UNLIKE TEXAS BASKETBALL, FOOTBALL, TRACK, AND BASEBALL THERE ARE VERY FEW BOOKS DEDICATED TO  LONGHORN Rowing.  I HOPE WITH TIME THIS SITE CAN ADD SOME HISTORICAL INSIGHT AND TELL THE COMPELLING STORY OF LONGHORN Rowing.  

A condensed bullet point history of Texas Longhorn rowing follows. Please go to the “credit” section of this website to view books you can purchase and links you can visit to learn more about Longhorn Sports history.   

In 1993 the NCAA identified rowing as one of 9 emerging sports for women. There were 67 varsity status rowing teams. In 1997 rowing graduated from emerging to a NCAA sport.

1997- rowing is a sactioned NCAA event

In 1997 96 NCAA schools chose to field rowing teams 53 in Division I, 12 in Division II, and 30 in Division III.

Jody Conradt chose rowing as a Title IX mandated sport in 1997 because of Austin’s weather and the popularity of the sport. The team excelled in their first year under Coach Brown, but A.D. chose to make a change in coaches in 1998.

October 4, 1997- The Longhorn rowing team finished 2nd in its inaugural competition at the “Head of the Ohio Regatta in Pittsburgh, Pa.

In 2004 there were 143 varsity rowing teams.

Carolyn Brand “Carie” Graves  1998-2013

In July of 1998, Carie Graves, a three-time U.S. Olympic rower and Olympic gold medalist in 1984, was hired as Texas women’s rowing head coach.

TOP SONGS 1998

Graves led Texas to the inaugural Big 12 Rowing Championship in 2009 and repeated the feat in 2010, 2011 and 2012. The Longhorns also won the 2011 Conference USA Rowing Championship to sweep both conference crowns.

• 2003 First appearance in NCAA Championship

• 2009-2012- Big 12 Champs

• 2011 Conference USA Champion

• 4 out of 11 years nationally ranked

• She has Coached CRCA members 9-11 years

• A two-time inductee into the National Rowing Foundation Hall of fame

• A gold and bronze medalist in the Olympics.

• First Woman Inducted into the Univ. of Wisconsin Women’s Hall of Fame.

• At Texas- two NCAA Championships appearances, four Big 12 titles, and one C-USA crown.

• I am still trying to add photos and content to many names listed below. This site is a work in process.

1998-1999

1999-2000

• Jill Husak and Kate Ronkainen are National Scholar-Athletes

2000-2001 Coach Graves

Graves led the Longhorns to their first ever Top 20 ranking during the 2000-01 season, when they opened their spring campaign ranked No. 18 by US Rowing/CRCA. Texas finished the year with 32 first-place finishes and also captured its first Big 12 title. The team went on to finish the year ranked No. 20 in the final coaches poll.

Laura Corbett is  National Scholar Athletes of the year

2001- Coach Graves

Graves guided the Longhorns to a record 43 first-place finishes, a mark that still stands as the team’s single-season best victory total. Graves led Texas to the NCAA Championships for the first time in program history. Texas boats posted an impressive 39 first-place finished the second most in school history. The Longhorns celebrated their storybook season with a trip to Britain to compete in the Henley Women’s Regatta for the first time in the program’s history.

 2002-2003 Coach Graves “Unofficial” Big 12 Champs First trip to the NCAA nationals for the Longhorns

Graves led Texas to its second consecutive appearance at the NCAA Championships. UT’s first varsity eight boat qualified. For the second time in as many years, the Longhorns earned their highest-ever final ranking by the USRowing/ CRCA Varsity Eights Coaches poll, finishing the season ranked No. 13.

Ruth Stiver and Julie Keedy closed their collegiate careers earning 2004 CRCA All-America honors, becoming the first Longhorns in history to receive such recognition from the CRCA. Stiver earned first-team accolades, while Keedy received second-team laurels.

Texas beat Kansas State, Kansas, Tulsa, and a UT Club .

4 rowers made the South Region team- Laura Corbett, Julie Keedy, Karen Glazebrook, and Anke Wagner. 700 rowers entered the biggest regatta in the Southwest at the Heart of Texas on Town Lake. The Texas team included 20 varsity and 39 novices. Even with a broken rigger, a broken oar sleeve, and one loss oar in competition the Horns ruled. The closest competitor was Oklahoma State.

