The Harvard freshman heavyweight boat races against Northeastern on the Charles earlier this year. The Harvard frosh rebounded from early-season losses to win both the Eastern Sprints freshman race and the Temple Challenge Cup.

To pull off an unparalleled feat in Harvard rowing is nearly impossible, given that its history dates back 150 years.

But Harvard crew achieved the near impossible by winning three championship titles last week at the Henley Royal Regatta— the grandest stage in the world at the club and university level.

A total quarter million British spectators watched along the Thames as four Harvard boats combined to win 16 head-to-head races from July 3 to July 8. The only Harvard boat that lost, the Harvard ‘A’ coxed four, fell to none other than the Harvard ‘B’ coxed four in the finals of the Britannia Challenge Cup. The rowers from the fours all came from the Crimson’s undefeated second varsity boat.

“As far as we’re concerned, they both won,” said Harvard captain Wayne Pommen. “None of those guys lost a race to any other crew all season whether it was in a U.S. or U.K.—that’s a pretty incredible accomplishment.”

Pommen rowed in the bow seat for the Harvard varsity eight, which needed two victories to claim the Ladies’ Challenge Plate—the second-most prestigious international event for eights at Henley. Only the Grand Challenge Cup contested between mostly national crews is higher.

While the first and second varsity rowers were the first two Harvard boats to claim crowns on Sunday, it was the freshman eight that stole the show by upsetting the favored Oxford Brookes first varsity eight to win the Temple Challenge Cup—an event open to collegiate crews that have not previously won Henley titles.

The frosh pulled off the victory despite losing stroke Bob Kubis to stomach illness just two hours before the start time. Senior Graham O’Donoghue, the stroke of the Harvard ‘B’ coxed four, was asked to serve as replacement just hours after his Britannia Cup race.

O’Donoghue had never rowed with the freshman boat until it approached the starting line. The end result of his debut was one of the closest races of the tournament—a three-quarter length victory over Oxford Brookes. The win gave O’Donoghue a rare second Henley medal in one day.

“He was the talk of the town,” said Harvard freshman coach Bill Manning. “All the British newspapers mentioned him by name.”

Another name rolling off the presses was Harry Parker, who just concluded his 40th season at the helm of the Crimson program. Henley titles are common for Parker—he had already won 19 in his career entering this season—but to win the only three American titles at Henley this year was an entirely new experience—a sweet moment for Harvard crew.

Temple Cup

Kubis had seemed perfectly healthy when he awoke Sunday morning for the Temple Cup final. He had helped the Crimson freshman eight plow through a 32-boat field with victories in each of the previous four days, leaving just his boat and Oxford Brookes in the final.

But just hours before the race, he broke out in a fit of sweating, fever and vomiting. A replacement was immediately needed.

There was no choice but O’Donoghue. The eight first varsity rowers who competed in the Ladies’ Challenge Plate were automatically ineligible, and all the sophomore second varsity rowers were ineligible because they had raced in the Temple Cup team last year. That left O’Donoghue, the only senior on the second varsity, as the only option.

“It wasn’t much of a selection process,” Manning said.

Harvard was already the underdog in the race before Kubis’ illness. The Brookes crew had returned seven of eight rowers from a boat that finished second to last year’s Harvard freshman boat in the Temple Cup.

Yet Harvard triumphed despite the last-second substitution and made Manning proud. The freshmen and O’Donoghue could easily have given in and lost a race that they were expected to lose anyway. Instead they pulled off one of the most dramatic wins of the regatta.

“It’s a reflection of the guys in the crew in that [the substitution] didn’t reflect in their performance,” Manning said. “It provides an easy excuse not to suffer. But they fought rather than thought about it.”

Britannia Cup

Much of the challenge behind the all-Harvard final in the Britannia Cup was simply finding out what to do with the rowers from the second varsity, almost entirely made up of sophomores who were ineligible to race in the Temple Cup because of their victory there last year. The first plan was to create one coxed four for the Britannia Cup and one lighter coxless four for the Visitors’ Challenge Cup.

“Splitting up the eight allowed everyone in the boat to try something fresh, which we needed,” said sophomore Will Riffelmacher, originally assigned to the coxless four. “It also forced us to become better rowers technically, as the fours are less stable boats than the eights.”

But as the teams trained in Cambridge, it became clear that the coxless boat was having trouble steering. The decision was made to switch the coxless boat into the Britannia Cup, meaning that an all-Harvard final would be the best possible outcome.

It was the formerly coxless boat that took on the Harvard ‘B’ moniker and went on to top the heavier Harvard ‘A’ boat to win the Cup.

The Harvard ‘B’ boat dominated all competition it faced. Of its four races leading up to the final, none finished closer than a length and three-quarters back. While most of the Crimson’s club opposition was relatively unfamiliar compared to university boats, the Harvard crews were confident that they would win due to their heavy training in the fall that many of the club teams lacked.

“Our plan racing against strong club teams was to hang close at the start, and then allow our fitness to let us pull away in the later stages of the races,” Riffelmacher said.

The Harvard ‘A’ boat had much closer races leading to the final, including one of the closest races of the regatta in the semifinals against a South African club which was decided by a mere third of a length. Riffelmacher said the race was too close to call from shore.

With two boats in the final, a Harvard Henley title was guaranteed. As the ‘A’ the boat struggled out of the start, the ‘B’ boat gained a quick lead and held steady for the length and a quarter victory.

Ladies’ Challenge Plate

Unlike the Temple and Britannia Cups which featured a full slate of 32 competitors, the tougher Ladies’ Challenge Plate fielded just six boats. With a first-round bye, the Harvard first varsity required just two races to win the title.

The first varsity—undefeated during the dual season and blemished by only a loss to Wisconsin at Eastern Sprints— hardly faced a challenge through the competition, winning by over two lengths against a South African club in the semifinal and by an even larger margin against the British Molesey Boat Club in the final.

Though the Ladies’ Challenge Plate field included several world championship competitors, the club teams attending proved to be below the level of top college competition like Wisconsin, national champion California, and Washington, who beat California during the dual season. Harvard was the only elite college crew to attend Henley.

Harvard, as usual, did not compete at the national championships this year in order to train for the Harvard-Yale regatta, and as has been usual as of late, Harvard swept every event.

Training for the four-mile course of Harvard-Yale put the Crimson in far better condition than it had been prior to its Eastern Sprints defeat.

“Harvard-Yale is a four-mile race and training for that really improves our fitness,” said sophomore Kip McDaniel of the first varsity. “We’re definitely going smoother and faster than we had all year. It’s a nice way to end the season.”

With Henley, Yale and Eastern Sprints victories for the second varsity and freshman boats—in addition to the Henley and Yale victories of the first varsity—the 2001-02 squad has staked its claim as among the most accomplished in the storied history of Harvard rowing.