New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-04-23
VictOrS Win Boat Race by
Length and a Half
on Schuylkill.
STROKE OF FIRST
BOAT COLLAPSES
Joe Wright's Pupils Do Honor to
Their Master by Smooth
Performance.
BY w. o. MCCLELLAN.

Philadelphia, April %. Amateur
coaching, volunteered from Toronto,
Canada, won for Pennsylvania to-day
over the mile and half Schuylkill
course by length and half. With q
crew averaging ten pounds lighter than
that Of Yale, the Pennsylvania boys
using the stroke which had been taught
them by Joe Wright, amateur osrsman,
Of the Argonaut Boat Club, Toronto,
forged ahead at the start and Increased
their lead until there was half length
Of open water between them and the
jaded Yale crew at the finish.
Not once did the Yale crew seem TO
have q chance. They splashed badly at
the start, and when Coxswain McLane
called upon them for q squirt at the
finish the response was lame. Sheldon,
at No. 4, seemed ready TO wilt and
Hume, at bow. was apparently exhaust
ed when the last call came.
The lean an dslmost slight looking
youngsters In the Penn shell worked IS
smoothly as the eight cylinders OF
perfect motor. Rose, the stroke, ap-
peared as fresh as when he started
when the shell shot across the line, but
no had given every ounce Of energy to
the race, and when the boat reached
the dead water at the end of the race
he collapsed, falling face forward.
Shock 70 Nickalls.
The result was something of a shock
TO Guy Nickalls, the professional coach
Of Yale. He adjusted his collar fifty
eight strokes to the minute and retired
into the clubhouse to investigate. tx
pertly Yale figured TO win by great
many lengths. The boat with the blue
tipped oars had six veterans Of the
last New London regatta, where the
Blue distanced Harvard by large mar
gin. =,
Vivian Nickalls. brother Of Guy, OF
Yale, was the last year coach Of the
Penn crew. He answered the call OF
overseas service and is now somewhere
in France. His departure left the Penn
University minus a rowing coach, and
70 make matters worse the athletic
finances would not permit tho hiring OF
a professional coach.
| Somehow the story OF the plight or
the Penn navy got to Toronto. Wright
volunteered for the job Of getting 1t
into shape. On his arrival he found the
Penn boatmen in a decided state OF I'M
nr.paredness. They had rowed no
where in particular at the last Pough-
ke.psie regatta and they had been un-
able to 20 through fall practice Be
sides. the material for crews was rather
rnntv from an osrman's point OF view.
But Wright instilled some OF his own
confidence into the Pennsylvanians. He
/ drilled his lean, young oarsmen in a
new stroke, though he still chung to the
English thole pins. In remarkably
brief space of time he had very
smooth running eight. They showed
the effects Of their schooling to-day all
, the way from the Strawberry Mansion
Bridge to the Island.
Drizxle at Start.
Tho varsity race started just as II
was beginning to get dusk on the upper
Schuylkill and a slight drizzle was fall
ING. On the tortuous and tricky course
il is necessary TO give the crew on the
west side a length at the start because
of the bend in the river. Yale had won
the toss and selected this side.
The west course is the favorite one
because that length at the start gives