This team holds the record for the most victories (43)

Ranked in the top 20 nationally  for the first time (#17) 

Kate Ronkainen makes the National team.

2003-2004 big 12 champs

The team won 37 events in the 2003-2004 season.

Three walk-ons lead the team. Keedy and Stiver were both walk-ons. . Stiver says my rowing teammates are my “best friends”. You get to know the real person during work-outs at 5 in the morning.

The Horns 8 boat earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Championships.

Rowers place 3 in the top 5 in open pair race on the final day at the Head of the Chattahoochee.

The Longhorn rowing team competed in Oxfordshire, UK with their eight boat and Brannon Johnson in the open ones. The Henley Women’s Regatta has been a rowing venue since 1839.

Traveled to Britain to compete

Julie Keedy and Joy Nix are National Scholar-Athletes

2004-2005 Coach Graves

Julie Keedy and Ruth Stiver make the Academic All-District At-Large Team. They were winners selected from 13 different sports competing for 20 spots. Both athletes were MVP’s for Texas rowing.

Rowing teams accumulated 46 first this year—11 in varsity eight, 8 in varsity four, and 3 in varsity three.

When the University of Texas’ women’s rowing team gathers at an airport en route to competition, in the number of team members, it looks like a football squad.

Women’s rowing was perceived as a “women’s football.” A big number sport that helped women’s programs offset the football roster’s large male participation number. It was like adding 4 women’s sports with up to 120 members possible for rowing, but the NCAA only allowed 20 scholarships for rowing. Graves said, “it took me about 10 minutes to call all of them” during roll call.

Ruth  Stiver  and Julie Kennedy are the first Texas All Americans recognized by CRCA.

The U.S. Rowing team selects former Longhorn Ruth Stiver to its roster for the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Stiver, a first-time National Team member, was Texas’ first-ever Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association (CRCA). She was a walk-on in 2000.

Julie Keedy makes the Academic Team MVP Team wins an at Large birth to the NCAA championships (12th place finish)

Top of the charts 2004

2005-2006 Coach Graves

Won at Large birth to the NCAA championships

Karen Glazcbrook is Academic MVP (no picture) 

Pam Painter is team MVP (no picture)

2006-2007 Coach Graves

Rowing teams were composed largely of walk-ons who had never picked up an oar.  The coach had to recruit on campus to fill the slots.  As the novice learned, rowing is about technique and strength.  The team is composed of around 70 rowers.

Graves guided Texas Rowing to a 14th-place finish in the overall standings and a seventh-place finish in the South Region at the South/Central. Texas added its sixth Big 12 Invitational title .
The Longhorns’ first varsity boat claimed first-place in the B finals, giving UT its lone victory at the NCAA’s. Earlier in the racing season, Texas kept its string of consecutive Big 12 Invitational wins alive, earning its fifth straight victory.

Carly Gloge, Caitlin Krouse, Danielle Bartz, Katy Kemp, and Whitney McMahon were honored as National Scholar-Athletes for the 2006-2007 season.

Fleischauer makes the All-South Region team. It is the 7th consecutive year a Longhorn has received this honor.

Karen Man makes the Academic Team MVP

 In 2006 MacIntosh was named to the 2006 Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association (CRCA) All-South Region First Team and was honored as a CRCA National Scholar-Athlete. It marked the first career All-Region accolade for MacIntosh and the sixth consecutive year the CRCA acknowledges a Longhorn.

2007-2008 Coach Graves

competing hard at practice is where winning starts.  These rowers’ goal was to build the program into a national threat.  This they did.   Coach Graves built team cohesion and unity that permeated the group dynamic.

 In addition to winning the Big 12 Invitational title in 2007-08, the Longhorns first varsity eight also posted a clean sweep at the Longhorn Invitational, including victories over No. 19 Wisconsin and Central Florida.

Team Wins the Big 12 Invitational

Danielle Bartz makes the Academic Team MVP

She rowed for Texas from (2005-08) with the latter three seasons on UT’s first and second varsity eight boats.

She is selected to the 2008 ESPN Magazines Academic All-District women’s at-large team and tabbed as a 2008 Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association (CRCA) National Scholar-Athlete. 

