10. The Post-Season: The American Henley Follies

This Chapter is an admittedly tongue-in-cheek wrap up to The 1963 Season.

The American Henley Regatta was an annual rowing event held in late June.  In 1963 it was being held in Saratoga Springs, NY.  To be perfectly frank, it was not a major event on the rowing calendar. The national championships for heavyweight crews (the IRA regatta) were not held until a week later.  A few rowing schools did use the American Henley as a warm-up for the IRA    In the lightweight category, the Canadian national lightweight champions were registered for the event, but overall, the competition was not as fierce as it was among the Division I college lightweights.  By early June we had learned that Cornell was not entering the Henley Royal Regatta, so for a couple of days we hoped that we might have a rematch with Cornell at the American Henley.  However, we soon learned that Cornell was not doing any post-season rowing-in England, at Saratoga Springs, or anywhere else.

These factors tended to downplay the importance of the American Henley in our minds. However, everything else was positive. In fact, it turned out to be a truly outstanding experience.  MIT was sending both our Varsity and JV to the American Henley, preceded by ten days of training at our favorite rowing venue, Dartmouth College.  What’s more, to participate in the American Henley we did not have to suffer through the dreaded Friday night weigh-ins. We could even feast on banned substances, like ice cream.  Further, Gary Zwart, our coach and taskmaster was more relaxed and in a better mood than we had ever seen him.  He actually seemed to be enjoying himself and, yes, was spotted eating ice cream, as recorded for posterity below. But most importantly, the American Henley gave us an additional two weeks with our best friends, and with the sport we loved.

There were a few complications that required resolution.  The heavyweights were taking more oarsmen to Dartmouth than in a normal year and the lightweights arrived with twice as many as had trained at Dartmouth the year before.  There were insufficient beds in the Dartmouth field house to accommodate all of us.  Pulling rank, the heavyweights took over the entire field house, relegating the lowly lightweights to a couple of shacks down by the river.

No problem whatsoever. The lightweights cheerfully moved into these huts, quickly adopting a dress code appropriate for those assigned to a cave.  The Hutmen were born! We proceeded to thrash the heavyweights where it counted, on the river. The Hutmen, aka, the Lightweight Varsity, defeated the Heavies at every opportunity until, eventually, they refused to row against us again.  It was all in great fun, or at least WE thought so.

Below is a picture of the Hutmen, in full dress uniform:

During all of these follies we worked very, very hard, as if we were preparing for the most important race of our lives.  We looked forward to competing again and certainly didn’t want to end the season on a down note by rowing poorly at the American Henley.  Fortunately, the races at Saratoga Springs unfolded perfectly.  The Lightweight Varsity and JV each won their main events with relative ease.  We then entered a special quarter-mile dash that was open to all crews in the regatta, Heavies and Lights; Varsities, JVs and Freshmen. As I recall, there were more than fifteen entries!  We finished our 1963 season by beating all comers.  Unusual for a rowing event, commemorative trophies were awarded individually to every member of the winning team for each race.  It seemed like we were on the awards platform for half the afternoon. Each of us received three trophies, one for winning the lightweight championship, another for the quarter-mile dash, and a third for accumulating the highest point total of any crew in the regatta; that is, the overall regatta champions. We left Saratoga Springs with what seemed like half a ton of pewter and rowing shirts.

Forty-five years have now passed since my graduation from MIT.  Even with this passage of time, I look back at those years with the MIT Crew and especially the 1962 and 1963 seasons as among the best years of my life.  For this, I thank MIT, our great coaching staff and my wonderful teammates.  As I conclude this journal, it is my hope that every MIT undergraduate will have the same opportunities that were afforded us during those great years in the early 1960s.

Bob Vernon ‘63