4.The 1963 Schedule and Our First Race

The 1963 Racing Schedule was a vast improvement over my freshman year when we rowed against Harvard in three of our five races. As a result of a concerted effort by our coaches and the MIT Athletic Department, we would now meet all but one of the Division One lightweight crews during the regular season, before racing all of them again at the season-ending Eastern Sprints. With this new schedule we were to row Dartmouth three times, Princeton once, and all of the other schools twice.

I have inserted a copy of the 1963 schedule, one that was scanned from the program at our preseason banquet held in early April.  At that same banquet all of the members of the 1962 Henley Crew were invited back to receive the Straight T, MIT’s highest athletic award. It was a very special evening.    

           
Still, the 1963 schedule was full of anomalies.  For example, in a 3-way trophy race, the host school and race location are rotated each year.  In a mathematical oddity-to my knowledge, this had never happened before-all of our races in 1963 would be held away from home.  With Yale hosting the Durand Cup, Dartmouth hosting the Biglin Bowl, Cornell hosting the Geiger Cup and Navy hosting the Callow Cup, we would be subjected to long bus trips to New Haven CT, Hanover NH, Ithaca NY and Annapolis MD on consecutive weekends. The bus ride to Annapolis just one week before the Sprints, eight hours each way, was particularly onerous.

To reduce the travel burden, MIT had solicited an invitation for us to row as a guest in the Goldthwaite Cup, a traditional Ivy League race between Harvard, Princeton and Yale which, in 1963, was being hosted by Harvard on the Charles River. We would have been quite happy to stay in Cambridge to row in this race, knowing full well that even if we won the race as a guest, the Goldthwaite Cup would stay in the Ivy League.  However, to no one’s surprise, Harvard declined our request. However, they did graciously allow our JV and Freshman teams (where no trophy was at risk) to participate.  Thus, for the first time in memory, the Varsity was to head off to Annapolis while our JV and Frosh stayed at home to row Harvard, Princeton and Yale.

Our first race took us to Derby, near New Haven, CT, to row Yale and Dartmouth for the Durand Cup. The weather was terrible that day, but all crews were equally disadvantaged.  Gary had cautioned us against overconfidence.  Even though this was expected to be the easiest race of the season, upsets in crew races are not that uncommon, especially in rough conditions.

Events unfolded as we had hoped and expected.  After a shaky first half mile, we moved steadily away from both Dartmouth and Yale.  We crossed the finish line three full boat lengths ahead of Dartmouth, with Yale another length behind them.  Our JV, 3rd boat, freshman and 2nd freshman crews won in an equally impressive fashion.  More than 75 Dartmouth and Yale rowing shirts made the trip back to Cambridge with us that evening.

Here is an article from The Tech reporting on that first race of the 1963 season.  Hope you can read the small print.  Gives me goose bumps every time I read it.   

Harvard is next.