Outing showcases Tampa's storied passion for rowing

It's not often that city officials have anything good to say about graffiti, but standing along the west bank of the Hillsborough River on Saturday morning, Mayor Bob Buckhorn didn't slam the guerilla art.

He praised it… At least the college logos painted on the seawalls along this stretch of the river by rowing crews that come here every winter to train.

"The only problem?" the mayor said, pointing to a particular graffito, across the Hillsborough, painted on the wall along the Riverwalk by Curtis Hixon Park. "The Penn State logo isn't big enough."

No worries.

Buckhorn said rowing wasn't huge at his alma mater. But it has been in Tampa for more than a century, which is what brought the mayor, his entourage and scores of rowers, their families and friends, and curious onlookers to Plant Park at the University of Tampa.

They came to see the inaugural Roosevelt Rowing Regatta, an event put on by Tampa promoter Ken Walters and the Stewards Foundation, which encourages young people to take up the sport of rowing.

Before the race, darting around like a wayward scull, Walters said he put together the regatta to help promote the sport -- in which he never took part -- and its benefit to the city.

Because of the long history of rowing in Tampa, Walters said he named the regatta after the 26th president, Theodore Roosevelt, who famously staged here with the Rough Riders and who once stayed at the landmark campus building with minarets back when it was a hotel.

"There has been a great tradition of rowing in Tampa," he said as he attended to last-minute details such as signing time slips for three Tampa police officers on hand to keep the mellow crowd in line. "The University of Tampa used to have the President's Cup and we wanted to bring a rowing event like this back downtown."

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As the crowd began to fill in, ominous black clouds rolled away and Tampa jazz virtuoso Lisa Casalino warbled sultry versions of standards like Fever.

"This is a great way to showcase the city, the waterfront and the great sport of rowing," Buckhorn said, placing particular emphasis on the benefits to youth.

"Not only is rowing good exercise," he said, "but if you get really good at it, it can be a good way to earn a scholarship."

Moments after belting out a stirring rendition of the National Anthem, Madison Flores, 18, hopped off the stage and agreed with the mayor that rowing is not just fun, but a possible path to higher education.

A senior at Robinson High School, Flores races with the Stewards Foundation team.

Flores said she is thinking about the University of Florida, Vanderbilt and Boston University.

She said she wants to study voice with an eye toward opera. And wherever she goes, she wants to be able to row.

"And hopefully earn a scholarship," she said.

Students throughout Tampa benefit from the Stewards Foundation program, said President Tom Feaster.

"The program provides city children who do not have a rowing program at their own school a chance to take part in the sport," he said.

But as much as the event focused on rowers, many in the crowd never had stepped foot in a scull.

"I just wanted to come out and see what this was all about," said Robin Shum, decked out in a homemade frilly hat and long dress evocative of the days when Roosevelt roamed the banks of the Hillsborough.

This first event hosted college teams from Drake University, George Washington University and Rutgers, as well as high school teams from Berkeley Prep, Tampa Catholic, the Stewards Foundation and Academy of the Holy Names.

By 11:30 a.m., the first race went off, an intramural heat among the Academy teams.

There were cheers as the boats, each with four teenage girls, plied swiftly through the murky Hillsborough.

"Next year," said Walters, "we hope to have even more teams here."