Baldwin’s crew team is notorious around campus for spending countless hours erging (practicing on the rowing machines) in the Athletic Center and enduring the rigorous spring season schedule. While students in the Upper School often hear about the current crew team, very few know the history and successes of Baldwin’s past crew team. 

In 1967, Baldwin crew became the first scholastic girls’ team in Philadelphia. However, they were unofficial until 1971, when they first competed. Having no local scholastic teams to race, Baldwin raced local club teams instead.

During the early 1970s, Baldwin’s team shouldered a demanding training load of five to six days a week, sometimes twice a day. Coach Jim Glavin, who began coaching Baldwin crew in the summer of ‘72, says that he was “amazed by the work ethic, determination, and commitment of the team.”

Baldwin’s first major accomplishment was in the spring of 1973. At the Stotesbury Regatta, which is now the largest scholastic regatta in the world, Baldwin’s senior four—a boat with four rowers, each with one oar—won, earning themselves the Airley Cup. 

More successes for the team followed. That July, the team headed up to Connecticut to compete in Nationals. They brought an eight (eight people, one oar each), a four, and a single; the eight clinched first place and claimed the title of the National Junior Girls’ Championship.

Since Glavin could not travel with the team for Nationals, he gave them a race plan to follow. 

He recalls the moment he received the call from the girls: “They were all cheering, saying ‘We won! We won!’ Even second or third would have been great, but first— man, that was special.”

Baldwin crew has also produced an Olympian, Dr. Ruth Davidon Rodgers ‘82. Dr. Rodgers has distinguished herself internationally as a top-level sculler. 

Representing Team USA, she initially competed in three consecutive World Championships from 1993 to 1995 in the quad (four people, two oars each) and single, placing within the top six each year. Dr. Rodgers competed in two Olympics; placing sixth in the single at the Atlanta 1996 games and fourth in the double at the Sydney 2000 games.

In 1994, Dr. Rodgers received the United States Rowing Association Carie Graves Female Athlete of the Year Award. In 2013, she was officially inducted into Baldwin’s Hall of Fame. 

Baldwin initially rowed out of the Bachelors Barge Club on Boathouse Row, along with other high school teams like Conestoga, Lower Merion, and Harriton until the early 2000s. Around 2009, Drexel took over Bachelors, and all the schools besides Conestoga had to find new boathouses.

Undine Barge Club, initially an all-men’s boathouse, opened to women in 1990. When Baldwin had to leave Bachelors, they became tenants at Undine. 

However, many objected to the fact that Baldwin was moving into Undine. Coach Leslie Pfeil, the current president of Philadelphia Scholastic Rowing Association (PSRA), said, “Haverford was still at Undine…[the coach] was afraid that the girls would distract the boys.”

However, Baldwin remains a member of Undine to this day.

Today, Baldwin crew continues to enjoy success, supporting rowers who have committed to many notable Division I and III institutions including Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Virginia, Williams College, Connecticut College, and more.