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Are Not Rowers Champions, Also?

11 August 2025

By Edward H. Jones

Occasional HTBS contributor Edward H. Jones asks why the sport of rowing has never graced a box of Wheaties^®.

In 1933, General Mills, an American grain milling company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, would hit upon a brilliant marketing strategy that America would quickly embrace. Why not place images of prominent American sports figures on boxes of Wheaties^® brand breakfast cereal as a means of product promotion? When combined with what would become one of America’s most iconic slogans – “The Breakfast of Champions” – the marketing campaign would become such an overwhelming success that the Wheaties brand is still recognized today ninety-two years later. In those ensuing years, Wheaties^® boxes would recognize every athletic activity imaginable – every activity except the sport of rowing.      

The first sports personality to appear on the box interestingly was not a living person. That honor went to Jack Armstrong, a fictional character created by General Mills in 1933 and given the moniker “The All-American Boy.” “Eat Wheaties And Watch Your Muscles Grow” proclaimed the young Armstrong on the box. The Jack Armstrong character, described on the box as an All-American Basketball Star, promoted Wheaties^® not only on the product box, but also in print ads and on the Jack Armstrong adventure radio program sponsored by Wheaties^®.

The first living sports figure to adorn the iconic orange Wheaties^® box was American baseball great Lou Gehrig in 1934 when his photo was displayed along with the “Breakfast of Champions” slogan which had debuted the previous year.  

The first woman to appear on a Wheaties^® box was pioneering American aviator Elinor Smith, also in 1934.

Not only were individuals featured, but groups were recognized, as well. An early example is the Wallenda Troupe of high wire circus performers depicted on the box in 1936. 

All of these personalities, however, appeared on the back of the box. It wasn’t until 1958 that two-time Olympic gold medal-winning American pole vaulter Bob Richards became the first athlete to appear on the front of a Wheaties^® box. To this day, though, no individual rower or rowing crew has ever graced a box of Wheaties^®,front or back. The closest sport to rowing represented on a Wheaties^® box was when American world champion whitewater canoeist Jon Lugbill was featured on the front in 1986.  

 This is not to say that General Mill has never had any association with rowing. In 1962, General Mills Canada, through the Wheaties Sports Federation created to promote sports and physical fitness among youth, began offering a series of 3½ x 2¼-inch collector cards titled “Great Moments in Canadian Sport” inside boxes of Wheaties^®.  Each card featured an illustration of a significant moment in Canadian sports history. One card in the series, number 11, depicted the Canadian gold medal-winning men’s coxless four from the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games.  

Similarly, as a “Proud Sponsor” of the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, General Mills USA offered a series of eight commemorative sport “medallions” in boxes of Lucky Charms^®, Cinnamon Toast Crunch^®, and several varieties of Cheerios^® breakfast cereal. Each medallion is a shiny aluminum collector coin 1½ inches in diameter (the size of a US silver dollar). Among the series is a medallion celebrating the Olympic sport of rowing. Interestingly, Wheaties^® was not one of the General Mills cereal varieties involved with this particular promotion.

Although these commemoration efforts are to be lauded, the gold standard of recognition of accomplishment across the galaxy of American sport is an appearance on the front of a Wheaties^® box. All of this begs the question of why rowing has never been celebrated on a box of Wheaties^®. There has certainly been ample opportunity for rowing recognition beginning with the gold medal-winning men’s eight crew from the University of Washington who triumphed at the 1936 Berlin Olympics (“The Boys in the Boat”). Therefore, to all rowers past (like myself) and present I ask, do we not deserve to be recognized on a box of “The Breakfast of Champions”? When we pull our oars, do our palms not blister and harden with calluses? When we finish a race, do our muscles and lungs not burn with pain from total exhaustion?  When we catch a crab, do our stomachs not feel the gut punch of our wayward oar handle? Are not rowers champions, also?

I was informed by General Mills that Wheaties^® front-of-box athletes are carefully chosen by a committee via a closely guarded internal process. With the United States preparing to host the 2028 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles, now would be a perfect time for the General Mills decision-makers to include the sport of rowing on a box of Wheaties^®. A great start would be with the crew of the gold medal-winning American men’s coxless four from last summer’s Paris Olympics who blew past the competition like an apocalyptic typhoon. Why not honor these Four Oarsmen of the Apocalypse as the next generation of Wheaties^® brand endorsers? 

So I say: Why Not On The Box?

Editor’s Note: It was different in Great Britain where the company Bemax, which produced a wheatgerm cereal, often had ads with oarsmen in the Boat Race programmes.