INDIANAPOLIS – USRowing is pleased to announce the winners of its annual awards for the year 2002.
In addition to USRowing’s Athletes of the Year that were announced earlier this month, USRowing gives out several other awards each year recognizing outstanding achievement and contributions in the sport. The following people will be honored at the 2002 USRowing Awards Banquet on December 7, 2002, in Washington, D.C. USRowing wishes to congratulate these award winners and thank them for their contributions to the sport.
Jack Frailey, a former member of the USRowing Board of Directors and president of the National Association of Amateur Oarsmen from 1976-78, will be honored with the USRowing Medal in Washington, D.C. The USRowing Medal is given to a member of the rowing community who has rendered conspicuous service to or accomplished extraordinary feats in rowing. It is the highest honor USRowing can bestow on an individual and was last presented in 1994 to Anita DeFrantz.
The 2002 Jack Kelly Award will be awarded to Julian Wolf. The Kelly Award is given annually to an individual who represents the ideals Jack Kelly exemplified: superior achievements in rowing, service to amateur athletics, and success in their chosen profession, thereby serving as an inspiration to American rowers. Wolf, a Los Angeles native, rowed at the University of California at Los Angeles in the 1940s and then helped start the University of Southern California’s rowing program while attending law school at USC. He has been a top referee for many years, officiating events all over the world and helping to train countless numbers of officials throughout his career. In addition to his work as a referee, Wolf served as a team manager for several U.S. National Teams including the 1984 Olympic Team, has served on several USRowing boards and committees, and is a past director and current Trustee of the National Rowing Foundation.
Bill Fritz, the oldest, active USRowing referee, is the winner of the 2002 John J. Carlin Award. Fritz earned his license in 1975 and has distinguished himself as one of the top officials in the country. He has won both the Jack Franklin Award (1990) for lifetime achievement as a rowing official and the Julian Wolf Award (1996), which honors an official for his or her work in a given year. The Carlin Award is given to an individual who has made a significant contribution and outstanding commitments in the sport of rowing.
Nancy Den Besten will be honored as the recipient of the 2002 Ernestine Bayer Award. Formerly known as USRowing’s Woman of the Year Award, the Ernestine Bayer Award is given to a woman in recognition of her outstanding contributions to rowing. Den Besten has had an enormous impact on Midwest rowing during the past 11 years. She founded the Quad City Rowing Association and has served as a coach with the program since its inception, producing 17 national champions and two senior world championships’ gold medalists. Den Besten started a junior program, a learn to row program, and a junior high sculling program and was responsible for the new 1.4 million dollar boathouse in the Quad Cities.
Al Wachlin will receive the Clayton W. Chapman Award. The Chapman Award is presented annually to an individual who best emulates Mr. Chapman’s 30-year stewardship of the Eastern Sprints and IRA Championship regattas and who consistently serves in a behind-the-scenes administrative role that has previously gone unrecognized. Wachlin has been involved in the sport since 1958 and was once described as the “unsung hero of the Schuylkill River.” Wachlin is actively involved in all the regattas in Philadelphia and Camden, N.J., where he sets the courses for the races both on the Schuylkill and Cooper River.
Referees Larry Tolle and Nikola Vajda have been named the recipients of the Jack Franklin and the Julian Wolf awards, respectively. These awards are given annually by the Referee Commission to recognize the work of officials across the country. The Jack Franklin Award is given annually to a referee for their lifetime contributions to the sport, while the Julian Wolf Award is given annually to a referee for his or her contributions to officiating rowing for that year.
Tolle has served as an USRowing referee for 40 years and has been a leader in promoting rowing throughout the Midwest. He was instrumental in creating the first regatta for Midwest crews and as a direct result of those efforts, rowing in the Big Ten spread beyond Wisconsin and Purdue to every member school in the conference. Vajda has been a licensed referee, first in his home country of Yugoslavia and then in the United States, since 1985. He has been an active referee in the Midwest and has taken a leadership role in mentoring young referees. In 2002, he served as the chief referee for the USRowing National Championship Regatta.
“We would like to congratulate each of these deserving winners and thank them for their contributions to the sport of rowing,” said John H. Dane, USRowing executive director.