THE SPORT OF ROWING underweight in an effort to condition the two substitutes, could not hold Oxford.”1181 Crowther: “At Barnes Bridge, the English crew had two lengths, and then Loring raised his stroke and took the Harvard crew on a grand spurt that closed up part of the distance. “But it was of no use. Harvard was fagged, and the Oxford men as steady as ever, and thus they won by a length and a half.”1182 Bill Miller: “Oxford had actually opened about three lengths clear near the finish when the spectator craft caused the English crew to slow to avoid them, and then they rowed the last few strokes easily to reach finish line. This allowed Harvard to close the margin to the reported ‘half to three-quarters clear.’”1183 “One thing that isn’t mentioned in any newspaper description is the fact that Harvard rowed the first part of the race at a pace like it was a short race rather than a 4¼-miler. They started at 46 to Oxford’s 42 and held the rate above Oxford’s for the first two miles. Then after, Oxford rowed at 40 and Harvard struggled to maintain 39. “Today we say ‘fly and die.’ Tinné stated that this was what did Harvard in.”1184 Perhaps the crucial difference in that race was that British rowing had about a twenty year developmental lead on the United States. T.S. Egan had originated the long-reach- forward in the 1830s, and over the next quarter-century British equipment makers had gradually adjusted rigger and oar measurements so that Orthodox oarsmen could lay back as well as reach forward without making their stroke load too heavy. 1181 Mendenhall, Harvard-Yale, p. 71 1182 Crowther, pp. 36-7 1183 Miller, p. 8 1184 Miller, personal correspondence, 2006 The same long-reach-forward discovery was made by Harvard only in the 1850s, and by 1869, American builders had not yet learned to adequately adjust their loads for a stroke that included appreciable layback, so Harvard still had no choice but to row shorter layback stroke at a higher rating than Oxford, a technique Oxford and Cambridge had evolved beyond decades earlier. British journalists called it “a triumph of good form and good style over superior strength less scientifically applied.”1185 That wasn’t the whole story. The Oxford crew was actually far superior man-for-man, especially after Harvard made the change of their bow-pair, and still they might have lost. But Oxford had a huge home-field advantage rowing on their home waters, and they took advantage of Harvard’s sense of fairness when it came to steering. All in all, Harvard had the speed, but Oxford had the long length at the release, and that allowed them to eventually row Harvard down. Two years later, this innovation would transform American collegiate rowing when it was imported by Yale University. See Chapter 27. Impact This remains the most influential international sporting event of any kind ever in American history. Nothing from the more cynical 20th or 21st Centuries could match its enormous societal impact. Dodd: “From the early preparations in May, The New York Times gave sixteen editorials on the race, at least of the end of the race. [Thanks to the newly-installed transatlantic cable,] The New York Times came out on the day after the race with five of its six front-page columns devoted to it. Newspapers on both sides of the ocean had reported the run-up to the race for four 1185 Qtd. by Mendenhall, Harvard-Yale, p. 83 310
