The amazing George Rogers
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We were contacted by Mrs Groves this week, who called the Club to say she had a photograph of some rowers from WARC, which included George Rogers. I swung past Mrs Groves' house yesterday pick up the photograph, and gotta say the inner rowing nerd in me was immediately pretty excited. Check out the pic (sorry about the light - without removing the image from the frame it's hard to properly reproduce).
Firstly, I love the woolen shorts on these guys. Secondly, HOW ADORABLE IS THE COXSWAIN!?? And thirdly, whoever our man P. Smith is, he is proving for time immemorial that if you put a bloke in front of a camera, he will flex with every inch of his might to get some good gun definition.
Our resident lay historian Warren Anderson tells me this photograph was probably from the 1930s and he'll see what else he can dig up by way of detail.
The reason I'm writing this blog post, however is the bloke on the left is the indefatigable George Rogers. George joined WARC in 1907 when he was about 22 - or at least, so the Guy Negus history claims. Just think: The club house would have been new back then.
George rowed at WARC from 1907 until at least 1952 when he won the Perth to Freo at the age of 67. Bloody overachiever. Reminds me a bit of Alan Salisbury.
Negus reckons George invented the Perth to Freo in 1940, so guess that's an event we can claim as our own. George went on to be considered a bit of a medical marvel, his physical prowess attracted the attention of the Sydney University Department of Physiology, who said at the age of 65, George was probably "equal to about 75 per cent of what you recorded as a young man at your very best."
George even met the Queen.
The point of this is, I would like to think if George was still around, he'd be pretty stoked with what our club has become. It's more than 100 years since he first walked through the door, and we continue to follow in his footsteps of excellence at any age.
I reckon he'd be pretty amazed - not least at the erg score Dee Sammut just clocked. Kinda wish he was around so he could see it.