The traditional four-mile Harvard-Yale crew race on the Thames River in New London, Conn., has been scuttled for 1974 because of complications arising from the changes in Yale's new academic calendar.

Rescheduling is necessary because Yale's new calendar ends the school year in early May, a full month ahead of the usual date of the crew race, this year scheduled for June 16. Yale crew officials did not want to keep their oarsmen until June, forcing a change in the traditional time and setting.

The Harvard-Yale crew match, America's oldest intercollegiate sporting event, began in 1852 on Lake Winnepesaukee. Also ranking as this country's longest sustained athletic event, the race has been run on the Thames's four-mile course 87 times in the last 107 years.

Dave Matthews, director of sports information, said yesterday, "The Harvard-Yale race will certainly be held in 1974. No site has been picked as the Yale officials want to keep all their options open. Speculation on the site is centered around Derby [Conn.] and the Charles, though."

In recent years the race has suffered a steady decline in spectator interest. Part of the decline can be attributed to Harvard's dominance over the race in recent years, Matthews said.

"It used to be that there would be a lot of big yachts and other boats in the river watching the race, but there isn't too much of that anymore," Matthews said. "I'm sure interest will pick up as soon as Yale becomes more competitive."

The Crimson has won the race 26 out of the last 36 times. Overall, the Crimson has taken 60 of the matches to 47 for the Blue. The Sexton Cup, awarded to the winner of the race each year, has been in Cambridge since 1963.

"Right now we don't know when or where," Matthews said, "but we do know that it will be run in 1974."