McFarlane Announced as First Inductee of 2025 Row Ontario Hall of Fame Class
Ian McFarlane was honoured on Friday as he was announced as the first member of the 2025 Row Ontario Hall of Fame Class. With the induction, McFarlane becomes the sixth coach to be inducted into the Row Ontario Hall of Fame.
While most well-known for his over 40-year association as a coach with Queen’s University and the Kingston Rowing Club, McFarlane got his start in rowing in his hometown of St. Catharines. Like many, who later transition to coaching, he started out as a competitive rower, taking his first strokes on the water in the 1960’s as a student at St. Catharines Collegiate. He soon began rowing in the summer with the St. Catharines Rowing Club and following high school stayed in the area to attend Brock University, where he rowed on the Badgers varsity team. McFarlane was named team captain and was a member of the 1972 lightweight crew that won gold in both the lightweight and varsity races at the OUAA Championships and were named as co-Male Athletes of the Year in 1972-73.
While attending Brock, McFarlane began his hall of fame coaching career, coaching the Brock men’s junior varsity team to OUAA gold in 1973. He was a founding coach of the Governor Simcoe Secondary School rowing program and coached two St. Catharines Rowing Club crews to Henley gold in 1973 and 1974.
“If you’re going to do something, do it well.” – Ian McFarlane
Following his graduation from Brock, McFarlane moved to Kingston, ON in 1974, where there was no active rowing program. Two years later, after answering an ad in the local paper, he became involved with the establishment of rowing in Kingston and the founding of the Kingston Rowing Club and Queen’s University Rowing both as a Director of the Board and Coach in 1977. McFarlane was installed as the first men’s head coach at Queen’s as well as launching the men’s high school rowing program through Kingston Collegiate. John Armitage, who McFarlane competed against just a few years earlier on the regatta course, with Armitage suiting up for the Brockville Rowing Club, became Queen’s first women’s head coach as well as a coach with the KRC. McFarlane and Armitage formed a coaching partnership that would lead to much success on the regatta course for both the university and club programs. The Queen’s Gaels would go on to win 20 (7 men, 13 women) OUA Championships banners during their tenure as coaches with the program, while many KRC club and high school crews would win titles at the CSSRA Championships, provincial championships, national championships and Royal Canadian Henley regattas.
McFarlane also left his mark at the international level, beginning with coaching at the Henley Royal Regatta in 1981 and the World University Championships in 1982 (two golds). From 1983-1987 he was a member of the coaching staff for Canada’s national rowing team and coached at multiple international regattas including the 1986 Commonwealth Games (silver), four World Championships, and the 1984 Summer Olympic Games, coaching the women’s coxed quad.
Off the regatta course, McFarlane has also contributed greatly to coaching at the provincial and national levels, serving as a member of RCA’s Coach Education and Development Committee enhancing the quality of RCA’s National Coaching Certification Program, RCA National Coaches Conference and the long-term athlete development model. In addition to coaching, he volunteered in many other capacities, including being a long-time board member of the KRC where he served as President from 1997-2006.
Throughout his coaching career McFarlane consistently demonstrated a commitment to the sport of rowing, never more evident from the year’s 2007-17, where he moved to Toronto for work but returned to Kingston on weekends to continue his association with the KRC and Queen’s. After retiring, McFarlane resumed coaching full-time in Kingston until 2021. He has received numerous awards and citations for coaching and service over the years including RCA Coach of Year (1982), Row Ontario Coach of Year (1995), KRC Award of Merit (2003), CSSRA Lifetime Service Recognition Award (2005) and AMP Lifetime Service in Coaching Award (2023). He’s also been previously inducted into the Kingston & District Sports Hall of Fame (2004), Queen’s Coaching Hall of Fame (2006), Kingston Rowing Hall of Fame (2017) and Brock Badgers Athletic Hall of Fame (2025).
McFarlane will be honoured with an in-person induction ceremony on Sunday, June 22 in Kingston, ON. The details for the induction ceremony are as follows:
What: Row Ontario Hall of Fame Induction / KRC Boat Naming Ceremony
When: Sunday, June 22 at 10:30am
Where: Kingston Rowing Club, 1 Cataraqui St
The ceremony will include the Row Ontario Hall of Fame Induction of Ian McFarlane and the Kingston Rowing Club’s boat naming ceremony for Ian and Jane McFarlane. To attend please send an RSVP to info@kingstonrowing.com with all the names of the people who will be in attendance.
Additional members of the 2025 induction class will be determined at a later date.
Visit Row Ontario Hall of Fame for more information.
