The Childs Cup race took place on June 24; Columbia, after the victory at Henley in the previous year, was the most prominent rowing college of the day ; it so happened that the crew for Philadelphia did not contain any of the Henley men, but they had Jasper Goodwin as coach, and were fast. Princeton had done no rowing since 1875, and they hired a profes sional ; though the crew was green, the boating spirit was high. Pennsylvania's four were not inexperienced, having rowed in a number of races for the College Boat Club, and they en gaged Ellis F. Ward, the bow of the Ward brothers four, as a coach ; since that time Ward has been coaching Pennsylvania, with only a few intermissions.
The crews all rowed high strokes, with con siderable leg and arm work and not much swing; the Columbia style was that of their Henley crew, the victory there having given them no cause to change methods. Princeton caught the start of the race, and for a short while held it until Pennsylvania swept to the front with Hart setting a powerful thirty-eight ; at Peter's Island, a couple of hundred yards from the finish of the mile and a half course, Pennsylvania had two lengths on Columbia ; then the Columbia men sent up the pace to forty and again to forty six, until their shell was lapping. Pennsylvania had not yet spurted, and they let out and won by a length from Columbia, with Princeton three lengths behind Pennsylvania. This first Penn four rowed and won many races, and its members — James Bond, bow, W. M. Stewart, Jr., David son Kennedy, and Reginald L. Hart, stroke, have since been leaders in the rowing of the institution.
Harvard, holding to the system that won, turned out another fast eight, and Yale, on the same lines as the previous year, sent a still poorer crew to New London. There was no contest ; Harvard rowed away from the very start, and the only question was the distance that would separate the two boats. Harvard finished over a minute and a half ahead. Rather more than a month before the eight's race the champion scullers of the two universities had been tried over two miles of Lake Quinsigamond ; Warren N. Goddard of Harvard won by ten lengths from E. P. Living stone, Yale.
Columbia sent the same crew that had rowed at Philadelphia to the Lake George Regatta, and the invitation of the Association had also been accepted by Wesleyan, where there had been row ing since the breaking up of the old college organization, though they had not been in many races ; the third competitor was Cornell. Rowing at Ithaca was in none too good a condition, the victories of the past, and the easy occasional races since that time, had softened the rigor of Ostrom's time, and the crews were inclined to believe that they could row fast because former crews had done so. Columbia had a light four, with an
average of scarcely one hundred and fifty pounds ; Wesleyan was considerably heavier; while Cor nell's men were very heavy — about one hundred and seventy-four — and were slow and far too sluggish for the short mile and a half race. And in the contest (July 18) Columbia showed ahead from the start ; Wesleyan was hard after for a mile ; but Cornell, with bow exploring the lake and the stroke dull, were out of the race before it was half over. Columbia kept nearly the full distance at forty-four and won in the excellent time for lake water of 8.26, with Wesleyan a couple of lengths behind.
The season of 188o was one of experiment in rowing, and the professional coaches began to have more and more power. Davis, the sculler, a most ingenious man, began to startle the row ing world with his inventions : some of them were good and some were very foolish. He brought out the swivel oar-lock which was in some respects better than the thole-pins, although there is not such an advantage as it at first appears ; he had improvements in slides, and in oars and in boats ; his inventions succeeded, and for a time the " Davis rig " was the talk of rowing men. His oars were curious affairs, only eleven feet long with blades over eight inches wide dropped below the loom of the oar, instead of being bisected by it. Yale was in despair at their con tinual defeats, and it seemed as though the Blue would never again be the equal of Harvard. Some said that it was too much secret society, and various other reasons cropped out. George Rogers, then captain, believed that it was poor coaching, and in the fall of 1879 he asked for an advisory committee to form the rowing policy. This committee was appointed, and they threw away the system of graduate coaching and em ployed Mike Davis to rig the boats and also to do most of the actual coaching ; he entered in the fall of the year and trained the men for the class races. Up to this time Yale had not had a professional with full power, and Harvard pro tested; they talked of not rowing Yale, and the like, and then Yale put in Fred Wood as the head coach with Davis under him ; but the system was essentially professional, and Davis was the leading spirit. He introduced his " leg of mutton " oars, a longer slide and the swivel locks, and the result ing stroke made much use of the legs and arms and little of the body— a hard drive from the stretcher, but without a tug at the catch and it was smooth ; the pace ran well up, usually over forty. Princeton had taken John Kennedy for a trainer, and he, a firm friend of Davis, intro duced about the same rig and methods there. Columbia made no change under Mr. Goodwin, and Pennsylvania had the same stroke, with Ellis Ward as coach.