When you walk into Newell boathouse, you immediately find yourself facing a huge blowup of the Rude and Smooth boat of 1975. While Parker maintains that the picture choice was made due to availability—it is a slide from Boston’s celebration of the national bicentennial—it still drives crews to meet that standard of excellent.

“It was such a great era of Harvard rowing,” said Jim Crick ’88, who was the Rude and Smooth’s coxswain this year. “It was certainly something that we in the 80s wanted to emulate.”

Crick and Lowe discussed this weekend’s race, how Crick had managed well when the cox box died and the excitement of passing two boats. Separated by over a decade, some aspects of Harvard rowing under Parker never change.

“A lot of guys in the boat, particularly Dick Cashin, would say, ‘Come on Harry, are we as good as the ’68 boat? How do we compare to that ’65 boat that was on the cover of Sports Illustrated?’ and he’d never say anything,” Lowe recounted.

“In ’87 and ’88, Jack Rusher [’89] was always pressing, ‘Are we as good as the Rude and Smooth?’” Crick laughed in response. “And that’s what keeps the whole thing going, that we’re all striving to be as good as those who came before us. Harry never sets the bar where it is—you have to guess where it is and everyone jumps over and that’s what keeps the ball rolling.”

Stone and Wood, who have been racing a double in Head of the Charles for years and placed third in the Senior Master Doubles event, also recall Parker’s ability to inspire more speed in even the fastest crews.

“We had a coach that managed to convince us before every race, ‘Yeah, you might have won by a lot last week, but these guys are going to really give you a hard time,’” Wood said. “About 600 meters into the race, you’d realize that he’d fooled you again.”

“He was a master manipulator and we were really the perfect fodder for him,” Stone added, laughing.

There is the obvious inter-school competition that motivates crews and the drive to match up historically to the crews of the past, the Rude and Smooth were unique in its rivalry within the team.

“It’s hard to exaggerate the word competitive,” Parker said. “But the special thing about them was the competitiveness, vis a vis the other universities, but within the group. It’s a very interesting dynamic and it’s interesting that they’ve stayed together so closely considering that they were very competitive against one another.”

With several oarsmen in the third varsity boat who had rowed for the first crew at one point or another, battles were vicious and didn’t always remain on the water.

“Steve Row [’74] and I used to fight to try to get on the seven seat,” Shaw recollected. “Actually, one seat race, I beat Row, and Row punched me in the mouth after the practice. We still give him a hard time about that. I was so shocked I didn’t even hit him back. So we called him Mad Dog after that...actually, I think he already had that nickname.”

“I never heard that story before, but I wouldn’t be surprised,” Parker said when asked about the incident.

Of All-Stars and Has-Beens

Rowers from around the world come to the Reggie Lewis Center to compete in CRASH-B Sprints, the World Indoor Rowing Championships. But the Charles River All-Star Has-Beens Sprints have their roots in the Rude and Smooth.