Getting to Know the Leander Boat Club
To honour the history, dedication and current initiatives of each rowing community, Row Ontario will be producing a series of profiles on member clubs across Ontario. Today we get to know more about the Leander Boat Club!
Leander Boat Club
Established: 1927
Location: Hamilton, Ont.
https://www.leanderboatclubofhamilton.com/
While the Leander Boat Club was formally established in 1927, competitive rowing in the Hamilton area began well before that. Legendary sculler Ned Hanlan competed and won twice on Hamilton waters in the mid-1870’s, and several rowing clubs came and went before the Leander Boat Club was created.
The first rowing club to be established in the Hamilton area was the Leander Rowing Club, which was born in 1877. The following year saw the establishment of the Nautilus Club, a rowing club created by local glassworkers that is considered to be the strongest Hamilton club of the era. Both clubs lasted until the mid-1890’s when they ceased operations. A few years passed before the Hamilton Rowing Club came into existence in 1900, setting up shop in the old Leander boathouse until a fire in 1907 precipitated a move to a power house at the foot of James St. The Hamilton Rowing Club lasted until 1925 when they followed in the footsteps of their predecessors and ceased operations. But again, Hamilton rowers didn’t have to wait long for another club to fill the void.
On May 28, 1927, the Leander Boat Club was incorporated by founding members S. Dumoulin, R. Frost, A. Muir, W. McGibbon, G. Long, A. Johnston, E. Kelly, R. Askew, and J. Mahony. The club grew rapidly from the outset, acquiring equipment from the defunct Hamilton Rowing Club and building a boathouse at the foot of John St. They even won the 150lb eights at the Royal Canadian Henley Regatta during their first season in operation. Success would follow the club throughout the next 25 years, as they sent crews to four consecutive Olympic Games between 1932-1952, under the expert direction of coaches Bob Hunter and Paddy Cline. Their biggest success came at the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles where they captured the bronze medal in the men’s eight, edging out the British Leander Club by four tenths of a second.
While their crews were experiencing success on the water during this period, the club had to deal with significant setbacks off the water as well. In December of 1941, a devastating fire destroyed half the boathouse and all their equipment. A second fire in November of 1949 damaged the steward’s room and dancehall, but thankfully left the boathouse untouched. Several issues including a sinking club house led the club to consider a move and in 1962 they moved down the road to the current location at the foot of Bay St. The move was spearheaded by Club President Claude Saunders, who was a member of the 1936 Leander Olympic crew and would go on to become one of the most legendary figures in the history of Ontario rowing. Following the move, the new building’s rowing, social, and change room facilities were reported as among the best in the country.
Since the move, the club has rowed out of the Hamilton Harbour which is an active shipping harbour. The members typically row along the Bayfront Park area, an open body of water which can get quite windy at times, usually limiting the rowers to morning sessions. The LBC’s rowers typically get on the water in early April and come off following the end of the Fall season in early November.
Big changes would also come in the ensuing years following the move, as women began to row at the club in 1971. Success for the women’s program at Leander soon followed, as three of the women in the first group to row at the club, Carol Love, Barb Mutch and Anne Stevenson went on to become members of the first women’s Olympic rowing team in 1976.
Over the last 50 years the club has continually produced rowers who moved on to the National Team and competed at the highest levels of the sport. In 1985, Mel Laforme, a long-time member and club contributor, won gold at the 1985 World Rowing Championships with the men’s quad, the first ever Canadian boat to win a gold medal at a World Championship. In 1992, Andy Crosby and John Wallace were members of the Olympic gold medal-winning eight. Jacqui Cook captured medals at three consecutive World Championships (2001-2003) and Joe Stankevicius was part of the Canadian Men’s Eight that were world champions in 2002 and 2003. Both Stankevicius and Cook also competed at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Doug Csima won silver with the men’s eight at the 2012 London Olympics and just last year Luke Gadsdon competed at the Tokyo Olympics with the men’s four. There have been many more rowers from Leander who have gone on to compete on various FISU, Canada Summer Games, World Championship and National Team’s, in part due to the strong programming during their formative years at Leander – including legendary coach Al Morrow.
“We offer a variety of programs such as our competitive programs with our juniors and seniors as well as our masters program,” said Andrea Jansen, a member of the club’s Board of Directors. “And we also have our summer programs where we offer a youth recreational program, as well as a learn-to-row program. Once rowers graduate from learn-to-row, depending on their age, they have the option of joining the recreational program for adults where they can row four times per week. We also have our high school program which runs from April 1 until the first week of June and we have five high schools signed up for that through the Hamilton School Board and the Hamilton Catholic School Board.”
The club also runs a university program through their partnership with McMaster University during the Fall season. The McMaster rowing team has history dating back over 50 years, and after a long hiatus the program was brought back in the early 2000’s. The success of all of Leander’s rowing programs are due in large part to the community atmosphere at the club.
“One of the unique things about all of our programs is they are run by volunteer coaches,” said Jansen. “We have high school kids who come back and volunteer, and people who rowed competitive come back and volunteer. Several successful volunteer coaches at Leander include Jim Roche, Doug Patterson, Brad Langmead, Mike McAllister, Kevin Monaco, and Jake Thomasen. It’s a real community and every program is helping every other program in some way. Our whole club is about community, everyone being involved and supporting each other along the way.”
In addition to the wide variety of programs they run, Leander also hosts several events which have become a part of the Ontario rowing landscape.
“When high school rowing is running, we host the city championships in the spring,” said John Butler, the club’s current President. “In the fall, we typically host a sprint event with Row Ontario and then in the winter we have the Leander Indoor Rowing Championships, which in the last few years we’ve run it has really grown in numbers. We had a bunch of participants from the St. Catharines area which was great. We also support McMaster in running the McMaster 2×4 Challenge, which is another indoor competition geared toward clubs, universities, masters, junior, and crossfit competitors.”
Leander enjoys the benefits of continuity in leadership with many former rowers serving on the executive over extended periods of time. These have included the aforementioned Claude Saunders, Doug Patterson, Jim Roche, Ted Wilcox, Isabel Miller and current board member George Gage. These individuals, and others, have provided a consistent and stable platform and given thoughtful and experienced advice that promoted Leander’s success through 95 years of continuous existence.
In addition to the established events, Leander has been innovative in planning future events and hope to debut a new regatta called ‘Hammer the Harbour’ in 2022. The concept is to partner with local canoe clubs and coastal rowing enthusiasts and bring all boat classes together for a distance race regatta in the Hamilton Harbour. The target date to host it is June 2022 and proceeds from the event will be put towards starting a para rowing program at Leander.
With over 200 members in an average year, the Leander Boat Club is a full-service club that serves the entire rowing population. In addition to members from Hamilton, they draw from a wide area, including Stoney Creek, Ancaster, Dundas, Waterdown, Burlington and as far as Cambridge.
Thank you to John Butler, Andrea Jansen and the Leander Boat Club for their generous contributions and help in completing this profile. Photos are property of the Leander Boat Club.