05.11.2007

Q&A with Danielle Bartz

Junior Danielle Bartz has not only been faced with intense physical competition on the water this semester but challenging academic competition as well. After interviewing against eight other candidates for the Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholarship, the Woodville, Texas native was one of three students awarded the scholarship that will allow her to go anywhere in the world for postgraduate work and service projects. Recently Bartz stopped by TexasSports.com to speak about her prestigious scholarship and her hopes for the future.

How did you hear about the scholarship? My rotary club in Woodville called me about it a couple of months ago. They explained that they knew about a scholarship that comes up every year, and they thought it would be a good fit for what I am studying. I am working on a double major in government and Spanish, and a minor in French and my club said they felt as if I was at the right time in my academic career, being that the scholarship is for 2008-09. That will be the year after I graduate, and the organization that gives out this scholarship likes to send students who have completed their undergrad degree.

How did you first get involved with your rotary club? Rotary is an international organization that prides itself on its motto of “service above self” and is dedicated to community service. One of the current members in my town created a high school club called Interact that does community service projects along with the rotary club. I was one of the charter members of my high school club, and my senior year, I served as vice president. We took part in different activities around town, including dinners, fundraising, and yard cleanup for people who were older and might not be able to work around the house.

Tell us about the scholarship application process. First, you apply to your rotary club, and they choose one applicant to send to the district interview. I had to make this long and complicated application that took about a week to fill out. My application was even more difficult because if you wanted to apply for a country with a native language that isn’t English, you had to write your essay in that language to prove your language efficiency. I wrote my essays in Spanish and French. Everyone that applied had an outstanding GPA, and they all were involved in their school, so I wanted to use my languages to standout.

How would you describe the interview? I had to give a five-minute introduction about myself, where I go to school, what I’m studying, and how the scholarship would benefit me in my future career and studies. Then a panel of 12 judges sat with me and randomly asked me questions. The panel was comprised of deans from Stephen F. Austin University, Sam Houston State and Lamar University. They asked very vague questions to see how I’d answer; they want to know that you can handle yourself with people you don’t know. One of the harder questions they asked me was how I’d handle the anti-American sentiment in Europe. After I explained in a complicated way using all these nice big vocabulary words, they turned around and asked me to explain my answer in Spanish. I was immediately kicking myself for trying to sound intelligent because, in Spanish, my explanation would be really simple. I quickly covered myself by saying, ‘If you want it in French, I can do that too, but I’m going to need a sheet of paper and a pencil.’ They also asked a lot about rowing, how I got into it, and the effect it has had on my life.

So what does this scholarship provide you with? The total is $27,000, which should help cover school, room and board, food, etc.

You have been to Spain before during a summer abroad program. So why did you decide to go back? I wanted to go to a place that was new to me, but also a place where I could use both of my languages. I wanted to be exposed to both Spanish and French on a regular basis. This is why I chose the northern part of Spain that shares a border with France so that I can make appearances at rotary clubs in both countries. I’ve learned it’s not enough to take language classes; you have to live in the element. It helps to be surrounded by the culture and be in uncomfortable positions where you are forced to use the language.

What do you hope to accomplish during your time in Spain? I want to master both of my languages. I hope to have the chance to use French more. I love people and learning about different cultures, so I will be happy doing any projects with the local rotary club. I’m a ballroom dancing teaching assistant now, so I want to learn Spanish dancing and teach American dancing while I’m over there. It would also be cool if I could get involved with the government and possibly set the foundation for me going to law school and possibly pursuing a diplomatic career.

Will you be wearing any of your Texas gear over there? Oh yeah, we’re going to be burnt orange in the north of Spain. I was in Santander, Spain, for six weeks during the summer, and in a city of about 300,000, there was a Texas-Ex who came and found my group so he could say hi. There is also a Texas Exes center in Madrid — Longhorns are going places, apparently places all over the world — so I don’t think I will have a problem getting in touch with the Texas Exes in Madrid. It should be exciting.

TOPPING THE CHARTS 2007

 Luise Fleishhauer is the team MVP (not picture)

2008- pending pending info

The Horns posted a 13th-place overall finish and placed sixth in the south region at the 2009 South/Central Regional.

Jennifer Vandermaarel  2nd team All American

2007-09 voted Most Competive & MVP

Rowontario Athlete of the year and C-USA Rowing Athlete of the Year. 

Jacquileine Goryca received region honors.

