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Testimonials
Praises for Bitten by the Rowing Bug
Dotty Brown
Author of Boathouse Row, Waves of Change in the Birthplace of American Rowing
A turbulent river, a dearth of funding, makeshift equipment—these were just a few of the challenges faced by Oregon State crew as it struggled to emerge as one of the earliest West Coast rowing programs. Karl Drlica draws on numerous interviews and troves of original documents, including the diary of his coach-father, to write the definitive history of Oregon State rowing —a fascinating read filled with untold stories of creativity and grit.
Andras “Andy” Toro, OLY
Canoeing, 1960, ’64, ’72, ’76
Author of Chronicles of an Olympic Defector
The history of any sport captures my attention and Karl Drlica’s Bitten by the Rowing Bug is a great combination of sport history, interesting recollections, and accounts of a time that we both lived through but seems so distant now. With women’s rowing programs so well funded today and so popular, it is instructive to remember the trials and tribulations, blood, sweat and tears which brought the sport to it’s current status in clubs, high schools and institutions of higher learning across America. At the same time that Karl was coaching a fledging program for women at Cal, I was doing the same with a handful of men and women at the University of Michigan in my sport, canoeing. His stories ring so true to my ears and bring those sights and sounds of docks, boats and rivers alive in my memory! It is so fortunate that the archive of material he inherited from his father and added to with his own legacy has been collected in this entertaining and important history of rowing in the U.S., Oregon and California in particular.
John Frohnmayer, Chairman Emeritus, National Endowment for the Arts and author of the Lara Cole Adventure Series.
This is a fine and comprehensive book that not only tells a story of persistence, courage and fortitude, but expresses a love for the sport that is the epitome of teamwork: rowing. Coach Karl Drlica is legendary, and deservedly so. It is fair to say that without him, generations of students would not have rowed and many of their parents would not have also become rowers. As someone who has benefitted richly from his legacy, I commend this book to rowers and non-rowers alike.
Jane Toro
Cal Women’s Crew 1974-76
As a member of the second iteration of Cal Women’s Crew in the 1970s, I found the history and anecdotes which Coach Karl Drlica tells of the pioneering efforts at establishing a women’s crew at Cal in the 1960s fascinating! With no precedents, Art Sachs and Drlica had to figure out how to coach women as well as how to acquire equipment, a boathouse, get the crew to races, etc. all on a non-existent budget and outright animosity from the rowing and academic establishments. The coaches weren’t the only ones to have huge obstacles to overcome. The brave, pioneering women who took on this challenge speak for themselves in quotes from several members of the team about their largely unsupported journey to becoming athletes in a difficult sport and time. Throughout this section of the book, Drlica also blends in stories of those politically turbulent times and other aspects of life on the Berkeley campus, making a very interesting read for all, rowers and non-rowers alike.
Steve Rogers
Associate Rowing Coach at Oregon State University, 1969-1972
Bitten was hard to put down. It captured the way that life and people have changed over 80+ years, particularly on the West Coast. The book should be interesting to a much larger audience than just those connected to rowing.
Rowing News
April 22, 2024
“Going far beyond his personal recollections, Drlica–a microbiologist who has written several books on DNA–has done exhaustive research on the turbulent story of Oregon State rowing. He draws on numerous interviews and troves of original documents, including the diary of his coach-father (the proof is 62 pages of footnotes!). The result is a definitive history of one of the first rowing clubs of any West Coast university–a fascinating read filled with untold stories of creativity and grit.
“ ...Despite the difficulties and dangers that Karl Drlica presents in his book about the Willamette River and Corvalis rowing, the greatest danger the author faced happened to himself when, as an aging masters rower, he experienced the most frightening of possibilities … : his own heart attack. He describes what happened in the epilogue with the same intense detail that imbues his recounting of Oregon State rowing.
“Drlica collapsed sideways in his boat, which rolled over, leaving him upside down, his feet stuck in the foot stretchers, his head underwater. He would remain unconscious as he was pulled from the water, given three shocks with a defibrillator on the dock by a physician-rower, and raced to the hospital, where he woke up three days later.
“To piece together the story, Drlica did the kind of definitive reporting that characterizes his entire book: He interviewed everyone who helped save him. Dotty Brown”
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