Former Beaver Rowing Coach, Karl Drlica Dies - Oregon State University Athletics

Former Beaver Rowing Coach, Karl Drlica Dies

Karl Drlica, an Oregon State Hall of Fame coach who is credited with founding the nation’s first women’s rowing team at Oregon State, passed away Thursday morning in the Portland area. Funeral arrangements are pending.

Drlica, a former OSU rower and coach, was inducted to the OSU Sports Hall of Fame in 1991 and is the most influential figure in the program’s history.

“It was peaceful and with people around him constantly,” according to Karl Drlica, Jr.

Drlica took over the reigns of the Oregon State student-run rowing club in 1950. In 1952 he recruited enough sorority women to form the nation’s first women’s crews. The program saw a growth spurt as rivalries were born from the different houses.

In 1966, Drlica, along with California Women’s Crew coach Art Sachs, invited representatives of all known women’s organizations to Corvallis to create a National Women’s Rowing Association. In 1968 the men’s heavyweight crew was absorbed into OSU’s Athletic Department. Two of his crews placed first at the IRA Regatta. Drlica retired from coaching the Beavers following the 1983 season.

“Current Oregon State athletes continue to benefit from the groundwork that Karl put into developing the rowing programs at OSU,” said women’s crew head coach Charlie Owen. “Karl was ahead of his time as one of the first to support women’s rowing.”

In his time, Drlica was an innovator writing books on the sport of rowing, encouraging such ideas as building boats out of fiberglass long before it was a common practice.

At the time of his death, he was writing a book describing his rowing experiences, hoping to follow his recently published memoirs on Occupied Japan.