1938: Rowing

Two outstanding regattas and one great crew featured the year in rowing. At New London, June 24, a slightly favored undefeated Harvard crew met an undefeated Yale crew for the annual Harvard-Yale Classic over a 4-mile course upstream. Harvard taking the lead early won by a length in 20 min. 20 sec. It marked the first time since 1934 that either crew had rowed undefeated. Harvard had defeated every major crew in the East (Navy, Pennsylvania, Rutgers, Syracuse, Princeton, Cornell, Columbia and M.I.T.) to stand unquestionably as one of the best crews in the United States and one of the great crews in rowing history.

In the Junior Varsity and Freshman races during the morning and the combination race the evening before, Harvard registered a clean sweep over Yale for the first time in 23 years.

At Poughkeepsie, June 27, in the 40th annual Intercollegiate Regatta, a brilliant Navy crew rowed the 4-mile course in the extraordinary record-breaking time of 18 min. 19 sec., so fast that California, Washington, and Columbia who followed in that order also broke the record. It marked the first time in 6 years an Eastern crew had defeated its Western opponents.

The Cup Regattas in the United States were dominated by Harvard and Yale crews. Yale won the Blackwell Cup Race with Columbia and Pennsylvania, the Carnegie Cup race with Cornell and Princeton, a record-breaking 2 miles of 10:23.4; Harvard won the Goldthwaite Cup Regatta for the 150-pound crews over Yale and Princeton; her varsity crew won the Adams Cup Regatta over Navy and Pennsylvania, the Compton Cup Regatta over M.I.T., Princeton and Syracuse. Pennsylvania won the Childs Cup Regatta over Columbia and Princeton. In the American Rowing Association's Intercollegiate races, held May 14 on the Charles River, Harvard beat Cornell, Syracuse and M.I.T. in that order.

At Putney-on-the-Thames, April 2, in the 90th meeting of the famous Oxford-Cambridge Race, Oxford outrowed Cambridge by 2 lengths over the 4¼ mile course in the time of 20 min. 30 sec.

In the Royal Henley Regatta held July 2 on the Thames, the Kent School (Conn.) Crew defeated the London Rowing Club in the finals by a length in the fast time of 7:03. The Diamond Sculls were won by Joseph Burk, American Sculler of the Penn Athletic Club, Philadelphia. Burk in the time of 8.02 broke the course record set 33 years ago by 8 seconds.