Benjamin F.B. "Ben" Wallis

California's Crew Coach 1915-1923

Benjamin F.B. "Ben" Wallis rowed at Yale  University for 3 years, graduating in 1910.  He continued to be involved in rowing and joined the South End Rowing Club in San Francisco.  He decided to try his hand at coaching crew after meeting with Dean Witter of the University of California, Berkeley.

Wallis started in November 1915 to begin preparing crews for the season.  After evaluating the crews, he began teaching them the long smooth stroke he had learned over his years at prep school and Yale.  There was a sharp learning curve for the California crew, but Wallis was known as a patient and gentle man. He put in long hours and hard work to bring the crew up to scratch without compensation from the university.  Simultaneous to coaching, he held a full time job, commuting to the university for practice and returning to work after practice.  

The crews continued to improve under Wallis's tutelage and thus raised the profile of the rowing program.  Over the next few years, the younger crews and freshman began winning races.  In 1918, racing was cancelled due to World War I, but the program resumed in 1919.  By this time, Wallis was the president and manager of an insurance company though he continued to coach the crews, committing to coaching 4 days a week.  Despite limited time to coach, Wallis's hard work paid off, the crew won the Pacific Coast Regatta in 1921 and was able to send a crew to Poughkeepsie for the first time.  Though largely overlooked by the press, California finished second to Navy, who were the most recent Olympic champions.

California did not win the Pacific Coast in 1922 and 1923, but the Pacific Coast winners, Washington, came second at Poughkeepsie in 1922 and first at Poughkeepsie in 1923.  It became clear that California could compete against major crews and a part time coach was no longer enough to elevate the program.  Wallis would have liked to continue as coach, but knew that he could not handle coaching full time and manage his insurance business.  So he stepped aside, recommending Carroll "Ky" Ebright for the job.  He continued to act as advisor to the coach and the program.

In 1933, he returned to coaching when he took on further developing the relatively young rowing program at UCLA.  He would continue there for 13 years.

Wallis deserves credit for re-energizing the rowing program at California.  He improved facilities by moving the boathouse and finding a better space for the rowing machines in addition to imparting his valuable rowing techniques.

California and UCLA honored Wallis with the Ben Wallis Cup, which is awarded to the winner of a race between California and UCLA, recognizing Wallis's work building up both programs to compete on a national level.

Sources about Wallis:

The Log of Rowing at the University California, Berkeley, 1870-1987 by Jim Lemmon

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