Head of the Lake regatta, Nov. 1: the people its cups are named for

Seattle Fitness Magazine · 4 Oct 2026

• 3mile course
• 2cunningham cups
• 42ernst's uw years

A 3-mile course through the Cut

On Sunday, Nov. 1, Head of the Lake crews raced 3 miles from the College Club dock on Lake Union, through Portage Bay and the Montlake Cut, to a finish near the UW's Conibear Shellhouse.

Lake Washington Rowing Club and the University of Washington host the racing, 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., on the morning the clocks fall back an hour at 2 a.m. Many of the cups on the line carry the names of Seattle rowing people: a Thames champion who became the first coach of UW women's rowing, a Green Lake teenager who hauled a four to races on a convertible, the coach who helped organize the first race, and a sculler who was at the regatta for her own cup's first presentation.

Frank Cunningham and the first race

The regatta dates its start to 1979, when a handful of Lake Washington Rowing Club scullers held an end-of-season race among themselves and UW rowers looking for fall racing joined in. Frank Cunningham helped organize that first Head of the Lake and coached many of the people in it, and the regatta singles him out as the person most integral to its long run.

He was a Harvard-educated coach and teacher who wrote The Sculler at Ease and Ask Frank, and he died in 2013 at 91. His name is on two cups, the Frank Cunningham All Points Club Cup and the Francis Cunningham Junior All Points Cup.

Jan Harville and Bob Ernst

Jan Harville grew up in Seattle and joined the UW Women's Crew Club in the fall of 1970, before Title IX.

She was Lake Washington Rowing Club's president in 1977, made the 1980 Olympic eight, which missed the Moscow Games in the U.S. boycott, and rowed in the coxed four that finished fourth at the 1984 Los Angeles Games. In 1980 she became an assistant coach at UW under Bob Ernst, whose association with the school ran 42 years, and the two worked with the club to make Head of the Lake what the regatta calls the West Coast's premier fall race.

Ernst's name is on the Bob Ernst Collegiate All Points Cup. As head coach, Harville led UW's women to NCAA team titles in 1997, 1998 and 2001, and she retired in 2003. Some of her teammates from that pre-Title IX Women's Crew Club sponsor her cup, the Jan Harville Women's Championship 4+ Cup.

The Pocock name on the water

Lucy Pocock Stillwell, whose name is on the Women's Open 1x Cup, rowed to a mixed double sculls championship in 1906 in a full corset, according to the George Pocock Rowing Foundation, and in 1912 became the first Thames Ladies Championship Sculler.

Her brothers George and Dick built shells for Hiram Conibear's UW crews, and by the regatta's account the family settled in Seattle in the fall of 1913. She became the first coach of the university's women's team. The foundation's free rowing camp for middle-school girls carries her name: Camp Lucy.

A four on a convertible

Bill Tytus, namesake of the William Tytus Men's Open 1x Cup, started rowing at Green Lake as a teenager and raced around the Northwest and as far as San Francisco with three others, their four strapped to the top of a convertible. He took to loitering at the Pocock shop in the north bay of Conibear Shellhouse and ended up making brass oarlocks there.

He rowed for the U.S. national team from 1969 to 1971, finished second in the Diamond Sculls at Henley in 1969, and in 1985 took over Pocock Racing Shells from Stan Pocock, running it until 2018. Pocock Racing Shells sponsors two of the regatta's championship events, the Women's Championship 8+ and the Men's Championship 4+. In 2013, the year Cunningham died, Tytus gave the club two boats, the Frank Cunningham and the Jane Cunningham, and the club set up a fund so it will always have at least one boat memorializing Cunningham.

Two masters scullers

Gordon McWilliams, by the regatta's account, was an architect and avid skier who came to rowing later in life, won the Men's Masters 1x in his age category in 1997 and 1999, and died in an avalanche while skiing in early 2000. The George Pocock Rowing Foundation, where he sat on the board, created the cup, awarded since 2001, and an endowment for elite rowers in his name. His friend Tom Hull was one of its first winners. Sherri Cassuto moved to Seattle in 1979, joined Lake Washington Rowing Club and rowed under Cunningham and Ernst.

With Susan Broome she won silver in the pair at the 1985 World Championships. At Head of the Lake she won the Open Single in 1982 and 1988, then came back as a masters sculler to win the Women's Masters Single in her age category in 2008, 2009 and 2010. The club dedicated the Women's Masters 1x Cup to her and first presented it at the 2015 regatta, with Cassuto there to see it. She died the next spring, on April 29, 2016.

Where to watch on Nov. 1

For the best views, the regatta points spectators to the University and Montlake bridges, the Montlake Cut and the Arboretum shore.

Gas Works Park looks onto the start-line round-up, the College Club dock onto the start, and Ivar's on North Lake Union onto the first turn through the University Bridge. The event trophies spend the year at Lake Washington Rowing Club and come out for the awards ceremony on race day.