Another rowing season is winding down and once again the Harvard heavyweight and lightweight varsity crews can put an Eastern Sprints Championship trophy into their coffers.

This year's victories were the 19th in 43 years for both the heavyweight and lightweight crews.

The Crimson heavies will also be aiming for their fourth national championship in the 1980s when they race in two weeks in Cincinnati. They are expected to receive an invitation to the Henley Regatta, which they won in 1985.

The Crimson heavyweight crew's loss to Penn and Navy on April 30 this year ended the squad's bid for its 14th undefeated season under the 26-year reign of Coach Harry Parker.

What is the secret to the Harvard rowing program's success? How has it continued the tradition of producing championship-caliber crews since 1852, when the Crimson defeated Yale in the first intercollegiate competition of any kind?

"What has changed since I first began coaching here at Harvard," Parker says, "is the quality of the people in the rowing program. We've been lucky to consistently field four boats of people committed to crew."

How has the Harvard men's crew program attracted so many people with diverse backgrounds and experience in rowing and consistently fielded some of the faster boats in the country?

Those who rowed in high school are lured by the winning tradition of the program and the opportunity to work under the "legendary" Parker, whose squad's victory over Princeton and MIT on April 23 this season gave him his 100th career win as Harvard's rowing guru.

"The Harvard tradition was a pretty large factor in my coming here," says freshman heavyweight Owen West, who rowed for four years at St. Paul's High School in Minneapolis, Minn.

"For experienced rowers going to college," heavyweight coxswain James Crick says, "the difference is Parker. He's great coach and he's coached so many great crews. It's a big factor in some people coming here over other schools."

Even novices who never rowed in high school have considered the Harvard rowing program a positive factor in determining their college choice.

"I was deciding between Harvard and Rice," lightweight varsity coxswain Mark Coyne says. "The idea of coxing at Harvard was an important part of my decision."

Parker is quick to point out how much of a factor the University is in drawing some of the nation's best rowers to the Crimson.

"Harvard sells itself pretty well," Harvard's coach says. "The attraction is the opportunity to attend a great university with an outstanding reputation while also participating in a rowing program also with an outstanding reputation."

However, the secret of Harvard's success also includes the program's ability to attract novices to the sport, keep their interest in crew, and develop some of them into sturdy varsity rowers.