When it originally started, Nebraska Crew was composed of men only.  This changed in 1973 when Pete Zandbergen decided to try to start a women's crew team.  Zandbergen was already the coach of the freshmen men's team, but decided to try to branch out and start a women's team as well.  Forty girls tried out and 29 made the team and began, forming the second women's team in the Midwest (Barry, 1973).  The women began practicing, conducting the same workouts as the men, running, lifting weights, climbing the stadium stairs, and using the Abel/Sandoz pool to practice their form when not on the water.  The women traveled to the same races and faced the same competition that the men did.

The fact that Nebraska was starting a women's rowing team at the time made them a participant in a larger phenomenon within both the US and also the world rowing community.  At the time, women's role in American society was being strongly debated and an event such as a new women's team was often seen as something larger, something evident from the newspaper articles covering the event.  "Women's liberation has made its presence felt in the world of sports again with the formation of a women's crew team which will compete during the 1973 season" (Daily Nebraskan, date unknown). Within the tradition-steeped rowing community though, there was also a great deal of controversy over the women's teams that were becoming increasingly prevalent at the time.  Though for many years women rowers were unheard of and often strongly discouraged, Nebraska was just one of many programs offering women a chance to show that they, too, were up to the demands of such a difficult sport.

Today, in part because of the rules imposed by Title IX, there are many NCAA sanctioned varsity women's crews throughout the Midwest and the US as a whole.  While the Nebraska women's team remains a club one, the nearby Creighton team was elevated from club to varsity status in 1994 in order to comply with Title IX (Porter, 1994)