding and BB thank you so much for
your time, and it was itwas great that to get get your program
some exposure and h and just enjoywhat you've been doing for virtually all of
your life, right. I appreciatethat. Thank you. Thank you.
Also like to thank our producer DaveMcCann and Paul capel Bianco from UW Athletic
Communications for his help as well.This has been the going great across UW
(43:38):
Women's Athletics presented by Great Clips andiHeartRadio, Going great across UW Women's Athletics
presented by Great Clips, Great Clips. It's going to be great.
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