The Boys in the Boat

As a child, he had many hardships—from the death of his mother, to an uncaring stepmother, to being abandoned in Sequim, WA. There he met Joyce, his future wife, and struggled to make a living as a teenager. He went to live in Seattle with his brother during his senior year and made it in to University of Washington. There, he joined crew and made it in to the first freshman boat; they beat Berkeley and won at Poughkeepsie at the national championships. The next year, Joe repeated that feat again in JV crew. Then in junior year, the year of the Olympics, Joe found his spot in jeopardy, switching between the number three and four boats. He eventually went to the number one varsity boat and beat Berkeley at the Pacific Coast Regatta, became national champion at Poughkeepsie, won the Olympic trials, and made it all the way to Berlin. At the Olympics, he would help propel his boat to an unlikely victory, defeating the German boat rowing for Adolf Hitler.