The Boys who Took the 1936 Olympic Gold

Don Hume, Joe Rantz, George 'Shorty' Hunt, Jim 'Stub' McMillin, John White, Jr., Gordon Adam, Chuck Day, Roger Morris, in front Bob Moch were the boys of the University of Washington’s 1936 crew who represented the USA in the eights at the Olympic Games in Berlin. They were the sons of loggers, shipyard workers and farmers, and they defeated the Italians, Germans and British oarsmen in the Olympic final in front of Adolf Hitler and other Nazi dignitaries.

Promotional material has been sent out by the publisher Viking/Penguin and some reviews have already surfaced about this soon to be published rowing history book, The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown. From the material that has reached HTBS we read:

‘The story follows Joe Rantz, an extraordinary young rower and the emotional heart of the book, as he looks for his place in Depression-era America. It’s also the story of legendary boat designer George Pocock, famed coach Al Ulbrickson, as well as all the boys in the boat. Brown shows tremendous respect for the memory of all the individuals, arguably one of the greatest crew teams of all time, and their determination to be a part of the #1 boat.’

The success of Brown’s book is secured as the Weinstein Company had previously begun on a script for the upcoming film adaptation. Of course, HTBS’s Tim Koch already wrote about this on 15 March, 2011, but now we have a release date for the book as well which is on 4 June, 2013.

Here is a promotion trailer for the book:



Read more about Daniel James Brown, his books, and where his latest book tour will take him, here.

Soon you will find a review on Brown's book on HTBS.