GREENDALE, Wis. — Jennarose Murdaugh flips through the pages of a scrapbook in her Greendale home. The newspaper clippings and photos tell the story of an Olympic rowing team winning gold at the 1936 Berlin Games.
"This is the race. They were first, but not by much," Jennarose said pointing to a grainy black and white photo.
It's the same story told in the book "The Boys in the Boat" by Daniel James Brown. It's now a movie directed by George Clooney and coming to theaters on Christmas Day.
"They didn't have any money, they didn't have anything," Jennarose said about that 1936 team.
But how does she know so much about those nine men? Well, one was her father, Joe Rantz.
"When he got to the University of Washington, he tried out for the crew, because, well, crew was something that if you made it to the crew team, then you were provided an on-campus job for the year, that gave you the money for your tuition and room and board," Jennarose explained.
It was the middle of the Great Depression, Jennarose said her father had been abandoned by his family, and he was trying to get an education. It's a story of perseverance she and her siblings always hoped would be told.
The movie follows the team's journey to Berlin and why it was always more than just rowing that brought them together.
"It wasn't my dad that won the gold medal, it was the boat, the crew as a whole," Jennarose said of her father's mentality.
Ironically, she said it wasn't the Olympic run her father hoped to be remembered for. She said most of all he was proud of the family and life he built.
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