Fashion Show
On June 22, a 28-man contingent of the two crews flew to London.
The Henleys are one of London's classiest fashion shows. Thousands line the Thames, their bonnets, banners, and banter the heightening the race's attraction.
Competing for the Thames Challenge Cup, the light-weights had no trouble disposing of their first four opponents. Led by Captain Mark Hoffman '59 (fourth seat) and coached by Larry Coolidge, the lights had won each of their five races in the U.S. and proved far superior to their Henley competitors.
The heavies had to defeat only two opponents to make the finals.
"It was fun rowing on the Thames," Swayze recalled. "Harvey had some problems coaching us, though; he had to ride a bicycle along the crowded towpath on the riverside. The team's only problem was the Thames' queen swans and British officials who usually put us on edge with their picayunish observances of lining-up procedures."
On the opening day of the Grand Challenge Cup, Harvard's heavies easily defeated the London Rowing Club. The next day, July 3, the Crimson faced its toughest challenge--in the Isis Boat Club, representing Oxford. The inspired Americans won by a length.
Anticlimax
And then it was July 4, as if the British had planned it that way. Harvard's opponent was the Thames Rowing Club, an all-star team of former collegiate rowers. But the race turned out to be anti-climatic, as the precise Crimson machine methodically outdistanced its opponent and won by 2 3/4 lengths.
An hour later, the light-weights won the Thames Challenge Cup trouncing the University of London representatives by 2 1/2 lengths.
Harvard crew has never had another year like it, but 1968 may offer the opportunity. It is an Olympic year, and the Crimson has a powerful team. Swayze, who, incidentally, rowed for the victorious Oxford crew in the Oxford-Cambridge race on the Thames in 1960, said simply:
"Harry Parker is an exceptional coach. If any college team can be the U.S. representative in Mexico City and win the gold medal, Harvard can."