Murray Cods’ legacy lives on, 100 years later
A Murray Bridge rowing team which competed at the 1924 Paris Olympics will be celebrated at a cabaret event in September.
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A hundred years ago this week, a team of rowers from Murray Bridge tussled with the best in the world at the Olympic Games in Paris.
Having come from a country town of only a few hundred people, and overcome war wounds, poverty and prejudice, the Murray Cods have gone down in local folklore.
In recent years they have been celebrated in prose, a documentary film, and with their induction to the SA Sport Hall of Fame; and since May 8, Murray Bridge News has been re-publishing cox Bob Cummings’ diary of the Olympic journey, day by day.
Now Murray Bridge Rowing Club is planning one more celebration in their centennial year: a cabaret in September.
Club president Stacy Seidel said the Cods’ story was one worth celebrating.
“It’s certainly a story that continues to bring enormous pride to the club and the community,” she said.
“To me, that was really evident when we had the hall of fame induction and all the descendants came from Tasmania (and elsewhere), and you saw the enormous pride they had in their grandfathers: ‘I can push past stuff that’s tough, I can push past adversity and achieve at the highest level’.
“I think that pride is what the community continues to draw on: that those men, of different heights, backgrounds, abilities and ages were able to pull together as a team and achieve on the world stage, which is really quite extraordinary.”
In a community like Murray Bridge, where locals still faced barriers in their lives, the Cods and their Olympic successors remained an inspiration, she said.
“We’ve had 11 Olympians,” she said of the rowing club.
“That’s not bad for a small town.
“We’re certainly batting above our average.”
Some of the memorabilia items brought home from Paris by Bob Cummings. Photos: State Library of South Australia (PRG 1602-8).
Local historian Ken Wells said he took pride in the fact that his father had been a back-up rower for the Cods eight throughout the early 1920s, only an injury or illness away from joining them on the trip to Paris.
“It means something to me … (that) I’m still living 100 years after the Cods,” he said.
The late Thomas Wells had fought at Gallipoli and Lone Pine in World War I before being given a medical discharge, then met some of the Cods while working as a fireman on the railways.
Coach Peter Newell noted that 15 Murray Bridge rowers had worn the green and gold over the past century, and had represented Australia in more than 30 races between them.
Notable among those rowers was James McRae, world champion and winner of an Olympic silver medal at Rio 2016 and bronze at London 2012.
Like the Cods, the rowing club itself had overcome plenty of adversity in the intervening years, too.
It came close to bankruptcy in the 1960s, had moved between rowing sheds several times, and had most recently survived COVID-19 and the River Murray floods.
Through it all, the club’s Olympians had served as an inspiration, instilling in the club a culture of overcoming adversity.
He hoped more locals would be inspired to take up rowing this summer.
You could join the club without ever rowing in a competition, he said.
“You can be a social rower, row in masters or club grades or do school rowing,” he said.
“Really (the club) is about providing the community with the ability to participate, and then the pathway for those who want to compete to excel.”
Centenary cabaret will celebrate club’s Olympic successes
The Cods Centenary Cabaret was originally going to have been held in July or August, to coincide with either the centenary of the Cods’ Olympic races or the rowing at this year’s Paris Olympics.
But a suitable date couldn’t be found, so the club settled on September 21.
The celebration of 100 years of Olympic success will be held at Murray Bridge Performing Arts and Function Centre, and will feature a performance by Murray Bridge Community Concert Band, memorabilia displays, an auction and more.
More information about the cabaret, and tickets, will be made available closer to the date.
Correction: Stacy Seidel is the rowing club’s president, not its secretary.
