Steve Gladstone

Stephen C. Gladstone, or Steve Gladstone as he is better known, is one of the premier rowing coaches in the United States. He currently coaches at the California Rowing Club. Previously, he coached at the University of California, Berkeley, whose athletic teams are known as the California Golden Bears.

Biography

Early life

Gladstone is a graduate of Syracuse University, where he rowed and played football. He is the son of Henry Gladstone, a renown radio announcer in the 1950s and 1960s in New York City.

Career at Princeton and Harvard

Gladstone began coaching in 1966, directing the Princeton University freshmen to a pair of silver medals at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association regatta, also known as the IRA. Gladstone then took over as varsity lightweight coach at Harvard. His Harvard crews were undefeated for four straight seasons. They won four straight Eastern Sprints championships and, in 1972, the Thames Challenge Cup and Wyfold Challenge Cup at the Henley Royal Regatta in England.

Career at Cal

In 1973, he was appointed as head coach of the Cal varsity crew team. He also coached the 1973 U.S. National team. During his tenure at Cal from 1973-80, Gladstone's Bears had three undefeated dual-race seasons, an IRA title, one official Pac-10 championships in 1979, and an unofficial championship in 1978 when Cal lost a controversial decision to Washington.

Gladstone retired after the 1980 season and coached the Cal Alumni for one race in 1981 -- winning the San Diego Crew Classic. He then decided to coach rowing again and was approached by Brown University.

Career at Brown

Gladstone coached Brown from 1982-94. At Brown, Gladstone crews amassed four Eastern Sprints championships, five IRA championships and two National Collegiate Rowing Championship titles. In both 1993 and '94, the Brown varsity crew completed the "triple crown" with victories in each of these regattas - a feat that had never before been accomplished. In Gladstone's final season at Brown, the men's crew went undefeated as a program at all levels of competition. Many of Gladstone's athletes at Brown became members of the national teams for the USA and for other countries. Following the 1994 season, Gladstone retired from coaching rowing for the second time.

Return to Cal

Upon retiring, Gladstone help found Resolute Racing Shells, where he was president and director of marketing. But in 1996, the coaching bug bit him again, and Gladstone returned to coaching crew at Cal beginning with the 1997 season.

In his first two years back, his varsity squads finished third at the IRA. In 1999, Gladstone's varsity boat ended Cal's 23-year IRA championship drought. (Cal is second to Cornell in IRA victories, but had not won the IRA since 1976). Cal then went on to capture 4 straight IRA varsity titles from 1999 through 2002 and was undefeated for three straight years. With the ending of the National Collegiate Rowing Championship in 1996, the IRA regained its position as the de facto national title. Virtually everyone of his oarsmen from those years has been a member of the national team for either the USA or some other country.

After his return to Cal, Gladstone's varsity boat won 7 Pac-10 championships. In addition, they won 7 straight San Diego Crew Classics, 1999-2005, and four straight Windemere Collegiate Crew Classics, 2003-2006.

In 2001, Gladstone was named interim Director of the Intercollegiate Athletic Department at Cal from which he resigned from in 2004 in order to focus solely on his job as the head coach of Cal men's crew. Gladstone's tenure as athletic director included the hiring football head coach Jeff Tedford.

After the 2008 rowing season, Gladstone retired from collegiate coaching and accepted a job with the California Rowing Club, which coincidentally uses the same boat house as Cal.

Gladstone has served on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Amateur Oarsmen and has also been a member of the Men's Olympic Rowing Committee.

Awards and accomplishments

Including his tenure at Cal and Brown, Gladstone's boats won 11 IRA titles in the varsity event which ties him with Charles "Pop" Courtney of Cornell who coached in the 1900s and 1910s, for the most ever. His 6 IRA victories at Cal also ties him with the legendary Carroll M. "Ky" Ebright for most victories by a Cal coach. Gladstone also has 8 national titles to his credit (IRA victories, except for the years that the National Rowing Championship was in place) which is second to Harvard's Harry Parker, who has 9, for most official titles among active coaches. (Parker has numerous unofficial titles from the 1960s and 1970s when Harvard was boycotting the IRA). During his career at Harvard, Cal and Brown, Gladstone's first boat has officially won the conference championship a remarkable 16 times.

Lightweight Varsity Boat
*Eastern Sprints Champions 1969, 1970, 1971 and 1972Heavyweight Varsity Boat
*Eastern Sprints Champions 1984, 1987, 1993, 1994
*Pac-10 Champions 1978 (unofficial), 1979, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2005 and 2006
*IRA Champions 1976, 1983, 1986, 1987, 1993, 1994, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2006
*National Collegiate Rowing Championships 1993, 1994
*San Diego Crew Classic 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005