2009- Coach Graves – rowers win 5th Big 12 Championship

The Longhorns notched two wins at the Boot of the Oklahoma and followed with three victories at the Head of the Colorado. UT won the Big 12 title by a hefty 11-point margin and went on to finish in 12th place overall and fifth place in the south region at the South/Central Regional.

After winning 7 straight Big 12 Invitations, Texas won the inaugural Big 12 championship.

Big 12 Champions

2010 COACH GRAVES – BIG 12 CHAMPIONS

Graves coached Jennifer VanderMaarel to Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association (CRCA) All-America Second Team honors in 2011 to mark the third all-america honor in program history.

Ranked 15 in the nation and Big 12 champion. Graves earned CRCA All-South Region Coach of the Year and Conference USA Coach of the Year lauds. In the fall, Texas recorded three top-five finishes at the Head of the Oklahoma and won five races at the Head of the Colorado. Texas swept all of its races at the Big 12 Championship and repeated the feat at the Conference USA Championship to complete the title sweep.

2011 pending content

May 19, 2011

Longhorns Get the Hook in NCAA 2011 Selection

The NCAA rowing selection committee decided that No. 16 ranked Texas was not worthy of a bid to attend the national championships despite having defeated two of the teams that were selected (Wisconsin, Clemson), and having won two straight conference titles (Big 12, Conference USA) over the past three weeks, with their only loss of the year coming to Michigan State (invited). The fact is, Texas should have been a shoo-in to make NCAAs this year.

In accordance with Bylaw 31.3, the following criteria will be used in selecting teams and individual boats:

• Eligibility and availability of student-athletes.
• End of Season championship results.
• Regional ranking.
• Late-season performance (defined as competition taking place within the three weekends prior to the selection date for the NCAA Championships).
• Head-to-head results.
• Results versus team [sic] already selected.
• Results versus common opponents.
• Results versus regionally ranked teams in own region.
• Results versus regionally ranked teams out of region.

Texas did everything right, and the selection committee would have done well to reward the Longhorns for making every effort to play by the rules in hopes of gaining an invite this season.

Big 12 Champions

Katie Sayre,  Tea Vrtlar, Jessica Glennie (no photo)  are Academic Medal Winners. 

2012- Pending

Graves was selected by her peers as the 2012 Big 12 Conference Coach of the Year after leading the Longhorns to the 2012 Big 12 crown. Laurel McCaig flourished under Graves’ tutelage and was selected as the league’s Co-Rower of the Year. McCaig joined Felicia Izaguirre-Werneron the CRCA All-South Region Team.

Ranked 15th in the nation and Big 12 champion.

 Laurel McCaig is Big 12 Rower of the Year

Laurel McCaig

• 2013 Academic All-Big 12 (Second Team)

• 2012 All-Big 12 (First Team)

• 2012 CRCA All-South Region (Second Team)

• 2012 Academic All-Big 12 (Second Team)

• Member of Big 12 Commissioner[apos]s Honor Roll (Fall 2012)

• 2011 CRCA All-South Region (First Team)

• Chelsea Burns makes the C-USA All Academic Team in 2011, 2012, 2013

• 2013 CRCA National Scholar-Athlete

• 2013 C-USA Rowing All-Academic Team

• 2013 Big 12 Conference Dr. Gerald Lage Award recipient

• 2013 Academic All-Big 12 (First Team)

• 2012 All-Big 12 (Second Team)

• 2012 C-USA All-Academic Team

• 2012 Academic All-Big 12 (First Team)

• Member of Big 12 Commissioner[apos]s Honor Roll (Fall 2012)

2013

Graves led the Horns to a runner-up finish at the 2013 Big 12 Championship and a third-place showing at the 2013 Conference USA Championship.

Audrey Springer-Wilson earned a selection to the CRCA All-South Region Team. Led by first-team selections Jessica Smith and Katie Trovato, Texas earned five spots on the All-Big 12 Conference teams. The Texas rowers also excelled in the classroom and led the league with 25 selections to the Academic All-Big 12 Team. Notably, Chelsea Burns and Rachel Donnelly received the Dr. Gerald Lage Award, the Big 12 Conference’s most prestigious academic honor.

