Many of the athletic activities being indulged in at present at Harvard have been brought about through many years of systematic and cooperative effort, and this year for the first time sculling will bid for prominence as an organized sport, with the same characteristics that brought other sports to the high plane they now enjoy. All that is needed to bring about this result is activity by the undergraduate and graduate body of the University.
Excellent facilities, adequate equipment, and natural advantages plus coaching are available, and a little action will give much stimulus to foster this wonderfully healthful sport, as there are few branches of athletics that produce better physical results than sculling. It is done in the open and strengthens the abdominal and back muscles, develops the limbs, broadens the chest, helps the heart and lungs to function and, above everything else, makes for good sportsmanship which is the basic principle of all sports.
England Claims Origin of Sculling
England claims to have given birth to sculling, which is its national outdoor summer pastime, as baseball is ours. But today sculling is being universally popularized, perhaps because of its many good results. Skill, endurance, and grit are the attributes of a good scuiler, and these same elements are necessary to men in all walks of life, so whatever your indulgences may be in sculling, they certainly will not be altogether fruitless.
This branch of athletics is at present to be confined within the scope of the university, and is not intended for outside competition, and many candidates for seats in the rowing shells who have not yet become "regulars" will find splendid opportunities to help attain their highest ambition in rowing, that is, a seat in the varsity eight--by daily exercising in a shell.
Arrangements have been completed to coach all inexperienced men in wherries and compromises between three and four thirty, and from four thirty until five thirty William Chandler '19 will assist in coaching the experienced scullers. Two regattas are planned for this season, but as yet not definitely settled, with events of various kinds and the college and university sculling championship.
Intercollegiate sculling championships have been displaced by eight oared races, but Harvard was represented by H. C. Danforth at Saratoga Lake in 1876, when Yale, Princeton, Cornell and Columbia were contenders. The title that year was won by Charles S. Francis, Cornell, who later became prominent as U. S. ambassador to Hungary. I feel sure that if students of the University become interested in this sport, they will secure many benefits. Experience is not necessary. All who are interested will be given personal attention, with the idea of having sport for sports sake, as exercise means good health, and good health means happiness.
Read more in News
To Vote for Business School Club Officers