THE SPORT OF ROWING Harvard felt they had to win because they assumed that Penn was not going to support the black protest. Penn was on the other side of the cultural chasm that was dividing the country as a whole. Angell: “The Penn rowers looked a little younger to me, but this might have been an illusory contrast in life-style suggested by the Penns’ neater haircuts and firmly set jaws. this difference, and he answered with considerable heat. Harvard’s attitude.4706’”4707 The Heats According to Angell, the night before the heats, the Harvard men were “encouraging one another with their light- hearted disparagement of the Penn crew’s intensity and generally gung-ho attitude toward the sport. “They told me that at an earlier race they had heard the Penns roaring like storm troopers as they carried out their shell. [Andy] Larkin jumped up on his bed and shouted, ‘Beat Harvard! Win the Sprints! Win the Sprints!’ and they all laughed. “‘No kidding,’ said [Scott] Steketee. ‘I think it’s getting like Big Ten football down there at Penn.’”4708 Dietrich Rose4709 had taken over from Rosenberg at Vesper, and his crew had drawn Penn and three others in the first heat. Penn started slow, took the lead before the 1,000 and had two lengths with 500 meters to go. “I asked Gardner Cadwalader about ‘I don’t understand Vesper sprinted at 43 and closed back a length, but Penn crossed the line unchallenged. In the second heat, “Harvard surprised itself with a flashy start and won unextended by nearly two lengths. “The times were more interesting than the races; Harvard in an unfavorable outside lane had rowed 6:03.3 while Penn had broken the course record, coming in at 5:56.1, and Vesper was clocked at 5:59.6. Only two of the Harvards had bothered to wear their official crimson jerseys for the race, but hair and cool had clearly been challenged.”4710 The Final The New Yorker: “Race day morning, and a stiff, surprising tailwind was up, snapping the pennants over the boathouse. All the lanes would be equal today and the times remarkable. “Now it was time, and from upcourse the loudspeakers brought us the starting instructions and lanes – Washington on the inside, then Vesper, Harvard and Penn. A long silence, then the odd, international cry of the starter: ‘Êtes-vous prêts? Partez!’ “Andy Larkin had told me that Penn would go off like a machine, while Harvard, not famous for its starts . . . ‘Somewhere, we’ll get it together.’ “But here it was Vesper that jumped away first at 45 with Penn and Harvard just a hair back. “Within 100 metres, the Penn machine was in gear and had pulled away by a seat or two, with Harvard and Vesper even. “At the 500 mark, Penn had a one 4706 Truth be told, forty years later, he still doesn’t. 4707 Ibid. 4708 Ibid, p. 76 4709 See Chapter 107. second margin over Vesper and almost a second and a half over Harvard. Penn was rowing a beat or two higher than the others. Now, half-way down the course, Vesper 4710 Angell, op. cit., p. 82 1306
