Canoe Clubs

It is no overstatement to say that the 74-year-old Ledyard Canoe Club, the nation's oldest college canoe club, transformed the world of kayaking and canoeing. You can look it up:

• In 1933, a small group of Ledyard paddlers became the first recorded canoeists to circumnavigate New England. They went up the St. Lawrence to the Bay of Fundy and down the Atlantic coast to New York in 66 days.

• Dartmouth was the first American college to institute indoor kayak training, led by Jay Evans '49 during the 19605.

• Dartmouth hosted the first indoor kayak slalom competition in 1964.

• The 1972 Olympics were the first to have Whitewater canoeing and kayaking events. Out of ten Americans on the U.S. whitewater team, four were Ledyardites: John Burton '69, Wick Walker '68, Sandy Campbell '67, and Eric Evans '72. The coach: Jay Evans, Eric's father.

• In the summer and fall of 1977, a group of young Ledyardites were the first to conquer the Rio Grande in its entirety, from the San Juan mountains of Colorado to the mouth of the Gulf of Mexico, a distance of 1,880 miles including 150 miles of dry riverbed, which they covered with bicycles built for two.

Dartmouth paddlers were first, and other clubs followed in their wake.