Evening star., 1953-05-06

ASSOCIATION
the rowing capital Of the country When and if this regatta
clicks possibility that the
ture borough will land the 3-me national irNercole
gate championships we'll pretty sports plum, too!
Maybe it isn't important, but great many cities also
known for their sporting events Louisville is the
lucky Derby Indianapolis the $780," Des Mones is the
Drake Relays, Boston is the marathon etc. Up now
Washington has not been that closely associated with
sport
ROWING WOULDN'T BE bad tieup with the Nations
Capital although there cyncS who suggest that what
with Mr. Griths ball club, there enough amateurs in
town right Be that it may, bigtme rowing
ing here week from next Saturday
The Big Team at the moment is Navy. Those folks at
Crabtown never had year like 1882 sweeping everything
in this country and in Finland facing the worlds best Like
Native Dancer the horse Navys became the darling of
the sports fans The public, the Mdshipmen had
shipped for the Oympics followed the Navy
avidly
Could Navy beat the British . . the Australians .
and most of all, the Russians? Navy could did, But
this is another year. The crew was acclaimed by millions
who didn't know the OF single member in the varsity
she'll But that's rowing and the young who tug at the
with bursting lungs philosophical about it.
ONCE UPON TIME the meet which the Washington
Rowing Association is hoping to land called the Pough
keepse Regatta It moved briefly to Marietta Ohio
later presently Syracuse It's the World Series
Of racing because it's a distances miles.
There will be effort here to finger the most dramatic
the sarkeSt of all But classic which be
rememberedand rated high in late June of
1929 at Poughkeepsie.
Nine boats representing the cream of American rowing
colleges battled their starting
lent afternoon. The waters raging, much
threaten the safety of the in thnsheed boat but
they made it and after long series of delays and in the
gathering dusk, they took off,
It the biggest fleet of eigtoared shells the 80
year history of the PoughkeepSe and possibly the most ILL
starred Nine boats started but only five finished what
then 4e The boiling took of the Others
THE CALIFORNIA AND CORNELL sank at ap-
proxmatey the Smile mark their athletes diving into the
drink in the half darkness rather than remain with shells
that filling with water The Massachusetts, Institute of
Technology boys bidding for the top prize for the first te
rowed until the water to their waists and then also
abandoned SHE'LL
Columbia this one, coming from behind in the last
miles to beat Washington More than eight lengths behind
Washington Pennsylvania, followed by Navy and Wis
consin latter stuck low boat just rowing
keep above water
It weird In the grip of night the swirling
Hudson filled with sinking shells and wearied
with half mile to swim to shore unless rescued Power craft
containing coaches and officials and flashing spoghts that
played the waters darted fro seeking unhorsed
bladeSmen
There no known casualties but the affair pointed
the hazards Of racing although this time it carried
to extreme In all the history of the Poughkeepsie only
three crews had been swamped, not all in race.
One why the Washington Rowing Association likes
It's chances of making the Potomac the the
Nation is the relatively calm waters Poughkeepse finally
abandoned Ditto Marietta 1t pretty rough at
Syracuse last too But here SO times out of 00 it's
felt things will go well, let's say, unswimmingly.