CULVER, Ind.—Unbeaten. United. Unparalleled. Undaunted.

These are the words that describe Culver Military Academy’s 1943 eight-oared crew team. Together still, 57 years later, the eight-oared crew and its coxswain will be in England June 28-July 2 for the Henley Royal Regatta and then staying to compete in the Veterans Regatta, which begins July 8.

The Veterans Regatta is reserved for masters crews, those averaging 27 years or older. CMA’s eight oarsmen average 75 years of age and were recognized in March 1998 by the Guinness Book of Records as “the longest surviving intact eight-oared crew with an average age of 70” to compete in the 1994 U.S. Masters National Championships.

The nine men representing The Culver Academies at Henley will be:

Culver’s eight-oared crew was undefeated in 1943 and capped its season by defeating the University of Wisconsin freshman crew. But with graduation, came the call to war. All nine members of the original crew team (the eight oarsmen and the coxswain) went into military service: four in the Army, two in the Navy, two in the Army Air Corps, and one in the Merchant Marine.

Remarkably, they all came home, a fact that they were not aware of until they gathered at Culver in 1993 for their 50^th reunion. All but one graduated from college, and they all went on to successful careers, families, and active lives in retirement.

It was during the weekend of that golden anniversary that they climbed into their familiar seats and once again skimmed across Lake Maxinkuckee in an eight-oared shell. United after 50 years, the ’43 crew vowed to exercise, get in better shape, and return the following year to row again.

Living by the Culver Code, “The hope to win, The zeal to dare,” the crew competed in the U.S. Rowing Association’s Masters National Championship in Augusta, Ga., in 1994 and have been returning to the Culver campus on an annual basis to train together. The team just came off a two-week stay on campus, which they used as a final tune-up for Henley. Hailing from eight states, their time on the Culver campus is the only time they have to row together as a team. The rest of the time they train on their own, rowing on machines rather than on the water.

The crew started making plans to attend Henley in 1999, but the inability to acquire a corporate sponsor and some health problems kept the team at home. One crewmember suffered a stroke, another fell and broke his leg and ended up with a pacemaker, a third became afflicted with a virus that attacked his nervous system. In February of this year, death claimed the first member of the original team (Edward J. “Ted” Buell ’42 of Lewiston, N.Y.), but two members of the  class of ’43 have come out of retirement to keep the Henley dream afloat. And this time the crewmembers will be paying their own way.

Henley is the longest perennial athletic event in the world, running continuously since 1839 except for pauses during World War I and II. It attracts the highest-class crews in the world and, in an Olympic year, some of the finest European crews are expected to compete, according to Charles von Wrangell of Moorestown, N.J., crew captain and organizer. Otto Schlesinger was the stroke of the '43 JV eight.  Jerry Jenkins didn't start rowing until the last year (1999-2000) a 75 year old novice.  The Henley Veterans and Henley Women's Regatta are separate from the Henley royal Regatta, just at the same site a week after and before, respectively.

The regatta is divided into classes, “with the eights being the top of the line,” he says.   Two crews race the one-mile, 550-yard course at a time, the winners advancing.

“There’s nothing on earth like Henley,” von Wrangell says, comparing it to a Wimbledon on water. “There a dress code for men and women. It’s a mix of formality and joyousness in the extreme.”

Rowers 27 years or older qualify for the masters category, according to Culver crew coach Guy Weaser, who will be the special guest of the ’43 crew at Henley. The age-handicap system established by the U.S. Rowing Association takes the average age of the eight oarsmen and places them in one of 10 age divisions from 27-35 to 80-plus. The ’43 crew, averaging 75 years, falls into the 75-79 category and, therefore, receives a handicap of several seconds, over a younger crew for the 1000 meter masters distance.

An eight-man crew averaging 57 years, for example, would receive a handicap of 18 seconds. Therefore, the younger crew would have to out row the ’43 crew by at least 28.2 seconds in order to win. (46.1 seconds minus 18 seconds for a difference of 28.1 seconds.)

During the trip, Culver crewmembers will honor their British comrades who fell in World War II by laying a wreath at the Cenotaph in London, a monument to British soldiers who fell in World War I and II.

“It is appropriate that we do this. We’re from Culver,” von Wrangell explains, and several of the crew are veterans of the European Theater and shared the battlefield with their British allies.

The Academies will be further represented at Henley by Alan Loehr Jr., director of Alumni Relations, and his wife, Wendy, and Director of Development Bruce Holaday. In addition, classmate Richard Spierling ’43 of Lancaster, Pa., an Army medic in the European Theater during WWII, will be serving as official photographer for the trip.

Contact: Doug Haberland at (574) 842-8365 or Alan Loehr at (574) 842-8235