Curran C. McConville

Wisconsin's Crew Coach 1899

Curran C. McConville was a graduate of the University of Wisconsin, rowing on the crew 1895-1898 and for the last two years he served as crew captain.  He graduated with a degree in enginering.  He stepped in as coach at Wisconsin in 1899, when the previous coach, Andrew O'Dea, went to coach at Harvard.  This would be one of the most famous and successful crews to come out of Wisconsin during the time of the Poughkeepsie Regatta.  The crew was in the lead when a berry crate floating in the river forced them to alter their course, costing them first place in the Varsity race.  They would forever be known as the "berry crate crew."

McConville left coaching after this to pursue a career where he could utilize his engineering degree as O'Dea returned to the University of Wisconsin after being unhappy in his work at Harvard.

McConville was never fully uninvolved in rowing, he would later coach at the prep school, St. John's Military Academy, in Delafield, WI.  In 1928, he and other alumni would found the Wisconsin Crew Corporation, an organization intended to foster and support the crews at the University of Wisconsin. 

He would eventually become a superintendent in an automobile factory where he was working when he passed away from a heart attack on August 10, 1937.

Sources about McConville:

Wisconsin Where They Row: A History of Varsity Rowing at the University of Wisconsin by Bradley F. Taylor

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