UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON ARCHIVES
ORAL HISTORY PROGRAM

Interview # 1065
JABLONIC, RANDALL

JABLONIC, Randall "Randy" (1936 - )
Undergraduate, Agriculture; UW Men's Crew Coach
At UW: 1956-1996 

Interviewed:  2009 (November 13)
Interviewer:  Tyler C. Kennedy
Index by:  Tyler C. Kennedy
Length:  3 hours, 4 minutes

Abstract:  In his interview with Tyler Kennedy in 2009, Randall “Randy” Jablonic discussed his forty years of involvement with the University of Wisconsin-Madison Men’s Crew team, both as a student-athlete and a coach. He detailed his experiences as a student and rower at UW-Madison from 1954 to 1960, including his participation in the team that won the 1959 Intercollegiate Rowing Association National Championship. He chronicled his time as a rowing coach from 1960 to 1996, offered numerous anecdotes, and relayed his philosophy of coaching. This interview was conducted for inclusion into the UW-Madison Oral History Program. 

Keywords: University of Wisconsin – Madison; Norman R. Sonju; Coaching; IRA National Championships; Midwest Rowing Championship; Elroy Hirsch; Carl Adams; Athletic recruitment; Regattas; Men’s Rowing; Women’s Crew

Interview Session (November 13, 2009): Digital File
Time	Keywords
00:00:00	Sound Check

00:04:20 	Start of Interview / Introduction. Background.  Name, date, and place of birth.  	Parents’ occupations.  

00:06:45	High school athletics.  Football, basketball and track.

00:08:40	Decision to attend the University of Wisconsin.  Desire to be mechanical engineer 		because of experiences with farm machinery.  Was average high school student.  		Taking geometry to get into UW.  

00:11:35	Studies at UW.  Poor student at first, living off campus and playing cards.  Flunked after 3 semesters.  Inspired by rowing coach Norm Sonju to recommit to academics in order to row.  Dean Shields from Engineering makes him take classes under Dean Kibling in Agriculture.  

00:15:49	Life outside of studies.  Marriage.  Rowing team.  1959 National Champion season.  Job offers from Upjohn Pharmaceuticals and Wisconsin Power & Electric.  Norm Sonju approaches him about becoming a coach.  Decides to work as assistant coach for Sonju for less money than other offers.  To make more money, he takes on PA position in Soils Department.

00:19:10	Becoming head coach was not assured from the beginning.  AD Ivan Williamson negotiates salary.

00:20:41	Recruited by Coach Sonju during freshman Phy. Ed. tests.  Describes Phy. Ed. tests in detail.  Sonju noticed how well Jablonic ran and recruited him for crew.

00:25:00	High school advisor told him if he went to Wisconsin, he would row. Row-trolling for muskie with his grandfather on Sand Lake, near Hayward, Wisconsin.  Going rowing with his grandfather.  

00:26:23	Freshman Coach Dick Tipple.  Academically ineligible freshman year.  Next fall under Sonju.  Returns to visiting grandparents near Hayward.

00:30:30	1959 National Championship season.  A "feeling of success" about the season.  Tie with Cal.  Poor showing at Eastern Sprints.  Defeated Navy.  

00:33:30	IRA championships rowed into headwind.  Started dead last.  Sobbing after the race. Teammates and team closeness.  

00:36:47	Going overboard during practice in April 1959.  Picked up by Coach Sonju.  Always exercised caution while running practices during cold water because of this experience.  

00:43:16	Taking saunas.  Polar bear club with the rowing team.

00:45:23	Fisherman traveling across the track during race versus Navy.  Rowing through the wake showed the strength of the team.

00:46:40	Needed diapers for the baby.  Team joked that they needed to win racing shirts for diapers. "Betting shirts" ran afoul of NCAA because they considered it gambling.

00:48:48	Becoming the Freshman crew coach.  The challenge of the sport, and coaching the sport.  The challenge of teaching technique.  The art of rowing.  Feels he had an innate ability to interpret and communicate the art form of rowing.

00:52:50	AD Pat Richter overheard Jablonic's pre-IRA speech and described it as the most inspiring he had ever heard.  Players start writing down "Jabo-isms".  He sees himself merely as providing a blueprint for the athletes to succeed.  

00:57:08	Jablonic's diverse interests in mechanisms, ballet and music.  Looked for athletes with musical background.  Respect for UW band director Mike Leckrone.  Stealing a recruit from Leckrone.  Sense of rhythm and timing good for rowers.  Prefers well-rounded individuals with diverse skills.

01:01:44	1964 Freshman National Championship team.  Sonju's conservative approach to racing.  Jablonic had to convince Sonju to take the freshman team to the IRAs.  Bill Clapp as backbone of team.  Uniform appearance of team.  Had "that feeling" about this team.  "Imagine the success you want to achieve."  Races prior to the IRAs.  Telling Sonju "We're going to win."  Had players write essays describing what they were going to do the day of the race.  Deal with Sonju that if freshman finished within one length of varsity, they could go along to national championships.

01:10:45	His traveling squad over 50 people because he believed in competing in as many events as possible.  Importance of fun, and challenge of achieving excellence.

