Joe Donnelly
Joe Donnelly
1951 -
Rowing
Joe Donnelly was born in Sydney on 1 June 1951 and was introduced to rowing at St Ignatius College Riverview. Leaving Riverview in 1969 after coxing five GPS crews, he joined the Sydney University Boat Club and coxed a combined Sydney University/NSW University VIII to 2nd place in the 1970 State Championships, coming 2nd by one foot. In 1972 this crew won the State Championships and then, along with a second crew of young eager students, went on to win the National Championship in the Junior VIII.
Joe, along with the coach and six of the Sydney University VIII, was then selected to represent NSW in New Zealand as the NSW U21 Colts VIII. Joe was honoured to be named the Captain of the team, which was a first for a coxswain at the time.
In 1974, the Sydney University VIII won the State Championships, a feat that had not been achieved by the club for 20 years. The bulk of the University VIII was then selected into the NSW Kings Cup crew to compete at Ballarat in Victoria. This crew, as underdogs, won the event by three-quarters of a length from South Australia and the coach, together with Joe Donnelly and five of the rowers, represented Australia at the World Championships in Lucerne, Switzerland in 1974.
The team of University students won the Champion Coxed Pair, Champion Cox IV and the Champion VIII at the NSW Championships in 1975. Once again, the bulk of the crew, including the coach, Joe Donnelly and five rowers represented Australia at the World Championships in Nottingham England, where the crew finished 5th in the final.
In 1982 he moved to Orange as Bursar of Kinross Wolaroi School. From 1982 to 1991, he had no further involvement in rowing, but concentrated on his farming interest outside Orange.
Once his sons had left school, Joe no longer had anyone to coach and he raised the idea of introducing rowing to Orange with the School Council of Kinross Wolaroi. The plan for rowing in Orange was put to the City Council not just as a program for Kinross Wolaroi, but as a program for Orange as a city.
The Kinross Wolaroi program started with 30 students in Year 8, with those students now approaching their final season at school in 2006/2007. The school has already been extremely successful, winning two State Championships, winning numerous medals, competing in the Head of the River for Girls in 2006 and the club being awarded the Kevin Webb OAM Achiever of the Year from the NSW Rowing Association for the 2005/2006 season.
Joe has built the club to a team of 70 rowers since its inception and it is anticipated that it will expand to 100 rowers during the 2006/2007 season. The club now comprises 28 boats - of which two are VIIIs and have been donated by generous benefactors and parents of the students who have been caught up in the rowing fever of Orange. The drive and enthusiasm that propelled Joe to represent Australia in two World Championships will ensure the future of this sport to the Orange community.
