Daniel Walsh, Class of 2003, has been elected to the Northeastern University Hall of Fame for excellence in the sport of rowing.
Walsh not only helped power the Huskies to the finals of three consecutive Eastern Sprints, but has won World Championship and Olympic bronze medals for the United States.
He attended Brien McMahon High School in Norwalk, Conn., where he captained the wrestling team as a junior and senior. However, his hometown boasted the Housatonic River and the Norwalk Rowing Club. At the NRC, he was a four-year captain. His talents and his 6-foot-7, 220-pound measurements did not go unnoticed, and in the summer of 1997, he became a member of the United States Junior National Rowing Team.
Husky head coach Buzz Congram had been tracking Walsh’s successful early career and in the fall of 1997 he entered Northeastern and Henderson Boathouse for the start of a great four years. In his freshman campaign, NU was 2-3 in regular-season regattas and finished ninth at the Eastern Sprints. At season’s end, he received the Parker Award as the Outstanding Freshman Oarsman.
Sophomore season, Walsh assumed the stroke position in the varsity boat and the Huskies went 2-3 in regular-season regattas, including a heartbreaking 1.1-second loss to down-stream rival Harvard. In the Eastern Sprints, the Huskies were a finalist, finishing sixth. Walsh was honored by receiving the team’s Most Valuable Oarsman Award.
As a junior, Walsh moved back to the six-seat to bolster up the muscle in the engine room. Northeastern again had a 2-3 regular-season regatta record. Also, once again in the Smith Cup versus Harvard was a great race. The Crimson had to row a 5:37.3 – a new Charles River record – to best the Huskies, who rowed a 5:40.4. That was just one tenth of a second off NU’s best Charles River time. The Huskies once again made the finals of the Sprints and once again finished sixth.
In 2001, his senior season, Walsh returned to the stroke seat. Although the regular-season record was 2-3, the year was a great success. The Huskies returned to the medals platform of the Eastern Sprints after a five-year drought by earning bronze with a third-place finish behind Princeton and Harvard. In the IRA Regatta, Northeastern made the finals and finished sixth. Walsh closed out his collegiate career by being named the Most Valuable Oarsman for the second time, joining Tim Wooge as the only two-time honorees. Walsh is the only rower in 43 years of NU crew to be named Most Valuable Oarsman twice and win the Parker Award as the Most Valuable Oarsman of the freshman crew.
Walsh joined the United States National Rowing team in the summer of 2001. In 2006, he rowed six-seat as the U.S. won bronze at the World Championship and in 2008 he was in the five-seat as the U.S. won bronze at the Olympics in Beijing, China.
