1979 UBC Physical Education graduate Al Morrow has accomplished as much or more than anyone in the realm of Canadian rowing.
While a student at UBC during the early 1970s Morrow rowed for UBC then coached the Thunderbird men’s rowing crews until graduating. While at UBC he represented Canada in the eights at the 1976 Olympics then again was selected to Canada’s team for the 1980 Games. As the UBC coach he along with fellow coach Glenn Battersby, established for the first time a women’s rowing program at UBC, launching it in November, 1976.
Morrow’s UBC rowing experience was an early chapter in what would evolve to become one of Canada’s most impressive coaching resumes. For five decades Morrow either rowed for or coached Canada’s National team with his teams winning eighteen medals at World Championships in addition to four golds, one silver and eight bronze in Olympic competition. Within this accomplished body of work, he is best known as head coach of Canada’s women’s rowing teams for the 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008 Olympic Games and assistant coach of the Olympic silver medal-winning women’s eights in 2012.
As the coaching guru at the national level Morrow has also served as the director of Canada’s National Rowing Centre and as of 2012 is the Performance Director for Canada’s lightweight men’s program.
Morrow has been well recognized for his longevity and expertise. He has been awarded several times the Wittenauer/Longines coaching excellence award, a Federal Government meritorious service award, the Geoff Gowan Coaching Award and was named the 1999 World Rowing Federation Coach of the Year. He is an inductee in the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame and in 2006 was inducted into the Canada Sports Hall of Fame.
Fred Hume
2013
