THE SPORT OF ROWING 27. Bob Cook Pilgrimage to Britain – The Bob Cook Stroke In the aftermath of The Great International Boat Race, the rivalry between Harvard and Yale continued, but in 1871, when Yale challenged Harvard to an individual race, Harvard declined in favor of the Rowing Association of American Colleges Regatta in Springfield, Massachusetts. The race was won by Massachusetts Agricultural College,1188 located in the interior of the state. In 1872, having no alternative, Yale reluctantly brought their short, high, choppy technique to the RAAC Regatta, which had been won by “farmers” the year before, and not only were they beaten by Harvard, but also by overall winner Amherst, Bowdoin, Williams and the Massachusetts Aggies. In fact, they were dead last, a quarter-mile behind the winners.1189 In addition, new crews were being formed at colleges that, in Yale’s estimation, hardly compared in prestige to their own college or to Harvard. For Yale, this represented a crisis of epic proportion. Once they had been a power in an elite sport. Now they were becoming increasingly marginalized in an increasingly common, plebian sport. Early in 1873, following the example of 1866 Harvard captain William Blaikie,1190 1188 the predecessor to the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. 1189 Crowther, p. 41 1190 See Chapter 26. 1894 Harvard-Yale Program, Thomas E. Weil Collection Bob Cook “the Yale Boat Club, at the insistence of some graduate members, had quietly sent their captain to London to gain a few months’ experience among English rowing men, and that his enthusiasm for aquatics had led him to drop back a year in his college courses furnished abundant food for merriment to the gentlemen of the press,”1191 1191 The[1897] Yale-Harvard-Cornell Regatta Program, p. 60 312
