Charlie Butt

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Charles Staley Butt, Jr. (1917 - 1990), (aka Charlie or Charley Butt) was one of the earliest high school coaches in Northern Virginia and instrumental in the growth of scholastic rowing in the Washington D.C. Area.

After graduating with a degree in aeronautical engineering from MIT in 1941 where it is believed he had been both a lightweight oarsman and coxswain, Charley moved to Northern Virginia. In 1949, he approached the administration at Washington-Lee High School, offering to start a rowing team. He financed the team via a fundraising event selling Christmas Trees on the school football team. This fundraising tradition has remained in place to this day albeit in the form of rowathons and sandwich and Poinsettias sales by team members.

In their inaugural season the Varsity Crew won all but one race and culminated the season with a sweep of the "Big Three"; NoVa's (Northern Virginia Championships), Stotesbury and the National Championships held that year in in Buffalo, New York. Charlie once offered a personal note to their championship win, crediting it to his refusal to let the W-L oarsmen fraternize with the other crews who stayed up late the night before playing cards in the gymnasium that collectivily housed the contestants.

"Charley or Charlie" as he was called, not sir or Mr. Butt, was head coach of Washington-Lee High School's Crew program in Arlington, VA for 41 years. He is regarded as the Father of Scholastic Rowing because he was instrumental in organizing numerous rowing programs, most notable; Alexandria's George Washington High school, later to become part of the combined T.C. Williams High School portrayed in Remember the Titans. Charley always worked as a "volunteer" coach, being paid very little, while working full-time for the Department of the Navy as an Aeronautical Engineer, educated at M.I.T. class of 1941. Looking like a true engineer, often wearing a tan Haspel suit, white shirt, bow tie and spectacles, not to mention his Beaver class ring, Charley defined what the term coach was all about. In 1979 and 1980, he was recognized as Washingtonian of the Year for his contribution to many in his successful rowing program which had touched so many people and area high schools. In 1964 (Dave Scofield) and 1969 (Avenger), his boys Varsity-Eight oared boat won the Princess Elizabeth Cup at the Henley Royal Regatta in England making them twice world champions and the first public high school to do so. Since this was only a club sport at a public high school, most of the money was raised locally to take his crew, boat and oars to England where they stayed in the neighboring town of Nettlebed. Over the years, his boats also had 19 scholastic National titles and numerous Stotesbury and Northern Virginia Championships. He has coached many Olympian's including Tony Johnson, the current head Rowing Coach of Georgetown University who gives credit to Charley. Johnson began his rowing career under the legendary Charley Butt at Washington-Lee High School and continued to row at Syracuse University and Potomac Boat Club. After leaving high school in 1958, Johnson later went on to row with Lawrence Hough, former president of Sallie Mae, together they won a Silver Medal in the Pair-without coxswain in the 1968 Mexico Olympics just losing to the East German's, DDR, by one hundredth of a second. Johnson is just one of many to have rowed for Charley either at W-L or Potomac Boat Club, who later went on to compete in international or Olympic competition.

Married to Mildred "Millie" Martin originally from North Carolina, Charley had six children, Susan, Sarah, Janie, Nancy and Charles,III. He drove a black VW bug convertible or a station wagon to accommodate carrying boats and oars to be repaired in the basement of him home. His only son, Charley Butt,III, Rutgers 1983, currently is Harvard's Head Lightweight Rowing coach where he has been since 1986. Since that time, Charley,III has also been a coach to the U.S. Olympic and Pan American Teams. Known as a technician like his father, he is credited with the "the Charley Butt Maneuver." The term "Rowing Mafia" is a term some use to describe the degrees of separation from this great man and coach as he has had direct or indirect influence over thousands of people whom he coached.

Aeronautical Engineer
Offered to start rowing team at Washington-Lee High School in Feb 1949, met then gym teacher Millie Martin who later became his wife;

W-L has the oldest surviving high school rowing program in the Washington DC area. The W-L team has won national and international competitions throughout its 50+ year history.

Coached 41 years
Lightweight coxswain and oarsman at MIT, Graduated 1941
Member of Potomac Boat Club
Coached 1967 US Junior World's Team in Ratzeburg, Germany
Coached 1971 US Junior World's Team in Bled, Yugoslavia
Coached 1977 US Junior World's Team in Tampere, Finland
Coached 1978 US Junior World's Team in Belgrade, Yugoslavia
Coached 1980 US Junior World's Team in Hazewinkle, Belgium
Coached 1981 US Junior World's Team in Pancharevo, Bulgaria

1967 Junior Champ. Men Jr. 4+ 11th Coach
1971 Junior Champ. Men Jr. 2+, 2 10th Coach
1973 Junior Champ. Men Jr. Team Hd Mgr
1977 Junior Champ. Men Jr. Team Hd Mgr
1978 Junior Champ. Men Jr. Team Coach
1980 Junior Champ Men Jr. 4 8th Coach
1981 Junior Champ. Men Jr. Team Coach

Honors and Accomplishments

1981 U.S. Rowing Association's John Carlin Service Award
1987 U.S. Rowing Association's Jack Kelly Award
1979 & 1980 Washingtonian Magazine "Washingtonian of the Year"
Washington Post "All-Met Men's Rowing Coach" 1987, 89
Virginia Athletic Directors, Administrators, and Coaches Association Award
Point man and Finance Chairman for the building of the Occoquan rowing facility
Helped start Yorktown, Wakefield, GWU, Georgetown U, & UVA crews, among many others

1 Notable People Coached by Charlie
2 Notes
3 Charlie Butt, III
4 References

[edit] Notable People Coached by Charlie

Pete Sparhawk '49 coached Princeton Heavyweights
Tony Johnson, '58 head Coach Georgetown University
Steve Robinson, Member US National Team
E. Fredrick Borchelt, 1984 Olympian, not at W-L, but summers at Potomac Boat Club
Walter Lubsen, 1984 Olympian, also not at W-L, but summers at Potomac Boat Club

[edit] Notes

Charlie Butt trophy, which has been awarded to the men's varsity eight Mid-Atlantic winner since 1993
Charlie Butt Sculler's Head of the Potomac
Charlie Butt Regatta

[edit] Charlie Butt, III

Head coach, Harvard University Lightweight Crew, 1986-Present.

Member of US National Team
6 EARC titles
7 National Collegiate Championships
Competed at the Henley Royal Regatta
Coached US Olympic Pair in 1996
At 12 years of age, Coxed Pair-with to 10th Place finish in 1971 Junior World's in Bled Yugoslavia
Member of 9th place Men's Eight in 1977 Junior World's, in Tampere, Finland