01:12:14	Construction of new boathouse in 1966.  New location offered better wind protection.  Boathouse included new rowing tank.  RJ played no significant role in designing the new boathouse.

01:15:36	1966 Varsity IRA victory.  Athletes were the same that rowed for RJ's 1964 Freshman IRA winners.  

01:18:01	Coach Sonju's conservative outlook on coaching.  Not an inspirational leader, but rather straightforward with high expectations.  Focused on stroke and 7 oar and had the rest of the crew copy their style.  

01:22:27	At the Royal Henley Regatta in 1967, Sonju asked RJ to coach the crew while RJ had planned on only being the manager.  RJ's rowers had a very different style, rowing more strokes per minute than Sonju trained them to.

01:26:16	RJ was anxious to become head coach.  Williamson browbeat RJ into taking lower salary than he may have expected.

01:28:00	Elroy Hirsch succeeded Ivan Williamson as athletic director in 1968.  RJ always respected Hirsch for being honest and straightforward in his dealings with him.  Hirsch tried to cut rowing program.  RJ held his ground.

01:32:08	Only time RJ felt threatened by Hirsch was at a fundraiser at Monroe Country Club.  Hirsch tried to wager cutting the crew program on a putting contest. Saw Hirsch at banquet after Hirsch became ill with Alzheimer's.  Mrs. Hirsch surprised by RJ's niceness towards Hirsch.  Appreciative of what Hirsch contributed to Wisconsin athletics.

01:35:01	RJ's impressive record in the 1970s due to efforts of alumni like Don Peterson and Dick Tipple to save crew.  Huge volume of mail in support of crew program.  

01:39:24	RJ influenced by theories of coach Carl Adams of Ratzenberg, Germany.  Need of land-based training to condition the athletes.  Sonju taught RJ to not copy anyone too closely.

01:42:45	Racing against Adams' team at the Eastern Sprints.  RJ insists that his team beat them in a qualifying heat, but the cameras failed to record the finish and the judges let the Ratzenberg team into the finals.  

01:44:15	Innovations of Adams' team.  Evolution of rowing equipment.  RJ had a trick of using a brass brush to scuff the wax on bottom of the shell to create laminar flow.

01:48:54	Winning Ten Eyck trophies 1972-1974.  Gives credit to Assistant Coach Doug Neil.  Stole Neil away from Purdue.  Neil was excellent freshman coach, which made RJ a better coach.  Bob Cain stole Neil away from Wisconsin to Cornell to be head coach, but found himself sabotaged by a bitter assistant coach.  Neil made athletes love rowing.  Points out Dave Kucik and Chris Clark as other great assistants.  Need for the head and assistant coaches to work together closely.

01:56:08	Recruiting athletes for crew.  Enthusiastic about the growth of crew as a high school sport.  Importance of getting into registration lines and talking to "nice-looking" students.   RJ's standard lines.  Recruited Tim Mickelson, who became an Olympic rower.  Only was outright rejected by one student as a freshman coach.  Almost accidentally recruited a graduate student.  Felt bad about demanding time from assistants to recruit on such a low salary.

02:03:55	RJ only had one assistant coach under him when he started.  Many students dropped crew after a few weeks.  Experiences with a bad assistant coach (unnamed).  Wishes he could go back and give more students a chance to be champions.  Current SOAR program proposal to end extra-curricular recruitment at orientation.

02:10:04	Title IX aided in expansion of crew.  Affluence of athletic department aided as well.  Lack of formality in receiving funds in Sonju's day.  Attended a crew practice the day before and witnessed 13 coaches on the team.  New launches far better than RJ had.

02:17:56	Early years of the women's team.  Kathy Watke was the driving force behind women's rowing.  RJ supportive.  Women used crew facilities in the morning at first.  As women's program grew, scheduling problems arose.  Sharing a locker room with the women's team.  At a Board of Regents meeting RJ made a statement which was misinterpreted as against women's rowing.

02:25:54	Coaching at Royal Henley Regatta in 1973.  Fundraising for the trip.  Made the semi-finals in 3 events.  Also participated in Nottinghamshire Regatta against the Russians.  Had to beat Washington for right to represent US in race.

02:33:45	Coaching Olympic athletes. Encouraged international competition.  

02:36:54	Coaching at World Championships 1981-3.  For 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, RJ encouraged committee to hire a full time coach.  Canadian victory in 1984 Olympics.  Enjoyment of working with national team athletes.

02:42:24	Continued success in the 1980s due partly to assistant coaches.  Dave Kucik held part time positions in both rowing and engineering.  Transition from part time assistant coaches to full time assistant coaches.  Less flexibility with full time coaches.

02:48:33	Midwest Rowing Championships founded by RJ.  

02:52:00	Coaching in the 1990s.  Lack of NCAA sanctioning for men's crew.  Involved when Clark won Ten Eyck in 1998.  RJ did booking and bookkeeping like Sonju had, which ran afoul of purchasing.  Fundraising with parents.  

02:58:46	Retirement.  Still misses coaching sometimes.
  
03:00:45	Took coaches from Dartmouth and MIT out on the town when they came to race, in order to convince them to keep coming back to Madison for the Midwest Rowing Championship.  Providing athletes with quality opportunities.

03:04:51	End of Interview Session

End of Oral History #1065