The  2013 Squad Is Coach Graves last

Carie Graves, Founder and Coach of Texas Rowing, Says Goodbye to UT

By Chris O’Connell in Special, Sports on May 30, 2014 at 10:48 am |

Alcalde

Last week, Coach Carie Graves retired as the Texas rowing coach after 16 years. Graves is the first rowing coach at UT and she paves the way for rowing at UT. Before she arrives Texas does not have a NCAA program, or even a boathouse. Graves wins two Olympic medals: bronze in 1976 and gold in 1984, and the ’84 eights team was the first U.S. female team to win the gold. Graves spoke with the Alcalde from Indianapolis, where she is attending her final NCAA meeting, about her time at UT and the future of women’s rowing in America.

What’s the most difficult part about rowing?

Putting blades in the water and rowing as fast and hard as you can at full press. It’s very demanding as an athlete. As a coach, it’s getting young women to experience that pain. It’s hard, and if it’s not hard you’re not doing it right, and you’re certainly not going to win. Rowing and cross-country skiing are the two hardest Olympic sports. Studies on cross-country skiers and rowers show that they are the two sets of athletes that have highest VO2 max. It burns but it’s also a challenge for athletes to see if they can push harder than they thought they could they have to.

How did you get into coaching?

My rowing experience was at a big state university [the University of Wisconsin], and even though I had a successful coaching career at Harvard, I was just 24 years old—just a few years older than some of the seniors. It was very challenging at first. I was there for 6 years, and I resigned because I wanted to train for my last Olympic team.

What inspired you to start the rowing program at UT?

[I had been coaching at Northeastern] for 10 years when I heard about the Texas job and I decided it was a great opportunity. [It was] a big state university that had a great number of young women with the potential to be good athletes who had never rowed before. That was my experience. My father and brother had rowed, but there wasn’t an opportunity for me as young woman until Title IX. I liked the idea of having a big student body and a lot of walk-ons. We of course recruit now, but I wanted that. I was happy in Boston and at Northeastern, but I wanted to be in an environment like the one I was in when I started rowing.

What are some benchmarks of the program during your tenure that you are proud of?

It really was a benchmark to get a boathouse. Also in our 4th year to get to NCAAs, then we went again the next year … and haven’t been back since.

Talk about your legacy in the sport. 

I’m always so busy that one doesn’t think about things like that. It’s not like I’m saying, “Oh hey, I’m the first U.S. woman to win an Olympic gold medal in rowing, what do you think about that?” Coaching is day-by-day. Rowing is a really hard sport, it’s really demanding, I don’t think a lot of us growing up in this position really thought much about what we did. We did what we had to do in order to get better as athletes and coaches. We’re always asking, “What can I do? What will make this work?”

How do you envision the future of the UT rowing program?

I know UT will hire someone who is very, very good. They have the know-how to do that. They’re gonna be here at the NCAAs—this is my last hurrah—we’re gonna have someone here talking to people, looking around, and that’s exactly what they need to be doing because these are the top coaches in country, here. They are sending someone out to research it—to take a good measure of what it is that Texas needs to do to keep up in the Big 12 and to make inroads on the national level.

Do you have any advice for the next coach?

Best wishes, and I would be available to answer questions if they had any. The hardest part now is the paperwork. The paperwork is extraordinary—there’s a lot of it, and more every year. It’s easy to get lost in the amount of work. It’s not just at UT, this is across the country—state universities have to [have paperwork]. But I would counsel them to put that second and really focus on student athletes.

Rohan Jolly says:

“Real athletes row. Everyone else just plays games.”

Anyone who has gone through the rigors of rowing knows the value of what it teaches you. Rowing crew should be promoted more through the education system to create graduates that truly understand what working life is all about.

Rowing seems to be a very northeastern, Ivy League sport traditionally. What advice would you give to a young woman in Texas looking to get into rowing?

It’s really easy now. There’s that British, old feel with rowing, but Title IX has opened it up. There are 20 full scholarships on all Division 1 teams, more than any other women’s sport. That’s exceptional—roughly 400 scholarships every year for young women to have college paid for. This country will be unbeatable in rowing in the Olympics. The feeder system in this country is huge. It’s really, really exciting. We won the gold medal in the last two Olympics, and that’s remarkable. My guess is at least half of Olympic eights did not row in high school; they rowed in college. If you’re tall, strong, and have an athletic background you can go to so many colleges and walk on to the rowing team. We’ve had women walk on at UT and become great. The world is your oyster. If you’re tall and ambitious and a fighter, you can do whatever you want. Good genetics also help.

What’s next for you?

