9/15/23
The John Lust re-named BUCKLEY 9/3/23 Rowers, I am honored that the Club decided to name the Lusk the "Buckley”. And I'm blown away by the many kind comments many of you made in the emails leading up to this decision. Thank you all very much. The launch of The Buckley today was a great honor for me but also for those who restored the shell - Ted, Noah, Paul, Linda and Fred. The workmanship is exquisite and the new foot stretchers and slides work great. I'm sure many others were involved either in the restoration or the ceremony - Steve, Andy - and Ted and Linda for the orchestration and flowers. Thank you all so much. I couldn’t have imagined a more satisfying rowing club if I had dreamed it up myself. Jim
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History of the John Lust (now the Buckley)
From: Mike Sullivan
Ted
This is fantastic that the Lusk has been restored and preserved.
The Lusk was bought by Duvall Hecht for the UCI program in the sixties, probably when the program was begun in 1965, though it's possible it was bought a few years later.
John Lusk was a banker/developer/philanthropist in Orange County and Duvall knew him through his business dealings. He was one of the founding donors of the program and don't believe he specifically donated for the four but put in a chunk for the boathouse and rest of the fleet.
The Lusk was little used during Duvall's years, mostly as a practice boat when there wasn't enough for another eight and short a cox.
When Bob Ernst started coaching and began to get his feet under him, he set up a small boat program as integral to our development as rowers. We trained in pairs and fours during the school year a great deal of the time, and raced exclusively in pairs and fours in summer training and racing. This effort put UCI men"s varsity from one of the bottom feeders in 1971 to second to racing UW and Cal to a standstill in '74 and beating IRA champ Wisconsin.
Because the UCI team was small in numbers and not as deep as needed, Ernst frequently boated the best of us in the Lusk to go out and train head to head with the rest of the V8 and JVs in eights, continuing to try to get the best out of the best, and getting us to learn how to toe boats.
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In '73 and '74 we raced the Lusk and Pairs back east. In '73 we raced at Canadian Henley. Our four finished second to the Ridley four in the senior four final which was largely the Canada national four. Our pairs finished 2nd, 3rd, and 5th in the senior final, 3 out of the four pairs made the senior final. In '74 we raced the lusk at the World Championship trials and US Nationals, in Princeton and a few weeks later at Orchard Beach. We finished 3rd in the four trials with all undergrad athletes, and finished 2nd at Elite four nationals. Ernst was recruited to coach at UW where he had successful 40 year career. By the time I came back to coach, the Lusk had been sold along with some other favorite boats of mine. The Lusk went to Vince Horpel at Oakland where he was establishing a new club. Don't know it's rowing history there, and Mike Seely obtained the boat from Vince later. If you have a photo of the restored boat, I'd love to share it with the guys who raced it at trials. The Lusk was my favorite boat to row in, it was a real treat. Nothing like getting out there and matching one another and cranking on it to hold off a good eight for a two mile piece. Mike Sullivan
On Friday, September 8, 2023, Ted Shoulberg
Gentleman, I am one of the Founders Of the Rat Island Rowing Club in Port Townsend, WA and we just spent 7 months restoring the John Lusk. Al Macinze said that Mike Sullivan would know about the Irvine part of the story and Mike Seely would know about the post Irvine history. The boat, now named the Buckley, is on display all weekend at the Wooden Boat Festival. Could you please email what you know about the boat. Ted Shoulberg 360 821 9813
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