Ready All! George Yeoman Pocock and Crew Racing

In the 1920s, an upstart West Coast college began to challenge the Eastern universities in the ancient sport of crew racing. Sportswriters scoffed at the “crude western boats” and their crews. But for the next forty years, the University of Washington dominated rowing around the world.

The secret of the Huskies’ success was George Pocock, a soft-spoken English immigrant raised on the banks of the Thames. Pocock combined perfectionism with innovation to make the lightest, best-balanced, fast...