Joseph William Burk was an American oarsman and coach. At the University of Pennsylvania, Burk rowed in the varsity boats. After graduating in 1934, he began racing in the single scull, a one man boat. Burk won 46 consecutive races in the single scull from 1937 to 1940, inclusive. He was the U.S. and Canadian champion for those four years. In 1938, he won the Diamond Challenge Sculls at the Henley Royal Regatta when he set a Henley course record of 8:02, which was to stand for 27 years. He won Diamonds again in 1939, beating Roger Verey in the final. He became known as the ?world?s greatest oarsman?, and at the end of the 1939 season, Burk was voted the James E. Sullivan Award as the country's outstanding amateur athlete. In 1940, Burk won the Olympic try-outs, the National Regatta and the Philadelphia Challenge Cup, also known as the Gold Cup. The 1940 Olympics, however, were cancelled because of World War II. An attempt was made to schedule a match race with world professional sculling champion Henry "Bobby" Pearce, who was then living in Canada, but that race failed to materialize. Burk served as a PT boat commander in the Pacific in World War II. [More at Wikipedia]

January 19th, 1914 in   /  Died:   Jan 13th, 2008