Annual Southern Gentleman Issue
By Tory Imeger
With abundant waterways and mountainscapes, Chattanooga is home to a diverse and enthusiastic set of athletes who take advantage of the many outdoor sports on offer in the region. One sport in particular draws thousands of spectators to downtown Chattanooga each fall for a two-day racing event. Enter rowing, one of the most storied competitive sports and one that’s available to Chattanoogans in our own backyard.
Photos Courtesy of Sean McCourt
Rowing, sometimes referred to as “crew,” has a rich background, originating in its modern form around the 19th century. It was at this time that competitive rowing in six- or eight-oar boats began to emerge among clubs and university athletic programs, beginning in England and followed by programs in the United States. The first Harvard-Yale regatta in 1852 is heralded by many as the origin point of competitive rowing in the States, establishing rowing as the oldest intercollegiate athletic event in the country.
Bringing the sport to the Scenic City, however, is a different story. Establishing a notable rowing scene in Chattanooga was many years in the making. In 1974, a group of motivated and passionate athletes banded together to form Lookout Rowing Club (LRC), a public rowing club now operating out of the facility of nonprofit Chattanooga Rowing. This combination of adult rowers and University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) faculty and students garnered traction for the sport, and over the next 20 years, local schools Baylor, McCallie, and Girls Preparatory School (GPS) would launch their own rowing programs for student athletes. Since its inception, Chattanooga Rowing has expanded to offer a Chattanooga Juniors Rowing (CJR) program for high school students as well as an adaptive/para-rowing program.
Henry Magnuson, president of Chattanooga Rowing, reflects on the visionaries that brought the sport to Chatta-nooga. “Those in the rowing community definitely are standing on the shoulders of those who came before us,” he says. With access to these programs, athletes of any age and gender can access the sport to pursue competitively, from a regional to an international level.
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“For some of these students, trying to get them out of their comfort zone is a challenge, but it’s one that I think our coaches embrace really well. There’s still a level of education you have to do, but when the guys come and they try it, they really like it. You’re outside, you’re working hard, you’re with a great squad of teammates, and that’s what really keeps them coming back.”
Sean McCourt, Head Rowing Coach, McCallie School
Photos Courtesy of Henry Magnuson
As the rowing community in Chattanooga began making waves in the ‘90s, the Scenic City drew the attention of rowers from around the country. In anticipation of the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, the U.S. Women’s Team relocated to Chattanooga to train out of the newly built, state-of-the-art rowing center named in honor of William G. Raoul, a pioneering member of the LRC.
Two years later at the World Rowing Championships in Finland, the women’s eight, four, pair, and lightweight pair won gold, and the U.S. Women’s Team went on to take two silver medals at the 1996 Olympics.
From Olympians to amateurs, every rower in Chattanooga gathers around the same focal point: the Tennessee River. “Access to the river is essential to our sport,” shares Magnuson. “We’ve learned to get up early in the morning to get on calm, flat water and avoid other boaters for safety. We appreciate those who work to keep the river clean and healthy.” The overall length of the river is a huge asset to rowers, while the temperate seasons of the Southeast are hard to beat. The setting draws athletes from all around the world to train and compete in Chattanooga, including summer programs like the U.S. Rowing Youth Development Camp.
“Regardless of one’s age, Chattanooga offers some of the best entry points to the sport of any city in the Southeast,” says Anders Swanson, former head rowing coach at Baylor School and GPS. Swanson’s father, Richard, founded the McCallie rowing program, so Swanson was introduced to crew at an early age. “I grew up surrounded by the sport and traveled frequently with the McCallie team to various regattas. Learning the sport in an environment surrounded by world-class athletes and coaches was truly a gift,” he says. This experience opened doors for him to row at Princeton University, which included a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to compete in the Henley Royal Regatta in England, the most famed rowing race in the world.
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“As an endurance sport, the real prediction of how you are going to perform is how much work you have put in on practice days. As I’ve gotten used to that, I have relaxed more on race day. The best part of a competition is to see and compete against old friends.”
