A USC Oarsman is one of the worlds greatest ever.

December 13, 2006

In Part II of this website series Trojan Coach Gene Kininmonth pays homage to USC’s greatest ever oarsman.

His name should be enshrined in gold into eternity in USC Athletics Hall of Fame.

He is one of the University’s greatest athletes. He competed in four Olympic Games and won four medals, two of them gold. He is one of only two people on the planet to medal in two distinctly different summer Olympic sports.

USC has forgotten his name.

Mention his name to anyone who has been around long enough in the world of rowing and they will tell you he likely went to Stanford. Stanford honored him into its Hall of Fame and Cardinal oarsmen today row in a shell bearing his name.

His name is Conn Findlay and he was an oarsman at USC.


USC Oarsman, Conn Findlay.

Born April 24, 1930 in Stockton, California, Mr. Findlay won his first gold medal in rowing a half century ago at the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games in the Pair with Coxswain event.


Ticket to the rowing events at the 1956 Melbourne Olympiad.

“I never did any of it for recognition,” he says honestly. “I enjoyed simply living the joy of the experience. I met some wonderful people along the way.”

When told some of the rowing alumni were talking about making a push to see his name recognized in the USC Hall of Fame, Mr. Findlay responded: “I appreciate the thought, it means a lot. But I don’t need that. It’s not important to me.”

One imagines this is the response that only those truly worthy of the Hall of Fame would express.

But to understand why so many people now want to see Conn Findlay’s name in the Hall of Fame you need only consider his amazing athletic career. One might think winning an Olympic gold medal is enough, but USC has produced more Olympic gold medalists than any other university in America. There is not a reception center in Los Angeles big enough to host an induction ceremony for all of them.


Torch lighting ceremony at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, Austrailia.

Conn Findlay is more than an Olympic gold medalist. He represented his university and country at four Olympics, winning gold in 1956 in Melbourne and 1964 in Tokyo, and bronze at the 1960 Games, all in the Pair with Coxswain event. At the 1976 Olympics in Montreal he teamed up with Dennis Conner to win a bronze medal in Sailing’s Tempest class.


Conn Findlay rows for Gold in the Tokyo games of '64.

And if that’s not enough, Mr. Findlay has twice sailed on the winning America’s Cup sailing crew (1975, 1977).

While at USC his crew was part of a record string of victories over cross-town rival UCLA that has not been matched since. “Conn was almost too big and too powerful for our crew,” recalls fellow crewmate Jack Schumacher ’54. “We had no one strong enough on the other side of the boat to balance him out.”

Mr. Findlay coached at Stanford University for a number of years and was elected to that University’s Hall of Fame in 2005.

He ran a boat leasing business for many years, and although he is now retired he still officiates rowing regattas, including the PAC-10 championship, and lives today in Northern California.

“Conn’s contribution to the sport in this country is immense,” says former USC oarsman and assistant rowing coach James Hoffman ’52, who is now a member of the Crew Board.

“No university in the world honors its athletes like the USC Athletics Department. Even though Men’s Crew is no longer a varsity sport at USC we will always be part of the heritage and I hope we can successfully make the case one day for Conn Findlay’s inclusion in the Hall of Fame.”

USC first opened its Hall of Fame in 1994. The Athletic Department has elected 24 former student-athletes, including recent Heisman Trophy winner Matt Leinart, to induct into its Hall of Fame in 2007. Mr. Findlay is not listed among them, although his nomination should figure prominently for the next election in 2009.

Crew Remembers '56 - Part 1 | Crew Remembers '56 - Part 3