Rowing, the oldest intercollegiate sport in the United States, was added as a women’s intercollegiate sport in fall 1995. It had existed as a club sport since 1975, in which it was aided by the late Rodman Townsend Sr., who provided use of space at his company, Knoxville Glove Company, for the shells and meetings.
In June 1993 the Southeastern Conference announced “principles of gender equity,” which required all conference schools to sponsor two more women’s sports than men’s. The Rowing Team was added in 1995. The NCAA sanctioned rowing in the 1996–97 academic year and established an NCAA championship in the sport. The name of the sport was changed from “crew” to “rowing” with NCAA sanctioning. The program has a varsity team of 35-40 student athletes and a team of around 50 novices who are interested in learning to row. Head Coach Linda Glenn joined UT in 1998 and led UT Rowing to eight NCAA championship appearances, two Conference USA Championships (2010 and 2012), and a South Region Championship (2006). She has been named South Region Coach of the Year three times.
In 2010 rowing joined Conference USA as an affiliate member. In 2013 the UT Athletics Department announced that rowing would move to affiliate membership in the Big Twelve Conference in 2015.