I’m certainly retired from coaching. When I was younger it was easier—I’m not that old but it is pretty much 24/7. Any coach can tell you that. It’s being there for midnight phone calls, and when you go home, that’s when you think about lineups and where everyone is going to be in the boat. I can’t imagine being at a job that I’m not immersed in. I own a house in Wisconsin, where I’m from. I’ve always wanted to write. I’m interested in rowing machines. I’m going to start doing some training to help other people, maybe do some classes for the baby boomer population. I’d like to just go out and do something.

• “For the rest of your life, you will always be able to say I was a member of a very special team whose whole was greater than the sum of its parts, and it was one of the greatest experiences of my life.”

At Cal Coach O’Neill won two NCAA championships and 12 NCAA top four finishes. 

The article for Rowing was written by by Ed Moran, ed@usrowing.org | Jul 24, 2014

He was already signed up to coach the United States under 23 women’s sweep team at the 2014 World Under 23 Championships July 23-27 in Varese, Italy. And then he had his normal job of recruiting and preparing for another season as the women’s head rowing coach at the University of California.

But when a big opportunity came his way, he made his summer even busier by accepting the position as the new head women’s rowing coach at the University of Texas, taking over for three-time Olympian Carrie Graves, who led Texas women’s rowing for 16 seasons.

So now, along with traveling to Italy, coaching an eight, a four and a pair at a world championships, O’Neill added in a move from California to Texas for himself and his family and has taken on a whole new challenge of trying to vault Texas to the top of NCAA women’s rowing.

“It’s certainly a busy summer for me,” O’Neill said, while getting equipment and athletes sorted out for the trip to the world championships. “People keep asking, ‘Why would I leave Cal?’ I was certainly very happy at Cal. We had some great success, and I was working with wonderful athletes and terrific people.

“But I guess I was thinking, is this my job and my life forever?”

So when the news broke that Graves had announced she was leaving, O’Neill let it be known that he would be interested. And it wasn’t long before Texas let O’Neill know that they were interested in him as well.

Graves, who won a gold medal in the 1984 Olympic Games in the eight, built the Texas program from scratch and led her squads to four Big 12 titles and two trips to the NCAA Championships.

This spring Graves decided it was time to retire. “I wanted to start a rowing program at a big university, and it was fun to take this on,” Graves said at the time.

“I wanted to make a difference and see if we could make something here at Texas because I knew UT had a big student body. Starting a program here reminded me of my own experience as a collegiate rower. It was a lot of fun and a lot of hard work, but it was gratifying for all of us. I feel a little young going into retirement,” she said. “But I’m ready to do other things.”

Apparently, so is the Texas athletic department.

When they brought in O’Neill for an interview, they told him they wanted his experience and leadership and they wanted the program to excel. And to O’Neill, who had led Cal to two NCAA team titles and four NCAA individual event titles in 16 seasons, it was too enticing to pass on.

“Cal finished second or third for seven years in a row, and I really felt I had taken the program as far as I was going to be able to take it,” he said.

According to O’Neill, Texas athletic director Chris Plonsky told him the university wanted to take the rowing program to a new level.

Texas is investing time and assets is in taking rowing to the Next Level

• “Rowers do more before 8am than most people do all day.”

“They made it clear. They said, ‘We want to be really good at this sport and we are prepared to do what we have to do to get there.’ For a rowing coach, when we’re always fighting and scraping to get things, to hear we want to be really good and we have to invest in the program, that’s awesome.

“Maybe sometimes, you just want something different,” O’Neill said. “Yes, it’s the same job at a different place, but when I think of the potential of the Texas program and having the backing and support of a big-time athletic department like Texas, I think the potential of doing something really amazing is there.” 

Reflection Point

Rowing 01.20.2024 Texas Sports.com

Carie Graves helped launch Texas Rowing as the first head coach in program history.

AUSTIN, Texas – Texas Rowing recognized the late Carie Graves, the first head coach in program history, with a plaque in her honor inside the Erg room of the Texas Basketball and Rowing Facility on Friday evening. The event coincided with reunion weekend, with well over 100 alumnae returning to the Forty Acres for the festivities. The reunion weekend was hosted by the T-Association and Texas Rowing.

“What matters most is the person you are and the lives that you affect, and Carie affected so many lives and was such a wonderful person,” said current head coach Dave O’Neill. “But she was also a total killer, she was the Erg queen, and her strength, passion and fire are certainly felt in this room.”

