14 June 2025

By Göran R Buckhorn

On 6 June, the day before this year’s Yale-Harvard Regatta, Matthew “Matt” Arnold Labine was remembered by his Yale teammates at Gales Ferry where they hung up the oar he used in the Yale-Harvard Race of 1981. Labine was a Yale oarsman and rowing coach at Fairfield University who passed away on 1 September 2017 at age 58.

Matt Labine graduated from St. Ann’s School in Brooklyn Heights and from Yale University in 1981. He rowed on the Yale varsity heavyweight crew winning two Eastern Sprint Championships and winning the Championship Four at the Head of the Charles. In 1981, Yale, with Labine at “5” seat, raced in the Grand Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta. The Yale crew was overpowed by a combination crew of Oxford and Thames Tradesmen’s Rowing Club in the first heat. The British crew later won the Cup.

However, for the Bulldogs, he is probably best remembered as a member of the crew who defeated Crimson in “The Race”, the 1st Varsity Race, in 1981. Yale was coached by Dave Vogel. That was the first time in 18 years that Yale beat Harry Parker’s Harvard crew in the 4-miler on the Thames.

After leaving Yale, Labine was on two US National Men’s Rowing Teams and won a bronze medal in the 1981 World Championships. He was a finalist in the US Olympic trials in 1980 (USA boycotted the Games in Moscow) and in 1984. He was coaching at Fairfield University from 2010 up to his death in 2017.

Besides rowing, he was a successful writer for television and won an Emmy Award and four Writers Guild Awards for his work on several daytime dramas.

One of the members of the 1981 Yale crew had penned a poem for the event when Matt Labine’s oar was hung at Gales Ferry on 6 June.

In memory of Matthew Labine

“Let it Run”

On the occasion of raising his oar
Gales Ferry, June 6th, 2025

By A Yale Rower

In misty gray when work is done
Shell and boys appear as one.
Silent strokes on waters play,
One more practice, end of day.

“Bow man, hold” we hear the call.
“Lean to starboard, oars up all!”
A coxswain’s jig to safely land,
And on the dock all eight now stand.

Fleeting peace and then what next?
Back to plans and cares that vex.
“Up on 3” the coxswain sings,
Our boat flies up as if on wings.

Bow ball leads to home, we stride,
True selves left by riverside,
That living water with its ghosts,
We boys ascend the wooden slope.

Remember men!
Those who remain,
Tastes of Victory,
Tears of Pain.

We loved those boats.
We shared the strains.
Though sport is o’er,
Our bond remains.

We miss one who is now apart,
His sharpest wit, his softest heart.
Always cheerful, always brave,
His awesome strength to life he gave.

When called again to man his oar,
He powered, as he did before.
And pulling to the finish rope,
He left his loved ones full of hope.

Go! Raise the oar he bent, let fly!
Another tribute, dare we try?
Be True, Be Good, Be Just, Be Right,
For Matt, men! Pull with all your might!