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USRowing 2010 Man of the Year: Bill Engeman
December 02, 2010
For the better part of this year, Bill Engeman has been focused on helping a handful of rowers from Iraq.
Along with Community Rowing’s Bruce Smith, Engeman traveled halfway around the world to work with them. And then, the duo helped a group of five rowers and one coach travel to the United States to train in Boston, in Princeton with the United States National Team, and then in Cincinnati to help them prepare to compete at the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, China.
So, it was no surprise that when asked about being named USRowing’s 2010 Man of the Year, he flipped the subject back to the Iraqis.
“If I’m the man of the year, what the heck are they?” Engeman asked. And there was no stopping him. The former attorney from Cincinnati was brimming with pride. The Iraqi lightweight men’s four had finished just out of the medals, but single sculler Haeider Hamarasheid had brought home a bronze medal.
“I applaud him,” the 71-year-old Engeman said. “And because it gives me a chance to talk about these guys, I’m all for the award. So that’s what I’m going to do.”
While the award, given in recognition of outstanding contributions to men’s rowing or to an outstanding man in rowing, is largely about what Engeman has accomplished with this group of Iraqi athletes, it also recognizes his lifetime of accomplishments.
Engeman began his rowing career at Washington-Lee High School in 1956. He rowed at Brown University from 1957 to 1961 and captained the first Brown University varsity crew. He later became the first oarsman to be inducted into Brown’s Athletic Hall of Fame.
After settling down into a law career in Cincinnati, Engeman set out to bring rowing to his city after a rowable lake was developed at East Fork State Park in 1982.
With the help of rowing friends and supporters, Engeman developed rowing programs, boathouses and facilities. He helped organize and run 15 National Collegiate Rowing Championships and was recognized for his work in 1998 when he was admitted as a patron into the National Rowing Hall of Fame.
For nearly 30 years, Engeman has served as a trustee for the National Rowing Foundation.
Harvard University coach Harry Parker met Engeman in 1960 when both were competing at the Olympic trials, and their friendship grew over the years as Engeman tackled one project after another.
“His contributions to rowing have been pretty remarkable,” Parker said. “His first achievement was while he was an undergraduate at Brown. He revitalized that program and led the team to an extremely successful season, including participation in the Olympic trials when it was still a club program. (He) clearly established the momentum to make it a varsity program.”
Parker said that Engeman was the driving force behind the collegiate national championship and the development of youth rowing in Cincinnati. “It was his idea to put that regatta together, and it was a great success.”
While the Iraqi project took shape this past year, the work began nearly three years ago after Engeman saw a newspaper article about scullers training on the Tigris River in the middle of the war. Last spring, Smith and Engeman went to Iraq and ran a rowing camp. He then helped organize the athletes’ trip to the United States in September.
Asked what he thought about the Iraqi project, Parker laughed and called it “classic Bill, but on the far end of the spectrum.”
“I was just in awe that he would tackle that and pursue it as relentlessly as he did,” Parker said. “But I was not surprised. He’s sort of quiet for a while and then all of a sudden he reappears with some grand project.”
While Engeman wants to deflect attention away from his accomplishments, he still takes pride in the things he has done.
“I enjoyed the initial success of the national championship; that was pretty cool,” Engeman said. “I enjoyed watching the Yale crew, coached by Tony Johnson, win the first championship. I’ve enjoyed all the things that have happened thereafter. (Parker) laughingly told me in Boston as we were celebrating the 25th anniversary of CRI, he said ‘Bill, you just keep doing the same thing over and over.’
“I guess there is a sort of repetitive quality of these experiences. The Iraqis, Cincinnati rowing, the fun I had at Brown, all were very similar kinds of making something out of something else and enjoying watching it happen.”
Ed Moran
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