Jesus College Boat Club (Oxford)

Jesus College Boat Club

The club's blade colours
Coordinates	51°44′37″N 1°15′00″W / 51.743503°N 1.249915°W / 51.743503; -1.249915
Home water	River Thames (known in Oxford as the Isis)
Founded	c. 1815 (unofficially), 1835 (formally)
Key people	Martha Heggs (President) Ruedi Baumann (Senior Member)[1]
Head of the River	Never won
Torpids	Women: 1980–83
University	University of Oxford
Colours
Affiliations	British Rowing (boat code JEO) Jesus College Boat Club (Cambridge) (Sister college)
Website	jcbc.jesus.ox.ac.uk

Jesus College Boat Club is a rowing club for members of Jesus College, Oxford, one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford. The club was formed in 1835, but rowing at the college predates the club's foundation: a boat from the college was involved in the earliest recorded races between college crews at Oxford in 1815, when it competed against Brasenose College. In the early years of rowing at Oxford, Jesus was one of the few colleges that participated in races. Neither the men's nor the women's 1st VIIIs have earned the title of "Head of the River", which is gained by winning Eights Week—the main inter-college rowing competition at Oxford.

A number of college members have rowed for the university against Cambridge University in the Boat Race and the Women's Boat Race. Barney Williams, a Canadian rower who studied at the college, won a silver medal in rowing at the 2004 Summer Olympics, and participated in the Boat Race in 2005 and 2006. Other students who rowed while at the college have achieved success in other fields, including John Sankey, who became Lord Chancellor, Alwyn Williams, who became Bishop of Durham, and Maurice Jones, who became Principal of St David's College, Lampeter. Another college rower, James Page, was appointed Secretary of the Amateur Rowing Association and coached both the Oxford and Cambridge University boat clubs.

The college boathouse, which is shared with the boat club of Keble College, is in Christ Church Meadow, on the Isis (as the River Thames is called in Oxford). It dates from 1964 and replaced a moored barge used by spectators and crew-members. The last college barge had been purchased from one of the Livery Companies of the City of London in 1911. It is now a floating restaurant further down the Thames at Richmond, and for some years was painted in the college colours of green and white.