Boys in the Boat.... The Rest of the Story Presentation

THE BOYS IN THE BOAT: THE REST OF THE STORY

Presentation Tuesday, June 7, Public Invited

Wayland, MA, May 16, 2016…If you are one of millions who devoured Daniel J. Brown’s bestseller, The Boys in the Boat, and didn’t want it to end, you are invited to a presentation, “The Boys in the Boat: The Rest of the Story,” an insider’s epilogue to the book. Jim Pocock, great nephew of the book’s central figure, legendary racing shell builder George Yeoman Pocock, will speak on Tuesday, June 7, 7:30-9:00 p.m. at Trinitarian Congregational Church, 35 Cochituate Road, Wayland. Admission is free.

George Pocock has been called “arguably the single most influential man in crew racing for over half a century,” revered mentor to thousands of oarsmen and dozens of coaches throughout the U.S. Jim Pocock will share his personal memories of his great uncle of the development of the sport of rowing in America, and will tell many rich stories not found in the book. Attendees will be especially well-rewarded by reading The Boys in the Boat before the presentation.

The Boys in the Boat is the true story of nine small-town University of Washington student-athletes and their coach who surmounted prohibitive odds to win the right to represent the United States in the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games. The upstart Huskies went on to surprise a deep field of crews that included the vaunted host country, capturing the gold medal in the prestigious eight-oared shells race and upending Adolph Hitler’s plan to use rowing to showcase the athletic and cultural supremacy of National Socialist Germany.

Jim Pocock grew up in a family of racing shell builders that goes back four generations. His grandfather, Dick Pocock, built shells exclusively for Yale University for 40 years, while great uncle George supplied every other college in America from his workshop in Seattle. Between them, the brothers built 21 Olympic gold medal-winning racing shells.

Jim Pocock served as senior pastor of Trinitarian Congregational Church in Wayland for 12 years before departing in 2011 to serve as counselor to the president of Gordon College, a Christian liberal arts school in Wenham, MA. He and his wife, Beth, reside in Salem. Their son, Nate, is a 2005 graduate of Wayland High School. Jim is a 1975 graduate of Bucknell University, where he was captain and coach of the rugby team.

Presentation host Trinitarian Congregational Church was founded in 1828 as Evangelical Trinitarian Church of East Sudbury, adopting the present name Trinitarian Congregational Church in 1896. The church continues to be a voice for evangelical Christianity, with active ministries to the Wayland community and surrounding towns; Web site www.tccwayland.org.

Presentation sponsor Wayland-Weston Rowing Association, Inc. is a not-for-profit 501( c)(3) educational organization founded in 2000. WWRA operates the varsity crew team for girls and boys enrolled at Wayland and Weston high schools, and provides other programs for youth and adults who row for recreation, fitness and competition. For more about WWRA visit www.wwcrew.org and the Boys in the Boat presentation.