Vesper
Pacific, and College. 12 From New York and Philadelphia the rowing interest spread West and South, and in 1874, when the present National Association of Amateur Oarsmen succeeded the old Hudson River Association and became the national body of the United States, there were, besides the Detroit Boat Club, clubs at Cincinnati, Ohio, Alleghany, Pa., Albany, New York, Washington, and Baltimore, New Orleans, La., and San Francisco, Cal. There were, of course, many others, but these are mentioned to indicate the extent of area covered by the growing boating spirit.
The defeats administered to Harvard by Yale in 1864 and 1865 carried with them severe lessons that were learned silently and thoroughly. Harvard 'kept closely to the style that had served her so well, and repeated her victory over Yale in 1866, 1867, 1868, and 1869. As early as 1867 a desire to try their skill with the English Universities became manifest at Harvard, and in 1868 a challenge for a four-oared race was sent to Oxford and accepted. This was the first of the nine occasions on which English and American crews have met. The race was rowed in 1869 on the Oxford- Cambridge Thames course, and Harvard were defeated.
Harvard's cup of bitterness was filled to overflowing when in the year following her defeat at Putney her crew was also beaten by Yale, but as Yale had fouled on the turn, the race was awarded to Harvard.
This year, 1870, marked another epoch in American boat-racing, for Yale introduced the sliding seat, which was immediately taken up by all American rowing clubs. The sliding seats of those days, however, were primitive affairs, and consisted of a pine board 4 by 12 with grooved box-wood runners sliding on steel bars, with nothing to regulate the slide or to keep it from jumping off the runners.
No race was arranged between Harvard and Yale in 1871, but an association of American colleges was formed by Amherst, Bowdoin, Brown, Harvard, and the Agri- ROWING] cultural College of Massachusetts, and the race of that year was won by the last named with Harvard second; in 1872 Yale also joined the Association, and in that year produced the worst crew in her history.
The race was at Springfield, three miles straightaway, with six colleges entered.
Amherst won and Yale finished last. The consultation of Yale men that followed this disastrous event decided that they were working on a wrong basis. They had tried short, jerky strokes and long, slow ones.
Professional coaching had been tried since 1864, and the foundation of a strong, winning stroke seemed as far off as ever. So Robert J. Cook, a Yale undergraduate, made his historical trip to England, and began the annual Harvard-Yale contests that are continued to this day. Harvard entered a six-oared crew in the 1876 Association's regatta, but was defeated by Cornell and withdrew. The Association dissolved in a few years, and Cornell,