The Harvard committee made another change this year in the style, sent Faulkner away, and brought in the Bancroft stroke, which was always the haven in time of storm. They shortened the slides and restored the constrained, rocking-chair motions of that famous stroke ; the oarsmen clipped their sweep at both ends, the oars de scribing a semicircle, and the Harvard eight moved more slowly than any on the river. Co lumbia beat them easily in the Freshman race.
Cornell had now started eight-oared-shell row ing in earnest, and they and Columbia, both with out a race, agreed to row with Pennsylvania at New London, and they also invited Harvard and Yale to join with them ; but of course this invi tation was not accepted. Pennsylvania still had races with Yale, but these three crews were gain ing in the knowledge of eight-oared rowing, and races with them could not be taken as preliminary contests. Harvard had already refused to row with Columbia, and now Yale, after the race of 1889, would not again meet Pennsylvania.
The Pennsylvania-Yale race was a surprise.
Yale was champion, and the Pennsylvania men were quite green ; six of them were Freshmen, but in Wright they had a sterling stroke. Tak ing a lead at the start, they hammered away at thirty-six for two miles and kept a length ahead ; the last two miles evidenced the superior strength and experience of the Yale crew, and they pulled ahead, winning by a trifle more than a length. Pennsylvania won the Freshman race, beating Yale for the first time. Ward was again coach ing Pennsylvania and had lengthened out the stroke and slowed the slide.
Cornell won the triangular race ; rough water delayed the contest until nearly dark, and the crews finished after nightfall, so that no time could be taken ; but Cornell won, with Columbia second and Pennsylvania last. All the crews were fairly close over the full three miles, which was the distance rowed. The old rivalry between Yale and Cornell now began afresh, for Cornell had beaten Pennsylvania in three miles by a greater distance than Yale had in four, and claimed to be faster than Yale ; but there was no chance to settle the matter. Yale and Cornell were in quite different schools of rowing. Cor nell, under Courtney, had already developed the style that kept winning for some years. It was a short, fast stroke that had little swing ; the work was done with the arms and the legs, and the pace ran up to forty-four and forty-five, while it was never below thirty-eight. The oars went in
and out in perfect jabs, yet the boat moved fast no one questioned that.
Yale had another procession with Harvard, and the Harvard Freshman eight won from Columbia. After the New London races, Cornell went down to Philadelphia with Pennsylvania and won the Sharpless Cup for eights, and then beat Pennsyl vania by less than half a length for the Childs Cup, which for the first time was contested in eights. The race was on a freshet, and Cornell made the mile and a half in 6.4o, which is a world's record for the distance.
There was a deal of talk concerning the respective merits of the college and the club eights, and in several trials the college men won. Some years before the University crews were dis tinctly inferior to the best of the rowing clubs, especially over the shorter distances, and the fastest college fours could never compare with the winning club fours. The Atalanta eight of New York was the champion club eight, the winners of the event in the National Association of American Oarsmen, while Yale claimed to be the champion college eight, though this was dis puted by Cornell. A race was arranged between Yale and the Atalanta men over a four-mile course in New Haven harbor, and a most re markable contest resulted : Yale took a lead from the start, and at the two-mile mark, rowing from two to three strokes slower than their competi tors, were six lengths ahead. Hardly had the shell crossed the flags when the oar of Allen, the Yale stroke, broke. In an instant he dived out of the boat, and the crew kept on their apparently hopeless journey, with Ives, the No. 7, setting the stroke. Atalanta came up length by length, but then the Yale men grew accustomed to the new order and began to hold their distance and then to increase it, finally winning by eight lengths. The Atalanta eight were thought to have been at a disadvantage in the long race, but a few days later Pennsylvania met them in the Harlem Re gatta and defeated them easily. Bowdoin, now rowing in an eight, defeated the Boston Athletic Association at Boston on the same day, and all together it was the college man's year.