Henry Magnuson, President, Chattanooga Rowing
Photo Courtesy of Chris Lemcke
In 2005, nearly 30 years after the establishment of LRC, a new tradition was established in Chattanooga: The Head of the Hooch® regatta. Held annually on the first weekend in November, this regatta is a 4,500-meter race that draws over 6,000 athletes and 20,000 spectators to Ross’s Landing for the two-day event. Touted as one of the world’s largest rowing regattas, the Hooch originated in North Georgia as the Head of the Chattahoochee, operated by the Atlanta Rowing Club, beginning in 1982. In 1997, the regatta moved to the Lake Lanier venue constructed for the 1996 Olympics, but as the race continued to grow, the Atlanta and Chattanooga rowing clubs collaborated to relocate the regatta to downtown Chattanooga. The name “Hooch” remains an homage to the Chatta-hoochee River where the regatta first began.
“The Head of the Hooch regatta brings a festival atmosphere to downtown Chattanooga every year,” shares regatta director Mike Connors. “Energy is at a fever pitch on race day, combining excitement, anxiety, celebration, disappointment, and exhaustion, all of which bond us as a community and create lifelong friendships. Not to mention that for us old timers, events like the Head of the Hooch are opportunities to catch up with old friends, teammates, and fellow competitors – it’s awesome!”
The Head of the Hooch® will celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2025, and it is only possible thanks to the efforts of hundreds of volunteers, as well as TVA, who came on board as the first title sponsor in 2022, and other partners Outdoor Chattanooga, Chattanooga Tourism, and The City of Chattanooga. “There is no better showcase of our downtown and the significant investment the city made in the waterfront area,” Swanson adds. “Every conversation I’ve had with visitors during the Hooch includes enthusiastic feedback on how impressive Chattanooga is.”
Photos Courtesy of Anders Swanson
Rowing is a deceptively challenging sport: the movements engage every large muscle group in the body, the five to eight minute races require physical and mental endurance, and the team must be coordinated in each movement to row effectively. Mastering rowing requires perfecting technique as well as committing to hours on the water and on the erg machine. Any coach will add, however, that a successful crew must amount to more than the sum of its parts.
“I’ve always believed that a successful rowing coach must do more than just teach the sport,” shares Swanson. “There are lessons and values inherent to rowing that are more important than having the best training plan or technique. I take great pride in hearing athletes I’ve coached share how formative the sport was for them, and how deeply they value the bonds made with their teammates.”
Baylor School director of rowing Garrison Smith had grown up playing hockey and baseball and didn’t begin rowing until he attended Yale University. After he decided to give rowing a try, he went on to compete with crews in the U.S. Olympic Festival and the Royal Canadian Henley Regatta. “Winning in rowing is somehow better than in any other sport,” Smith says. “I don’t know whether it’s the amount of training you do for a very short race or the competitive nature of the sport, but when a boat moves well together, it’s pretty amazing.”
Smith recalls a particular race where he hit a wall only two minutes in: “With eight other guys depending on me, I had to figure out a way to push through what I thought were my limits. I think that’s one of the things that rowing really brings – you learn to push beyond what you think you can do, which is really a life lesson.”
Once they’re on the water, crews can’t “bench” team members who are hitting a mental or physical block. This interdependence sets rowing apart from other team sports, creating a connection among crews that can be hard to replicate. Swanson echoes this sentiment, saying, “You must match up with your fellow crew members in near perfect unison, which requires constant concentration and compromise by each individual. The success and failure of each crew is dependent on their ability to follow each other, and being in a boat that ‘clicks’ is an experience that is hard to put into words – it is almost transcendental.”
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“Chattanooga’s natural resources are extraordinary, and rowing is one of the best ways to enjoy these gifts and see parts of our city that often go missed. Seeing the sunrise from the Tennessee River is hard to beat!”
