Evanda May Calimar

Evanda May Calimar is a cook and supporter of the Washington Huskies rowing team during its stay in Poughkeepsie. Her cookhouse, her food, and her exuberant presence at the race connect the crew’s everyday needs with the public drama of competition: she feeds the rowers, then cheers them on with a frying pan raised above her head.

The cookhouse beside the crew’s quarters

When the Washington boys moved into Cornell’s former house, they found Calimar’s cookhouse on the beach, just twenty-five feet from their front door. Calimar, described as a woman of color, was in command of the kitchen. Her son Oliver, her mother, and her brother-in-law worked with her, preparing fried chicken for the crew’s first lunch there. The meal made an immediate impression: the boys quickly discovered what the narrative calls the heart of hog heaven, and Royal Brougham watched their appetite with amusement before wiring home a story that the Post-Intelligencer printed beneath a photograph of Joe Rantz labeled “Joe Rantz, The Eating Champion.”

Food against the coaches’ plans

Calimar’s cooking became part of the practical tension around the crew’s preparation. Al Ulbrickson and Tom Bolles had encouraged the rowers to gain three or four pounds during the train journey, intending that long-distance, low-rate rowing would take the weight back off before race day on June 22. Their aim was to have the boys at racing weight and in good condition—not too light or too heavy. The meals at the cookhouse worked against that plan: Calimar’s cooking was soon countering the coaches’ efforts. Her role therefore extended beyond providing hospitality; the food that nourished and delighted the crew also complicated the precise conditioning strategy imposed on them.

A visible supporter at the finish

During the final five hundred yards of the race, as spectators crowded the river and the noise engulfed the oarsmen, Calimar stood on the float in front of Washington’s shell house. She waved a frying pan over her head, whooping and urging the crew on. The gesture brought the cookhouse’s everyday relationship with the rowers into the charged public scene of competition. Amid the press-car commotion and Al Ulbrickson’s fixed silence, Calimar’s support was exuberant and unmistakable: a familiar figure from the crew’s meals cheering them through the last stretch.