Dual Race with Princeton Named
in Honor of Former Coach Whit Fosburgh
Fosburgh Cup to Be Contested for the First Time on April 9, 2005
The Fosburgh Cup honors Whit Fosburgh for his years of outstanding service, his commitment to success, and his ongoing support of Georgetown Crew. Whit’s coaching career at Georgetown spanned nearly fifteen years from 1985 to 1998 – first as the freshmen lightweight coach and later as the varsity lightweight coach. During this time, Whit encouraged and oversaw the lightweight program’s transition from the Dad Vail league to the Champion league to the Eastern Sprints.
Whit’s greatest contribution to the Georgetown Lightweights has been to raise the expectations of the program. From the first day he took over as coach at Georgetown, Whit challenged his rowers to be the best in the country and insisted that they could be successful against their better funded opponents. The success that the lightweights are experiencing today (2nd at the National Championship in 2004) is directly linked to Whit’s vision and perseverance in the late 80s and 90s.
Since stepping down as the varsity coach in 1998, Whit has continued to serve as a valuable mentor to each of the three varsity lightweight coaches who have followed him. His guidance and support of the current coaching staff has helped ensure continuity within the lightweight men’s program and helped ensure that the winning tradition that he started almost 20 years ago continues today.
It is fitting that the Fosburgh Cup should be awarded to the winner of the Georgetown-Princeton race. Princeton is consistently one of the best lightweight men’s teams in the country. Every year, the Georgetown Lightweight Crew will have to be on the top of their game in order to bring home the Fosburgh Cup. Whit wouldn’t want it any other way.
Thanks to Andy Belden, the current Georgetown lightweight men’s coach for establishing the Cup race with Princeton, and thanks to former Georgetown lightweight rowers Joseph Dever (’90), Richard Burke (’89), William Rizzo (’90), and Widge Devaney (’88) for donating the money to purchase the beautiful Tiffany trophy.
To read more about Whit’s tenure at Georgetown and the history
of the lightweight men’s program, click
here.
