“Different people tell you different things,” Lowe said. “The origin is a very simplistic outlook on life which is that certain things are either rude or they’re smooth. This really derived from some hockey players that I knew that lived in Eliot House in 1973. That was their view of the world. I kind of introduced it here with coxswain Dave Weinberg [’74], and we kind of introduced into the lexicon of the boathouse.”

When a Sports Illustrated reporter tailed the team at a race in Seattle, the writer picked up on the slang, and the uncensored attitude of the oarsmen.

“At the time when this guy was writing the article, the phrase ‘How rude is that?’ had already become very current within our group,” said Tiff Wood ’75. “I’m not sure that ‘how smooth is that’ ever…we were more inclined to talk about how rude something was.”

“The first time I ever saw it was in Sports Illustrated,” Shaw said. “We were smooth because we were smooth on the water, but off the water, there were some antics. Even on the water, our stroke, Al Shealy, was pretty rude. When we went by a boat, he’d be yelling ‘So long suckers!’”

As rowers face backwards while they row, the Harvard crew was able to see its opponent while passing, making the jibes even more effective. But the esteemed Rude and Smooth oarsmen didn’t stop there.

“Some of us were in the habit of mooning people,” Stone said. “I have to admit, Al taught us everything we know about mooning.”

After this initial exposure to the media, the Crimson rowers dramatically changed their tone when the reporter showed up again the following year.

“The article was called ‘The Crew of Perfect Gentleman,’” Stone said. “We reacted by behaving very differently when we were around him the next year.”

The Making of an Oarsman

Unlike today’s Harvard freshman classes, which often boast a number of junior national rowers, many of the Rude and Smooth had less auspicious beginnings to their rowing careers.

“I got involved because if you were of a certain height or weight, you got a letter the summer before freshman year from Harry describing why I was so uniquely qualified for rowing,” Lowe said. “I knew that it was a lot of nonsense, but it got me to go to the introductory meeting.”

“They said that from your athletic background, we think you would make a great oarsman,” Shaw said. “They talked about how the ’68 crew actually went to the Olympics because they had a time trial then.”

The result of Harvard’s internal recruiting was experienced rowers and rookies aplenty at the start of the year.

“I showed up first day of practice and there were 300 of us,” Shaw said. “But it was so tough freshman year that by the end of February, there were only 24 of us left, without any cuts. It was so hard I thought, ‘I don’t know, I’ll just stick it this year and then see what happens,’ but then we won every race my freshman year and went to England, and then I was hooked.”

Raising the Bar