BERKELEY – Cal's 1964 men's varsity eight boat never wanted to stop racing.

The crew put together one of the greatest seasons in collegiate rowing history, and when it ended with a dominant victory at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association national championships on Onondaga Lake in Syracuse, N.Y., it figured it would just keep on racing as much as it could.

"We went across the finish line so far ahead, we didn't even stop rowing," said Steve Johnson, who sat in the stroke seat for the national champions. "We rowed all the way back to the docks."

Cal's varsity eight won the 1964 grand final by multiple boat lengths, culminating an undefeated season in which the crew won the Pacific Coast Duel Race Championship, the Western Intercollegiate Championship and the IRA Championship. No Cal crew had ever pulled off that trifecta in history. For those accomplishments, the boat is being inducted into the Cal Athletic Hall of Fame during the weekend of Nov. 8-9.

It took an eventual Olympic gold medal-winning boat to finally take down the Bears. Cal's crew went on to the 1964 Olympic Trials in Pelham Manor, N.Y. and finished in third place behind the Vesper Boat Club of Philadelphia, and Harvard. Vesper, representing the U.S. at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, won the gold medal.

"I thought about (the Olympic trials) for about the next 30 years," said Jim Libien, the coxswain of the boat. "I was always replaying it in my head."

Cal's 1964 varsity eight was a four-year work in progress that ultimately developed into a dominant force of cohesion and chemistry. Legendary Cal head coach Jim Lemmon constantly tinkered with his boats, moving rowers around to find the best possible combinations.

Ultimately, the crew of Libien, Johnson, August Shilling, Scott Gregg, Malcom Thornley, Mike Page, Alan Mooers and Ed Bradbury proved to be the perfect mix for success.

"It was really kind of a four-year venture from the time we started out as freshmen," Libien said. "In practices, Lemmon would pull the boats together and switch out positions. One guy who was in the varsity boat was all of the sudden riding in the JV boat. It was like that my whole career. It could just change overnight."

Members of the '64 varsity eight rave about the influence Lemmon had them on athletes and people. Of his many valuable assets as a coach, he wasn't afraid to take chances. Right before the IRA national championships, Lemmon brought in a new type of oar from Germany that he felt was better suited for the boat's high stroking rate. He also moved Johnson into the stroke seat for that race.

"He thought the new oar could be even more positive, and he was right," Johnson said. "It brought us up to another gear."

Members of the boat have remained close over the years. They have regularly gotten together at least once a year since leaving Berkeley and in 2014 held a 50-year reunion in San Rafael.

Thornley and Mooers have since passed away, but the remaining members of the crew are all expected to be present for the induction ceremonies in November.

"I was stunned when I heard we were being inducted," Johnson said. "So much time has gone by, you figure you've probably missed out on that possibility. It's pretty rarified air."