Hamilton dominates new Ontario rowing shrine
Morrow, Saunders, early Leander crews in inaugural hall class
Al Morrow has vivid memories of Claude Saunders who, for decades, was the spinal cord of not only Leander Boat Club but also rowing in Ontario.
“When you shook hands with him, those huge hands just engulfed you,” recalls Morrow, the Hamilton native and longtime head coach of the national women’s rowing team. “And he conducted himself as a gentlemen. He did everything at Leander: the fundraising and the hall rentals that kept the club alive, he’d even tend bar at them. The old-timers would always tell stories about him. He was a legend.”
Morrow’s a legend himself and joins Saunders, the 1930-39 Leander Boat Club men’s 8 crew, and three other inductees into the inaugural class of the Row Ontario Hall of Fame. The new hall was started to mark the 50th year of Row Ontario as the provincial governing body of the sport and recognizes outstanding career contributions to rowing. Rowing Ontario had hoped to have a live ceremony during its provincial conference, but the pandemic thwarted that and inductions were held online in late November instead.
The Hall’s Original Six is an emphatic salute to Hamilton and its signature rowing club.
“I noticed that right away,” Morrow says.
Half of the initial inductees were Leander Club members, and another, the incomparable Marnie McBean, was directly coached by Morrow. He teamed McBean with Kathleen Heddle to form one of rowing history’s most dominant pairings.
Ned Hanlan, Canada’s first individual world champion and national individual sports idol, and St. Catharines umpire Ken Campbell were also inducted.
Leander vice-president George Gage, who rowed with Morrow at the club in the late 1960s, is gratified the club’s important legacy has been so distinctly honoured and adds rowing has always “treasured the human values. The kind of person you are. And these are all terrific people.”
It’s fitting and symbolic the Ontario hall cites an entire decade of Leander 8 crews because a straight line runs from them right through to Morrow and beyond.
The club was formed in 1927 by a number of prominent Hamilton business people and sports leaders. Leander soon took over, decisively, from the Toronto Argonauts (yes, rowing, too) as the reigning force and the Hamilton eights rowed to the bronze medal at the inaugural British Empire Games in ’30 right in their home town. The Leander crew also captured bronze at the ’32 Los Angeles Olympics and represented Canada again at the ’36 Berlin Games. They would have been Canada’s eights at the ’40 Olympics had the Second World War not intervened. Leander also won several national Royal Canadian Henley Regatta titles over the decade.
The Row Ontario honour goes collectively to a decade of Leander 8s, and that would have to include more than a dozen men who featured prominently on the top heavyweight crews. The ’32 Olympic bronze medallists were Les “Shorty” MacDonald, Earl Eastwood, Joe Harris, Stan Stanyar, Harry Fry, Cedric Liddell, William Thoburn, Donald Boal and Albert Taylor. Saunders and four other newcomers were on the ’36 Olympic team and football star and future politician Reg Wheeler was among those who had qualified to row in the ’40 Games.
Saunders became Leander club president in ’49 and held the post for 31 years. Among other accomplishments, he chaired the Henley for four decades, was president of Rowing Canada, managed Canada’s ’60 Olympic team, was an international umpire and helped found the national high school rowing championships.
“Claude Saunders could be the only choice as the first builder inducted,” says Gage, who sits on Row Ontario’s selection committee. “They just don’t make them like him any more.”
Saunders was still heavily active when Morrow began his competitive career in 1965, rowing for Leander, Westdale and the Hamilton Central high school teams. He left Hamilton to row in St. Catharines, then at Western and UBC, won a bronze medal in men’s fours at the ’75 Pan Am Games and was on the ’76 Olympic team. He then went into coaching, first at UBC, then with Rowing Canada, which later moved him to the women’s rowing centre in London. He turned the women’s program around — they won three golds and a bronze at the ’92 Olympics — and made it one of the strongest in the world. He, like Saunders, is a member of the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame.
“I’ve always thought of Hamilton as my town and Leander as my home club,” Morrow said. “It’s kind of neat that all those “Leander-era” people were nominated. I recognized all of those names. If you went to a banquet, they’d be there, and telling the stories. And there was all that history and memorabilia at the club. We used to pride ourselves on being pretty tough at Leander. Rowing on the bay can sometimes be calm in the morning, but we could handle all the elements and had to. We came from that blue-collar background and we usually rowed in rough conditions. We always thought that made us stronger.”