THE SPORT OF ROWING University of Pennsylvania Intercollegiate Athletics 1967 IRA Varsity Race Penn all alone at the finish line “We were shocked, and I think all the jokes in our boat stopped at that point. We knew we had a big race on our hands, and we could not let the downpour be a distraction. We did more warm-ups and practice starts while we waited for the remaining varsity boats to join us at the starting line. “We had drawn Lane 13 of the sixteen- boat field. After we were all in our starting positions, the gun sounded and off we went: ¾, ½, ¾, then a power-10 at about 36 under our belts than the other boats, and now we just had to grind it out.”4396 Sports Illustrated: “The varsity race, when it did start, was all Penn: Penn starting fast, Penn coming on to take second after three-quarters of a mile and first after a mile, Penn half a length over Wisconsin and Navy, Penn by a full length over Wisconsin and Navy after two and one-eighth miles, Penn by a length and a deck, by two lengths, by almost two and a half at the finish, while stroking 36.”4397 Allen: “It’s hard to imagine there were sixteen J. Findlay Allen 1967 IRA Varsity Shirts California, MIT, Columbia, Dartmouth, Syracuse, Stanford, UCLA, Penn (above), Wisconsin, Northeastern, Washington, Navy, Brown, Princeton, Cornell, Rutgers and shift down to 32 for the long haul. The key was to get settled into a smooth rhythm and not get rattled by boats which had jumped out ahead of us. The boat was setting up well and everyone looked crisp. We knew we had multiple more three-milers boats in that race, but there they were -- in all their colors, colors my father later laid out on our living room carpet for yet another 4396 Sculley, op. cit. 4397 Peterson, op. cit. 1208
