Al Ulbrickson—Ky Ebright

The rivalry between Al Ulbrickson and Ky Ebright was the strategic heart of the contest between the Washington Huskies rowing team and California crew. Their competition was not settled by one race: a Washington victory on Lake Washington could be followed by a California triumph at Poughkeepsie or over the Olympic distance. Each coach had to judge not only his own crew’s strength but also what the other coach might be preparing, and the uncertainty between them made every result provisional.

A rivalry shaped by rowing’s national hierarchy

In the 1920s and 1930s, collegiate rowing drew major crowds and national press attention. Yet its institutional center remained in the East, where elite private schools and universities sustained a powerful tradition. The western programs had fewer resources, and their coaches earned much less than their eastern counterparts; California and Washington also competed largely against each other. Their annual April regattas drew tens of thousands, making the rivalry a public contest over western rowing’s standing as well as a test of two crews.

Poughkeepsie embodied that larger hierarchy. Its regatta had grown into a major national sporting event, with crowds reaching 125,000 in 1929, and eastern colleges had dominated much of its early history. Washington’s 1923 victory had shown that a western crew could win there, but the journey remained expensive, and western crews encountered condescension as well as curiosity. For Ulbrickson and Ebright, success at Poughkeepsie therefore carried a significance beyond the margin between boats: it could establish which western program was best positioned to challenge the established order.

Crew selection and the pressure of Poughkeepsie

The rivalry sharpened when the coaches’ boats met amid preparations for the 1935 Poughkeepsie regatta. Ulbrickson learned that Ebright had returned four members of the previous year’s national-championship crew to California’s varsity shell. Six oarsmen in all were now veterans of that championship crew. Ulbrickson wondered whether California’s earlier loss in Oakland had concealed a stronger plan for the national race; the evidence established the changes in Ebright’s boat, not the suspicion behind them.

The comparisons made the threat immediate. Bookmakers and sportswriters began likening the reconstituted California varsity to the California crew that had won Olympic gold in 1932. Reports from Poughkeepsie also rated its stroke oar, Eugene Berkenkamp, alongside Peter Donlon, who had stroked California to Olympic gold in 1928 and to the fastest time on the Poughkeepsie course. The information put pressure on Ulbrickson before the race itself: California appeared to possess both proven championship experience and a formidable stroke oar.

On June 12, Ulbrickson tested his Washington sophomores against the older boys. The younger crew fell apart as soon as it saw the varsity and finished eight lengths behind. Ulbrickson demoted the sophomores to junior varsity, choosing the older crew for the varsity race he most wanted to win. The result settled the selection question, but it did not settle the larger rivalry: a New York Times reporter observed that the newly named Washington varsity seemed to drag in the fourth mile. The team’s decisive trial margin and its apparent weakness over distance pointed in opposite directions.

Different courses, different tests

After Poughkeepsie, Ulbrickson agreed to a one-off 2,000-meter varsity race at Long Beach against California and other universities. The Olympic distance required a different kind of race from Poughkeepsie’s four-mile test. A crew still needed to build momentum at the start, conserve strength while staying within reach, and sprint at the finish, but over 2,000 meters each phase arrived faster. Positioning in the middle and the timing of the final effort became more critical. Ulbrickson believed that Bobby Moch’s judgment in the coxswain’s seat gave Washington an advantage at that distance; beating California could also challenge the growing assumption that California would represent the United States in Berlin.

The crews stayed close through most of the Long Beach race. With 200 meters remaining, California edged ahead; at 100 meters, its lead had grown to a quarter length. Moch shouted to his crew, and Washington surged during the last 50 meters, but the recovery came too late. Ebright’s California crew won in 6:15.6, half a second ahead. The defeat denied Ulbrickson the immediate chance to reverse the public expectation, and the narrative presents the loss as possibly his last at the head of the program. It also demonstrated the difficulty of translating one crew’s promise across distances: Washington’s belief in Moch’s shorter-course advantage did not produce victory.

The 1936 contest and its unresolved stakes

As the 1936 season approached, both coaches had grounds for confidence. Ebright’s California varsity recorded 15:34 for three miles on the Oakland estuary while running with the tide. In a later trial in slack water, it finished in 16:15, still five seconds faster than Ulbrickson’s crew’s 16:20 trial. Ebright did not treat past seats as secure: he initially assigned his rowers by drawing names from a hat, requiring championship veterans and other contenders alike to earn their places again. He then built his crew through long pulls on the estuary and trials at shorter distances, judging it capable of succeeding at both the longer races and the Olympic trials.

Their approaches to preparation differed in visible ways. Ebright restored a training table for the top two California boats, offering free dinners at Stephens Union, where hearty meals included steak and milk. Washington had no equivalent budget; Ulbrickson instead required his rowers to take a chalky pink calcium drink and Knox Sparkling Gelatine. The contrast does not establish that either method decided the races, but it shows the unequal resources with which the two programs tried to prepare their crews.

At the Pacific Coast Regatta on Lake Washington, the coaches faced one another in a race neither could read with certainty. The two varsity crews were nearly equal in total weight: California’s rowers weighed 1,557 pounds and Washington’s 1,561. Both had experienced oarsmen and capable coxswains, and both raced state-of-the-art, 62-foot cedar shells built by George Pocock: the Husky Clipper and California Clipper. Their similar construction and weight left watermanship and nerve as the apparent deciding factors. Washington crossed three lengths ahead, setting a varsity course record of 15:56.4, 37 seconds faster than the previous mark.

Ulbrickson’s victory did not end his doubts. Washington had now beaten Ebright’s crew at the Pacific Coast Regatta in two successive years, only to lose at Poughkeepsie the previous time. He could not know whether the latest win foretold lasting superiority or another reversal. The result encouraged discussion of Berlin, but the coaches’ rivalry remained organized around tests still to come: Poughkeepsie, the Olympic trials, and the possibility of racing the best crews in the world. Its defining pattern was not a settled hierarchy but a repeated contest in which selection, distance, conditions, and the next race could reopen the question of which coach had built the stronger boat.