THE GOLDEN AGE OF AMERICAN ROWING background, the eight-oared crews of Co- lumbia, Yale and California won the open- ing heats of the Olympic Rowing Trials here late this afternoon. “California had the best time, Princeton [second in California’s heat] the next best, Columbia the next best, and Yale the poorest among the crews that qualified for semi- finals.”1870 The following day in the first semi-final, Yale eliminated Princeton by a margin of ten feet after a thrilling race in which neither crew rowed less than 38 strokes per minute. It had been the Tigers who had ended Yale’s six-year unbeaten streak the year before.1871 “The second race [between California and Columbia], when it finally started just before darkness settled down, lacked the finish of the first race, but there was the same nerve-wracking fight down the course, with California jumping to a half-length lead soon after the start, but never widening it, sometimes losing part of it, until just before the last quarter-mile, when the great West- ern crew went ahead by almost a full length. “Columbia found something with which to answer. It found an answer even when California’s white towel called for the last spurt, and the New Yorkers closed up half a length. It was away up in the 30s all the way, and above 40 at the finish. “The California lead was not won by a jump at the start, but was worked out during the first half of the race, foot by foot. The stern chase that Columbia made was as game and gallant a thing as any the sport has ever held.”1872 This set up a Trials final between the former Washington teammates, Ed Leader of Yale and Ky Ebright of Cal. T. Gary Rogers Rowing Center: “Yale, acclaimed the greatest crew of the East, faced California in the final of the Olympic Games tryouts at Philadelphia on the afternoon of July 7. The Blue Eight from New Haven and the Blue and Gold from Berkeley had fought their way through preliminary and semi-final races over the 2,000-meter course on the Schuylkill on previous days. “Yale had carried the colors of the American team in 1924 and were quite de- termined to do it again, but ‘On to Amster- dam,’ the slogan bandied about the crew shed on the Oakland Estuary months before in jest, had now become a fighting phrase.”1873 The New York Times: “Both crews went away with the gun in a good and even start. They rowed 43 and very close togeth- er, rigger to rigger, through those first, fleet- ing strokes. “Then, slowly, very slowly, like a pair of evenly matched wrestlers, California be- gan to gain the upper hand. “Before they reached the trolley bridge [around 600 meters after the start], Califor- nia was ahead. From there to the finish it was a case of the Elis trying desperately, with superb courage, to catch this big, beau- tifully rowing crew that was out in front and meant to stay there. “The rivals had been rowing close to 40 1870 Robert F. Kelley, Columbia, Yale and Cali- fornia Crews Win Olympic Trials, The New York Times, July 6, 1928 1871 See Chapter 52. 1872 Kelley, op.cit. all through this period, though it seemed during the middle distances that Yale was rowing a shade higher than California, 39, 38, 39 again. Never lower, except for brief spaces, did either crew row. “It was a killing, terrific pace, and Yale never had a chance to launch a sprint that 1873 Framed history of Cal Rowing, T. Gary Rog- ers Rowing Center 503
