12 September 2023

By Göran R Buckhorn

U.S. Olympian Nancy Hitchcock Storrs died on 8 September, Row2k reported on 9 September. She was 73.

Nancy Storrs was born on 24 March 1950 in Huntington, New York. She began rowing at Williams College in Massachusetts and was immediately fixated with the sport. She graduated from Williams College in 1973.

Storrs competed at the 1975 World Championships in the eight and the crew won a silver medal. She also represented the U.S. at the Worlds in 1977, 1978 and 1979 in the coxed four where the crew won a silver medal in 1978; she doubled up that year in the eight, which placed fourth.

She rowed at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal in the coxed four, which placed sixth. Storrs was also a member in the 1980 U.S. national team for the Olympics in Moscow, but the team never went due to the USA boycott of the games. In 1983, she served as the manager for the U.S. junior team at the world junior championships.

Two years later, Storrs moved to St. Catherine’s, Ontario, Canada, where she started coaching at Ridley College. She coached there for more than 30 years. Throughout the years, Storrs won several awards, including Ontario and Canada coach of the year. She was a dedicated coach for rowers on all levels, and she also was involved in running local regattas, the Royal Canadian Henley and Canadian Secondary School Championships.

Nancy Storrs became known outside the rowing community in 2000, when Daniel Boyne published his story about the women’s eight competing at the 1975 World Championships, The Red Rose Crew: A True Story of Women, Winning, and the Water (2000; paperback 2005). The crew was coached by Harvard coach Harry Parker.

In May 2020, I asked Boyne in an interview how he came to write The Red Rose Crew. He said:

“To a large degree, I was recruited by the women in the boat. I was an aspiring writer, doing a profile of 7 seat Gail Pierson for the Head of the Charles program. Gail is an extremely accomplished former athlete and academic, but she is also very modest. She encouraged me to pursue the Red Rose Crew narrative as a bigger story/book, so I started interviewing everyone else in the boat,’ Boyne said. ‘With each personal story that the women shared, I started to get that tingling feeling you have when you hear something really special. At the same time, I also felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude and responsibility to tell the story ‘right’.”

The Red Rose Crew has been opted for a film, but the release is not yet known.

Nancy Hitchcock Storrs, born on 24 March 1950, died on 8 September 2023.