The new measures worked, with the result that by decade’s end, on Head of the Charles weekend, “a Saturday night reveler would have had an easier time getting into heaven than into Eliot House,” according to the newspaper. But in the short term, they also served to diminish the number of attendees.

“[The new measures] changed the tone of the Regatta for spectators significantly,” Parker says. “It went from having huge crowds all around the river to much smaller ones.”

The small crowds did not last, but student complaints persisted.

In the ’90s, the extra security measures continued to dominate undergraduate storylines on race weekend. They led one student to compare the school to a “prison,” another to comment that the measures made it “one of the worst weekends [at Harvard],” and a 1994 Crimson editorial to be entitled “Students Suffer on Head Weekend.”

“The commie pinko pigs are trying to ruin our lives,” said one student in 1995, adding that he was going to Brown to escape the Regatta weekend crackdown.

These sentiments notwithstanding, the administration continued to emphasize strict security measures and guest and party limitations during Head of the Charles weekend, and such policies remain in place today.

THE REVIVAL

Despite the short-term drop in attendance that such measures brought about in the late ’80s, interest in participating in the Regatta itself continued to rise as the new decade began.

“About 1990, somewhere in that time frame, the Regatta became so popular that they restricted you so that you could only row one time,” says Altekruse, who now runs a consulting company in Berkeley, Calif. “Before 1990 we could row multiple times.... When I was an undergrad, I rowed three times in a day, which is unbelievable.”

In 1990, television crews from the documentary series American Chronicles filmed competitors in the 25th edition of the Regatta, which had returned to drawing crowds (now much more family-friendly) of 200,000 and included participants from more than 250 colleges and athletic clubs.

By 1992, the number of racers had broken the 4,000 mark, and the once alcohol-soaked banks had been overtaken by a number of food and business vendors from around Boston.

Though the Regatta was canceled due to heavy rain for the first time in 1996, officials expanded the competition into a two-day event in 1997 thanks in part to the revived attendance.

That year, hundreds of companies distributed everything ranging from apple cider to mouthwash while the Crimson men’s heavyweight crew’s second-place finish behind the U.S. national team excited many.

In 1998, MacMahon's son started the Head of the Charles Regatta Charity Program, which has since raised over $650,000 for its official charities, which include Cambridge Community Foundation and Community Rowing, Inc.

“The good that comes out of [the Regatta] isn't really entertaining the public, it’s doing some good for non-profits in Cambridge and Boston communities” MacMahon says. “I think the charity aspect has been very important.”