* At an Embassy reception, Mike Livingston overheard a man in an Olympic booster jacket turn to his wife and say, "There's the Harvard crew, looking dirty as ever." Livingston immediately went up and introduced himself and was followed by five other Harvard crew members. Fritz Hobbs said, "I'm from the Harvard crew and I don't think we look that dirty."

It is difficult to assess just what effect, if any, the Harvard crew had on the U.S. team or on the American public. One less committed oarsman commented, "The leaders had an inflated idea of their own importance. I don't think there were any significant effects of our stand."

Canning disagrees sharply. "I think our position was that of a catalyst. We speeded up the reactions of people on both sides. We received support from the basketball team, the fencing team, the gymnastics team, and Hal and Olga Connolly. On the other hand, there were Randy Matson and Bob Seagren, who saw us as Berkeley radicals. They felt you represent the red, white, and blue for Grandma and apple pie and that's it.

'It was a difficult thing to support the blacks," Hoffman said, "when we had put in a lot of time and work and had a lot of ability that was never called upon. But it was a good thing for us as whites to follow the leadership of blacks in their fight."

Did the controversy have any effect upon the boat's performance?

Harry Parker strongly denies that the boat suffered for it. "Mentally they were ready to race just as hard and just as fast as they had ever done. I don't think you have to explain being beaten by crews of that caliber."

The crew is just as vehement as Parker in their denial.

Andy Larkin said, 'Perhaps if we had had Evans and if the race had been at sea level, things might have been different. But if we had rowed the next day, the result would have been exactly the same."

After the final race, in which Harvard finished last, Avery Brundage, the 81-year-old president of the International Olympic Committee, passed out the medals. In the traditional ceremony the boats rowed by the stands for their final push. Brundage, according to crew members, stood there clapping for fifth place Czechoslovakia and then, as Harvard rowed by, he dropped his hands to his side and stared.