A legend in the sport, Graves built the Texas Rowing program from the ground up beginning in the fall of 1998, steering the Longhorns to two NCAA Championships appearances and five conference titles before retiring from coaching in 2014.

“Carie was the smartest, the most determined, the most committed individual I think I’ve ever been around,” said former Texas Women’s Athletic Director Jody Conradt. “She challenged all of us and she was demanding but she never asked anyone to do more than she had done, probably tenfold. She set the standard.”

Under Graves’ guidance, Texas earned its first NCAA Championships bid in 2003, when the first varsity eight placed 12th nationally, and made a return visit to the championship regatta in 2004, with the first eight finishing 15th. It was an historic year for Texas Rowing in 2004 as Ruth Stiver and Julie Keedy became the program’s first Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association (CRCA) All-Americans.

“Carie loved nothing more than seeing young women at The University of Texas, come out (to the boathouse), try something new and discover their own power and strength,” said former Longhorn rower (2005-08) and graduate assistant coach Danielle Bartz. “While she’s not here to see this place, and today’s team training and winning, she knew (these days) were coming. She knew we were tough; she knew we were fast, she knew Texas could train hard and win national championships.”

Danielle Bartz: Texas Rowing Letterwinner 2004-05 through 2007-08
Government and Spanish degrees and Masters from LBJ School of Public Affairs 2015 
Volunteer Rowing Coach 2011-12 | Graduate Assistant Rowing Coach 2012-15

Graves directed Texas to four-straight Big 12 crowns, leading UT to victory at the inaugural Big 12 Championship in 2009 and repeating the feat in 2010, 2011 and 2012. The three-time U.S. Olympian also led the Longhorns to victory at the 2011 Conference USA Championship.

The 2012 Big 12 Coach of the Year, Graves was also selected as the 2011 Conference USA Coach of the Year and named the 2011 CRCA South Region Coach of the Year after leading the Longhorns to dual conference championships.

Graves’ Longhorns produced 15 All-Big 12 and 66 Academic All-Big 12 selections and also collected 11 All-Conference USA honorees in its five seasons as a C-USA affiliate member.

Jennifer VanderMaarel became UT’s third All-American under Graves’ tutelage in 2011, when she earned second-team honors and was selected as UT’s first Conference USA Athlete of the Year. Laurel McCaig became the Longhorns’ first-ever Big 12 Rower of the Year in 2012 after helping Texas to its fourth-straight Big 12 championship.

Prior to taking the reins in Austin, Graves served as the head women’s rowing coach for 10 seasons at Northeastern University (1988-98). She broke into the coaching profession as the head women’s crew coach at Harvard/Radcliffe in 1977 and served there through 1983.

Graves enjoyed a distinguished rowing career of her own and was selected to three U.S. Olympic teams (1976, ’80 and ’84) and five additional U.S. national teams (1975, ’77, ’79, ’81 and ’83). Graves helped the USA women’s eight to gold at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and bronze at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. Graves was a member of the U.S. Olympic Team that boycotted the 1980 Moscow Games. At the 1975 World Championships she won a silver medal as part of the “Red Rose Crew” that ushered in a new era of competition for women in the male dominated sport.

The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) selected Graves as U.S. Rowing’s Female Athlete of the Year in 1981 and 1984. The National Rowing Foundation inducted Graves twice into its Hall of Fame as a member of the 1980 and 1984 U.S. Olympic Teams and she was selected as one of the “Century’s Most Notable People” in American Rowing by the 2000-01 American Rower’s Almanac. In 2022, USRowing renamed its Female Athlete of the Year Award in honor of the Graves. The Carie Graves Female Athlete of the Year Award is selected annually by athletes on that year’s senior national team.

A 1976 graduate of the University of Wisconsin, Graves guided the Badgers to the 1975 National Rowing Association Championship, the first National Championship to be won by a UW varsity women’s team. A native of Madison, Wisc., Graves was the first-ever inductee into the school’s Women’s Athletics Hall of Fame in 1984 and was ranked No. 16 on her alma mater’s list of “Top 100 Athletes of the Century.”  Graves completed a master’s of education at Harvard in 1985.

“Carie Graves is described as an icon, as a legend, and as a force of nature, and she was all of that,” Bartz said. “But at Texas, she was the creator of this program, the architect, the believer and she was coach.”