Anders Swanson, Former Head Rowing Coach at Baylor School, GPS, and Choate Rosemary Hall (Wallingford, CT)
Photos Courtesy of Garrison Smith
Even as the sport continues to grow in the Chattanooga region, local coaches often have the joy of exposing rowing to students for the first time. “My favorite thing is athlete development,” says Sean McCourt. Originally from Philadelphia, McCourt began rowing in high school before continuing to the collegiate level at Boston University and later trying out for the U.S. Men’s Team. Through rowing, McCourt met his wife, Megan Dirkmaat McCourt, who is a six-time member of the U.S. National Rowing Team and silver medalist in the 2004 Olympics. The husband and wife duo coach at McCallie School.
McCourt says, “Rowing is different from all other sports in the sense that you don’t typically do it from the time you’re 5 years old. I love seeing guys come in who maybe have never even seen a [racing] boat before, and then in four years they could walk out and become a Division I athlete or have had an experience that they wouldn’t have gotten to do otherwise.”
While the Southeast may not yet have the same rowing precedence as its Northeastern neighbors, the Scenic City is ripe with potential for aspiring athletes. The growth of public access programs is one avenue for this, McCourt says. “I came from a public access program at the Olympic Rowing Center, and it was great for building community. By the time I left, we had representation from around 30 different high schools. I look at what’s possible here in the city of Chattanooga, and the river can offer a space for that.”
Rowing offers an experience that draws people from all backgrounds – those who may not be players in more popular team sports can soar to success on a crew, even despite a late start. “Rowing isn’t always about having the biggest muscles as much as it is about using your muscles the right way to leverage the boat through the water,” Smith adds. “Not every student loves rowing, but there are a lot of kids who are athletic, and maybe they’re athletic in a different way. When they try rowing, they really fall in love with the sport.”
The same goes for adults who come to the sport later in life. With the support of local clubs and coaches, novices can advance to compete in the Head of the Hooch® in a manner of months. How to get to that point? Put in the hours, according to Smith. “Rowing has a pretty direct relationship with improvement, whereas with other sports, it’s a little more amorphous. If you’re willing to put in the time and the meters, you’re going to get faster.”
Whether starting at the junior level or getting on the water recreationally, rowing is a sport for life. Rowing can take athletes to regattas across the world or simply allow locals to experience Chattanooga in a new way. Locals interested in taking up the oars can connect with Chattanooga Rowing to learn more about the programs available for differing ages and abilities. Gold medals are never guaranteed, but lifelong memories and friendships are sure to be found on the water.
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“I think rowing is really the consummate team sport. Everybody is so interdependent on one another, and that develops this kind of connection. You may not like everybody in your boat, but you have to trust everybody in your boat and work together, or you’re not going to have a very fast crew.”
Garrison Smith, Director of Rowing, Baylor School
1974: Lookout Rowing Club (LRC) is established by Chattanooga community members and UTC students and faculty
1989: McCallie School rowing program begins
1992: Baylor School rowing program begins
1993: LRC coordinates the first annual Chattanooga Head Race | Chattanooga Junior Rowing program begins | William G. Raoul Rowing Center opens | U.S. Women’s National Rowing Team trains in Chattanooga for the 1996 Summer Olympics
1994: GPS establishes rowing as a varsity sport, becoming the first school in the Chattanooga area to field a girls’ team
1996: U.S. Women’s National Rowing Team takes two silver medals in the Summer Olympics in Atlanta
2004: U.S. Men’s Eights team, including UTC graduate and former McCallie coach Dan Beery, wins gold at the Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece
2005: Head of the Hooch® regatta moves to Chattanooga
2021: GPS – McCallie Rowing Center opens as a 15,000 square foot world-class facility that can accommodate over 100 athletes
2025: Head of the Hooch® regatta to celebrate its 20th anniversary in the Scenic City
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“That’s easy – it’s the camaraderie of the sport and the many relationships I have developed through the years. Rowing friendships are lifelong friendships.”
Mike Connors, Regatta Director, Head of the Hooch®, Vice President & Rowing Director, Chattanooga Rowing
