The University of Washington Conibear Shellhouse is a working home for the rowing program and a place where its history is made visible and passed on. Beneath its ceiling hangs the Husky Clipper, the cedar-and-spruce shell rowed in Berlin by the 1936 gold-medal crew; nearby, a replacement oak commemorates the nine boys, while freshmen gather beneath the boat to hear what joining the team will demand. The building holds memory not as a sealed exhibit but as part of the program’s daily and seasonal life.

The Husky Clipper and Its Return

The spacious, open building was built in 1949 and recently renovated. In its light-filled dining commons, the Husky Clipper hangs suspended from the ceiling, its red and yellow wood gleaming under small spotlights. A wall of glass on the eastern side looks out toward Lake Washington. Visitors wander in to admire the boat and exchange what they know about its crew and their race in Berlin.

For years the shell lived in the old shell house, where it was mostly unused except during the crew’s ten-year anniversary rows. During part of the 1960s it was loaned to Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma. The University of Washington requested its return in 1967, restored it, and displayed it in the student union; it was later shown at a rowing center named for George Pocock before coming to its present place in the Conibear Shellhouse. Its movement from storage and loan to prominent display made the shell a continuing presence in the university’s rowing community.

The Oak and the Nine Rowers

The shellhouse grounds also became associated with a memorial prompted by the loss of another object. An oak tree that Joe Rantz had brought home from the Olympics died after being transplanted several times on the university campus. Its death troubled Joe in his final years. In winter 2008, a small group gathered near the Conibear Shellhouse, where the university had secured a new oak at Judy Willman’s urging.

Bob Ernst, the University of Washington’s director of rowing, made a brief speech. Judy then placed nine shovelfuls of soil at the base of the tree, one for each of the boys. The ceremony linked the living campus to the Olympic crew through a concrete act of remembrance: the replacement tree stood near the shellhouse, while the nine measures of soil assigned each member a place in its planting.

A Working Tradition

Each fall, several hundred freshmen assemble beneath the Husky Clipper on early October afternoons. Men attend on one day and women on another. They fill out registration cards, look around at one another, and talk nervously while waiting for the freshman coach. The coach begins with the costs of trying out: long hours and training that will be cold, wet, and miserable. He also explains that the University of Washington crew typically has the highest grade-point average of any athletic team on campus, and that academic performance is expected alongside rowing.

The address then turns from hardship to the opportunity to earn a place among the program’s white blades. The coach connects the prospect of joining the crew to regional victories, the long rivalry with California, and the program’s national and international reputation, including the many championships and Olympians it has produced. As he points to the Husky Clipper, several hundred students look up and the room grows quiet before he begins the story. The shellhouse thus serves not only as a display space but as a setting where the team’s demanding standards and inherited history are presented together to those considering entry into the crew.