AMERICAN ROWING COMES OF AGE “Harvard, it seemed to me, stopped just short of the finish; her stroke oar dropped senseless in the bottom of the boat; all the men hung limp over their oars; the bow collapsed. Meanwhile Yale sat still, blown but not knocked out. Cornell, scarcely stopping, rowed lightly on and out of sight, champions of America. It was a proud and joyful hour for her. And in this hour of her rejoicing I will make no remarks that would seem to cast a shadow upon it. It was a great race, splendidly won.”1350 Cornell 5-seat Mark Odell: “The only sounds I realized for three miles were the words of our coxswain and the hoarse cheer of exultation from the train when we began to lead. The other yells I did not hear or did not notice, although the din I know was terrific and constant. “The last mile was along a flotilla of yachts, which kept up the most infernal pandemonium you can imagine. Not a word could we hear of our coxswain’s orders. Cannons were going off right above our heads, which made it feel as though the top of the skull was coming off at each shot, whistles of the most infernal screeching power went off in our ears. “‘Hell was let loose,’ as they say in the classics.”1351 After the race, press coverage was dripping with sarcasm. 1350 The New York Journal, June 25, 1897 1351 Qtd. by Lundin, p. 8 Thomas E. Weil Collection 1897 Yale-Harvard-Cornell Race as recorded by an observer “The New York Journal: ‘Here were Yale and Harvard, aristocratic and exclusive, standing apart together and communing with courteous hostility as to which of them would cross the finish line first, and in their self-sufficient haughtiness altogether ignoring poor little Cornell, who, it was agreed, had not so much as a ‘look-in’ in the matter. “‘And there were about all the most renowned rowing experts in this country and in England adopting the same point of view and standing upon their experiences of ten, twenty, or thirty years . . . “‘And, after all, poor, slighted little Cornell, with her unconsidered crew, came bashfully to the most remote and cold- shouldered of the three stakeboats, and didn’t do a thing but win the race, with so 357
