S6E3: Lenny O'Donnell is Preserving Rowing History

Holding an old canister in his hands, rower and documentary film producer Lenny O’Donnell’s heart skipped a beat when he read the hand-written note “Berlin 1936” on an old piece of athletic tape stuck to its lid. After years in storage, unseen for several decades, Lenny was entrusted to restore and digitize it, along with boxes full of other historic photos, film, and ephemera documenting the University of Washington crew in the early 20th century. To share it all, he created RowingArchives.org and wonders who the next generation of historians will be to carry on the work. 

QUICK LOOK 00:00 - Intro 02:40 - The Huddle 03:20 - Rowing Week on a scale of 1-10: 7 because of time spent with the Ancient Mariners 05:25 - Tara and Lenny crossed paths in Seattle years ago at Pocock Foundation 07:21 - The Hot Seat Q&A 09:50 - Rowing origin story: Title IX encroached on wrestling, so he walked on to the UW crew 11:45 - After 25 years off the water: carbon fiber oars! 13:05 - Erging + walking the dog = keeping healthy 13:50 - A life in teaching made for an easy transition to coaching 18:35 - Rowing Archives began with research into the 1958 UW crew - the first American athletes to compete in the Soviet Union 24:13 - Working towards a future national rowing museum 26:57 - Holy Grail of archival rowing footage 28:31 - Lucy Pocock competed in coxed singles 29:34 - T & R post-interview banter worth keeping. 30:45 - Steady State Network news and notes

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To see photos of Lenny, and get links to the people, clubs, events, and organizations mentioned in this episode, check out the show notes on our website.

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This episode was made possible in part by Breakwater Realty, RowSource, and our Patrons.

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Steady State Podcast is written, produced, hosted, and edited by Rachel Freedman and Tara Morgan. Tara provides additional audio engineering and is our sponsor coordinator. Rachel manages the website, social media, and e-newsletter. Our theme music is by Jonas Hipper.

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