What an engaging story! This is a sports story - about the college boys that captured the heart of America and then rowed for gold in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Much of the story focuses on Joe Rantz, one of the rowers, although the story of the others, both coaches and athletes, is also told. But there is so much more here. As with the best sports books, this book captures the times and history as well as the personal struggles of the athletes.

If you dismiss this because you know almost nothing about rowing - except for the occasional row in a canoe or kayak - rest assured that the author makes this sport come alive. The reader can almost feel the grain of the wood boats and see the guys slicing through the water. There is the intense rivalry of the University of Washington with California, the best west coast program, and yearly competitions of Washington's teams of working class boys with well-heeled east coast teams, made up of the sons of industry and government. Joe Rantz epitomizes these guys. The first time he was basically left on his own, he was 10 years old. Somehow he manages to get his education and scrapes together the money to attend Washington in the midst of the Great Depression. His story of hardships and triumphs and setbacks is one that mirrors the team. He remakes himself and rebuilds his self-esteem, much as the team remakes itself. His is a story of triumph over crushing poverty and overwhelming odds, the story of a man who would not give up no matter what work was required to get his goal.

This story becomes more along the way. It's the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. It's the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party. It's the indomitable spirit of the men of the Greatest Generation. It's so much more than sport and yet it all comes down to a race that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Wow.

Quotes to remember:

...the most important one [quality]: the ability to disregard his own ambitions, to throw his ego over the gunwales, to leave it swirling in the wake of his shell, and to pull , not just for himself, not just for glory, but for the other boys in the boat.

So is life: the very problems you must overcome also support you and make you stronger in overcoming them.

He [Joe] had always had an uncanny knack for finding four-leaf clovers...How he found them she easily mystified her, but he always told her that it wasn't a matter of luck at all, that it was just a matter of keeping your eyes open. "The only time you don't find a four-leaf clover...is when you stop looking for one."

Men as fit as you, when your everyday strength is gone, can draw on a mysterious reservoir of power far greater. Then it is that you can reach for the stars. That is the way champions are made.

Harmony, balance, and rhythm. They're the three things that stay with you your whole life. Without them, civilization is out of whack. And that's why an oarsman, when he goes out in life, he can fight it, he can handle life. That's what he gets from rowing.

And so they passed away, loved and remembered for all they they were - not just Olympic oarsmen but good men, one and all.

They were almost all gone now - the legions of young men who saved the world...But that afternoon, standing on the balcony of Haus West, I was sweet with gratitude for their goodness and their grace, their humility and their honor, their simple civility and all the things they taught us before the flitted across the evening water and finally vanished into the night.

Given to a friend at Binding Moments book club