The Legion's History
Maintaining Rowing Connections
– Past, Present and Future
Early Years
The Legion traces its roots over seventy-five years to when the “Legion of Old Oarsmen Auckland Province” was established on 10th November, 1950 (which originally included Northland, Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty and Poverty Bay).
On November 10th 1950, when the Auckland Rowing Association at an executive meeting resolved to appoint itself, together with Messrs G.S. Bigelow and J.D Craies, foundation members of a “Legion of Old Oarsmen, Auckland Province”.​
During the following months old oarsmen residing in the Province, were circularised and by 7th July 1951 approximately 173 members had been signed up. On that date a meeting of members was called and approximately 90 ex-oarsmen from all over the Province attended.
A constitution was adopted, the Executive of the ARA withdrew from office at their own request and members then elected their own officers and Committee for the “Legion’s” first year of activity.”​
1970's Transition​​
It wasn’t until the 1970 Annual General Meeting that the word “Old” was deleted from the name of the organisation, and a further alteration to the constitution was made in 1979 to allow membership of both sexes, thus the current name “Legion of Rowers Inc “ was adopted.
The objects of the “Legion of Oarsmen” in 1970 were pretty much the same (though worded differently!) as they are today:
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​To band together and cultivate a kindly feeling and spirit of camaraderie among men who have participated in the great sport of rowing​.
To foster, improve and perpetuate the sport of amateur rowing and sculling​.
To take an active interest in amateur rowing clubs, inculcate the highest tradition of true amateur sport and to encourage and foster esprit de corp among members​.
To initiate and assist schemes for the advancement of the Legion and amateur rowing and sculling generally.
The Legion also takes credit for initiating the current magnificent “Oarsport” magazine published by RNZ. This began in the 1970’s as a Legion of Rowers Newsletter written by long time secretary and founding member, Cyril Hilliard.
When Cyril passed away in 1989, the committee resolved to continue with the newsletters which gave way eventually to a glossy magazine, which was then passed to Rowing NZ to continue.
The Legion continues providing a regular electronic newsletter to about 800 subscribers (mostly masters rowers).
General Activities
The Legion has always been a “not-for-profit” organization, its main function still being a support group for rowing.
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The activities over the years have been many and varied: In the early days, socials, “Ladies’ nights” and raffles were held. Farewell functions were held for NZ representative teams, as well as “Welcome Homes”.
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The Legion also provided funding to support the development of the “Tower” at Karapiro.
There was the introduction of “The Rower and Administrator of the Year” silver trays in 1970, which now includes the “Coach of the Year” award, still annually presented at the ARA Awards’ function.
The Legion began to take an interest in supporting masters’ rowing in 1984 and held its first regatta on the Tamaki River in 1985, with 12 races. The event moved to Lake Rotoroa (Hamilton Lake) and attracted masters from all over the North Island. This ignited the growth of masters rowing in New Zealand.
In 2017 the regatta was moved to Lake Karapiro due to changes in the management of Lake Rotoroa; at the time of writing, the Legion holds regattas in both May and September at Lake Karapiro, in association with Karapiro Rowing Inc.
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The Legion also has a current supporting role at the RNZ NZ masters championships, when it is held at Lake Karapiro. The Legion for many years now has provided monetary support to six NZ Under 19 Junior representatives on a yearly basis.​