THE SPORT OF ROWING The Light Blues are the Cantabridgians or “Cantabs” representing the Cambridge University Boat Club (C.U.B.C.), and the Dark Blues are Oxonians representing the Oxford University Boat Club (O.U.B.C.). Not surprisingly, the origin of the Uni- versity colors also goes back to Eton. Eton Blue Beginning no later than the early 19th Century, Eton sportsmen took to the river and the cricket field against other opponents dressed in what has come to be known as Eton blue. At the very first appearance of an Eton boat in outside competition against West- minster in Putney on July 27, 1829, “the Etonians pulled up to the bridge in broad blue-striped Guernsey frocks and dark straw hats, with blue ribbon – true sailor fash- ion.”217 Eton blue218 is a light aquamarine coin- cidentally resembling “celeste,”219 the tradi- tional color of 20th Century Bianchi racing bicycles. In 1836, a similar color was also adopt- ed by Cambridge University rowers. The story first appeared in 1883 in the Record of the University Boat Race 1829-1888 and the Commemoration Dinner 1881, by G.G.T. Treherne and J.H.D. Goldie: “In 1836, the Oxford crew again rowed in white and blue striped jerseys, Cambridge wearing light blue for the first time. An amusing, and for all we know authentic sto- ry will be found at pp. 134 and 135 [of Tre- herne & Goldie] . . . as to the origin of light blue being chosen as the colour of the C.U.B.C. The fact that light blue was then 217 Bell’s Life, qtd. by Bryne, p. 9 218 “The traditional colour is between 12 B 17 and 12 B 19 on British Standard BS5252.” per www.etoncollege.com 219 meaning a “celestial” light blue. worn is sufficiently proved by the following letter from the Rev. Augustus K.B. Gran- ville, the [1836] Cambridge President, and stroke of the year: “St Edmund’s Vicarage, Durham: April 10 1882 “There can be no doubt that we rowed in 1836 in ‘light blue.’ The ribbon I wore has until quite lately been preserved by Mrs. Granville, and it has unfortunately been mis- laid. We have all along trimmed our boys’ jerseys with the same colour, and do so still with few exceptions.”220 The above-mentioned reference to pages 134 and 135 of Treherne & Goldie reads: “It was in 1836 that Cambridge first adopted light blue, and that, so it seems, rather by hazard. They were on the point of pushing off from Searle’s at Westminster, when somebody remarked that the boat had no colour in the bow. One person suggested one colour, and another. At the last moment the late Mr. R.N. Phillips, of Christ’s,221 a well-known oarsman in those days, ran over to a haberdasher’s close by, and asked for a piece of Eton blue ribbon or silk. This was produced, and the crew adopted it con amore. Since those days, Cambridge has stuck to light blue; while Oxford for the sake of contrast, have rather deepened their shade of the same colour.”222 Frank Grenfell: “The Eton Book of the River (p. 136) records that Edmond S. Stanley, [Eton] Captain of the Boats in 1835 and 3 for Cambridge in the 1836 race against Oxford, may have proposed light blue (sic) for the boat just before the start. R.N. Phillips was neither an old Etonian nor a member of the Cambridge crew.”223 220 Treherne & Goldie, p. 126 221 Christ’s College, one of the nineteen colleges that made up the University of Cambridge in the early 19th Century. There are now thirty-one colleges at Cambridge. 222 Treherne & Goldie, p. 135 223 Grenfell, personal correspondence, 2008 68
