10 June 2018

Göran R Buckhorn writes:

After the 153rd Yale – Harvard Regatta on the Thames River yesterday, when Yale was victorious in two of the three races, 2nd Varsity and Varsity (and 4th Varsity on Friday evening), what are the newspapers writing about the races?

In the four newspapers HTBS looked at, it came as no surprise that the Yale’s Varsity crew was going to win the 4-mile race after having some previous grand wins this season under their belt, including their fourth consecutive EARC Sprints and the national title at the IRA.

‘Last week was the national championship and yet this was mandatory,’ coach Steve Gladstone was saying Saturday as dusk fell over the Thames River. ‘It had to be done. Beating Harvard — it had to be done.’
John Powers, Sunday Boston Globe

‘These guys win all their races. They win the Eastern Sprints. They win the national championship. I mean, triple jeopardy?,’ mused Gladstone. ‘And look what they did. They handled it.
John Powers, Sunday Boston Globe

‘This is the most important race of the year,’ said senior captain Paul Jacquot. ‘Every time you line up against Harvard, it’s the biggest race of the year. It’s absolutely do-or-die. No one wants to lose to Harvard. I’ve won this race four times, I’ve won the sprints four times. Every time I race Harvard, it’s all business.’
David Borges, New Haven Register

‘It’s such a long race. It’s a marathon,’ [Sholto] Carnegie said. ‘… We think about gaining more and more distance every stroke. It was really incredible. Just total trust all the way down.’
Vickie Fulkerson, The Day (New London) 

The Crimson’s third varsity came from behind to beat Yale’s Sprint champions by nearly three seconds in their two-mile duel. And its JV, which was nearly eight seconds astern of the Bulldogs at the Sprints, fought hard in the final half mile of their three-mile chase to narrow the margin to a couple of lengths. ‘There is never any quit in any of our boats,’ [Harvard coach Charley] Butt observed.
John Powers, Sunday Boston Globe

‘We wanted to be stubborn and persistent,’ said Harvard senior coxswain Cole Durbin of Newton and Belmont Hill. ‘We wanted to be scrappy. We were the underdogs and I think we did a good job. All we can ask for is a full effort and we did that.’
John Connolly, Boston Herald

‘We didn’t win, but we had a very good effort. There are times you run into someone who’s better or faster. LeBron James is still a great basketball player, but he didn’t win the last two years. We didn’t win, but that doesn’t mean they’re not accomplished athletes.’ [Charley Butt said]
Vickie Fulkerson, The Day (New London)

‘It’s in their souls. I love them… What I know about the character of the people in the boat, they’d be very hard to break.’ [Steve Gladstone said]
Vickie Fulkerson, The Day (New London)

The Varsity Series Record after the 153rd Regatta: Harvard 95 Yale 57.