THE SPORT OF ROWING longer race, the last of the three-mile IRAs.”4372 The 1967 IRA Regatta For nearly a century, from the very first Rowing Association of American Colleges Regatta on the Connecticut River in 1871, the American collegiate championship had been decided by lining up side by side however many crews showed up and letting them race to the finish. No preliminary heats. Just mark out a sufficient number of lanes, and may the fastest boat win. The race distance for the 1871 championship had been three miles. Later when the Intercollegiate Rowing Association was formed in 1895, four miles on the Hudson River at Poughkeepsie was agreed upon. With few exceptions, that venue and distance was retained through to the outbreak of World War II. When racing resumed after the war in 1947, the distance was reduced back to three miles, but after Navy lost the Olympics in 1960,4373 pressure began building to emphasize the Olympic Sprint distance of 2,000 meters and the Olympic regatta format of preliminary races reducing the field to a final among six boats. It was finally announced that these reforms would be implemented at the IRA in 1968, so in 1967, sixteen crews, the largest field in IRA history, took to Onondaga Lake side by side to contest the last-ever long distance Intercollegiate Rowing Association Regatta. Sixteen lanes meant a regatta course nearly a quarter of a mile or 400m wide, and never again would there be such a spectacle of boats, oars and multi-colored shirts, just as it had been for more than half a century in Poughkeepsie. 4372 Allen, op. cit. 4373 See Chapter 90. For many, moving to the sprint distance was the last break with the Golden Age of American Collegiate Rowing that had produced Olympic Champion college crews from 1920 to 1956. Sports Illustrated: “Penn’s Varsity had not won the IRA since 1900, and until last year’s [1966] freshman victory, no Quaker crew of any kind had won a race in the championships since 1924. “But in the year 1967, the picture had changed entirely. Penn’s Freshmen, Jayvees and Varsity were all favored to win, the Varsity doubly so since the only crew that seemed capable of defeating it was busy elsewhere. Harvard’s rowing machine, coached by Harry Parker, himself a onetime student of Burk’s, was getting ready to win its twenty-seventh consecutive intercol- legiate race against Yale at New London.”4374 In Harvard’s absence, defending champion Wisconsin4375 was considered in the coaches’ poll to be the strongest challenger to the Quakers. After tough winters in Madison, the Badgers tended to come on strong only late in the season, and they were already on their way to July’s Henley Royal Regatta in celebration of their 1966 IRA championship. After finishing not far behind Penn at the Eastern Sprints, Northeastern, in only its third IRA, and Cornell, another typical late bloomer, also had ambitions upon arrival at Syracuse. Even installed as the prerace favorite, by no means had Penn intimidated the field. The New York Times: “The prerace favorite has not won the Varsity Challenge Cup since 1962. Cornell, Navy, California and Washington, all solid contenders despite 4374 Harold Peterson, Pennsylvania Pulls it Off, Sports Illustrated, June 26, 1967 It would also be their fifth consecutive New London win. 4375 See Chapter 106. 1200
