Crew Members Say They Thought More About Penn Than Olympics

"It was not worth the week off," Steve Brooks '70, number three man on the Harvard Heavyweight crew, said after he returned to a regular practice schedule yesterday afternoon, just over a week after the team won the Olympic trials in California.

But Brooks was not commenting on the races which brought the Harvard Eight a trip to Mexico City in October and a chance to compete for the United States in the world-wide athletic games. He was talking about the strain of coming back after a layoff to the hard work which the whole team faced for many months ahead. The race had been worth it, but the respite wasn't.

It was not only the Olympics which made the race important for the Harvard Crew. They were racing Pennsylvania in the final heat as they knew they would be. And an article in Sports Illustrated, toting the Penn crew as the team to beat after they had won the Intercollegiate Rowing Association Regatta, was too much for the boys to take.

Harvard does not enter the IRA because it falls on the same day as the traditional Harvard-Yale race, but Penn had entered the race with two new members in their boat, one of whom was a Pan American Games Gold Metal winner. According to the article, Penn was a new team.

As it turned out Harvard never thought so. The whole team agreed that they had beaten Penn twice this year and two new oarsmen did not change things.

Bravado

In a moment of bravado spurred by another Sports Illustrated article which appeared just after the Los Angeles race and still leaned toward Penn, Dave Higgins '69, Bow man on the team said, "If we would have known there would be so much garbage about Four Inches (the margin of victory) we would have beaten them by a foot."

That was the general feeling as the team arrived back at Harvard this week to start their twice daily practice schedule. Penn may have come in a close second but Harvard had beaten them for a third straight time.

Now the team will remain at Harvard for awhile; on August 9, 10, 11 they take off for New York for the National Championships after which they again return to Harvard. In early September, they finally attend the special American Olympics high altitude training area in Colorado. The Olympics are in Mexico City, October 13-19.

Meanwhile, there is the problem of the draft. Of the four seniors on the crew, at least two have been reclassified 1-A, but they expect to win their appeals.