Mother of women's rowing dead at 97

Ernestine "Ernie" Bayer, credited with bringing women's rowing to the international stage, died of pneumonia on Sept. 10. Bayer's interest in rowing grew while supporting her husband, Ernest, during his training on Pennsylvania's Schuylkill River for the 1928 Olympics. Following a decade of pleading, Ernest allowed Bayer to begin rowing. She founded the Philadelphia Girls Rowing Club in 1938 with 16 friends and co-workers, and competed in numerous races during the 1940s and 50s. Bayer competed at the first National Women's Rowing Association championship regatta in 1966, and in 1967 persuaded U.S. rowing officials to select her club as the American crew to participate in the European women's rowing championships in Vichy, France. The team came in last, but lead to the inclusion of women's rowing at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. The U.S. women's team earned their first gold medal eight years later. Bayer became the first woman in the National Rowing Foundation's Hall of Fame. She was 97.

Sources: Yahoo News, National Rowing Foundation, Friends of Rowing History