OUR LEGACY


Historical Race Reports -- 1983 to 2011

Starting with the 1983 trip to Hong Kong as the first ever "Team USA" invited to attend the Dragon Boat World Championships, the journey of the Philadelphia Dragon Boat Association has been told by many people. 

Head Coach Bob McNamara has been providing the year-end summaries from 2002 to the Present, but before he started to put the PDBA seasons to paper, Jack Seitz and others provided the recaps below for the beginning of Dragon Boating in the United States.

2011

Head Coach Bob McNamara's 2011 Season Recap.  It covers the season-long journey we took, which lead to Team USA's second Nation's Cup victory at the 10th IDBF World Championships in Tampa, Florida.
 
2000s

 
1990s

  • 1997 == 2nd IDBF world championships at hong kong, most all pdba members = ap report on usa gold, COACH BOB MCNAMARA's SUMMARY OF THE 1997 COMPETITION
  • 1996
    • News Broadcast coverage (from 6ABC Action News) on the 1996 team as they prepared for the World Championships. 
    • Philadelphia Inquirer writeup on the 1996 Team and their 4th place finish at the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival.
  • 1995
    • Coach Bob McNamara's summary of the 1995 team and their trip to Hong Kong and China, culminating in a stunning silver medal performance in the 1000 Meter Final at World Championships.  But as you'll read, just getting to Worlds that year was half the fun.
    • Philadelphia Inquirer: "Sure, dragon-boat racing is probably Philadelphia's smallest, most obscure sport. But these guys live up to the sportswriters' lexicon of cliches: dead serious, finely honed, fiercely competitive, rock-hard, simon-pure amateurs who compete for the love of sports." [Link to Article]
  •  1992 == The 1992 Team USA Hong Kong World Championships report from "Diversions" magazine, June 1993 issue.

 
1980s

  • 1985 == The summary for the 1985 Philadelphia Men's Dragon Boat Team and their second trip to Hong Kong for the World Championships, as told by Jack Seitz. [LINK to report]
  • 1983 == From the TV show "PM Magazine," comes this report about the first ever US Dragon Boat team and their race in Hong Kong as the Philadelphia Men's Dragon Boat Team in 1983. [Youtube video]