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| The first MAC crew, 1870 | The first MAC crew, 1870 |
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| Crew at the First Collegiate Regatta, July 1871 | Crew at the First Collegiate Regatta, July 1871 |
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| {{https://credo.library.umass.edu/images/resize/600x600/murg141-i0008988.png?400}} | {{https://credo.library.umass.edu/images/resize/600x600/murg141-i0008988-001.jpg?400}} |
| Boat crew, 1873 | |
| | Boat crew sitting in wagon, 1873 |
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| In 1870, the year before the first class graduated from the college, Massachusetts Agricultural College students formed a boating association, acquiring a Spanish cedar shell from a Springfield rowing club in which to practice. In their first and only race that year, they took on the newly established crew at Amherst College, winning a three mile race in the Connecticut River near Hatfield. | In 1870, the year before the first class graduated from the college, Massachusetts Agricultural College students formed a boating association, acquiring a Spanish cedar shell from a Springfield rowing club in which to practice. In their first and only race that year, they took on the newly established crew at Amherst College, winning a three mile race in the Connecticut River near Hatfield. |
| Having witnessed the shocking upset, a jubilant President [[c:clark_william_smith|William Smith Clark]] splashed into the river to congratulate the crew personally and then rode back to campus at full speed to spread the news. The victory was viewed as enormously important for the new college, a vindication of sorts, and an affirmation that on an even field, the humble Aggies could stand up against and defeat their supposed social and intellectual superiors. A pamphlet that appeared shortly after the event captured both the pride in the Mass Aggie team and the class sensibilities involved: | Having witnessed the shocking upset, a jubilant President [[c:clark_william_smith|William Smith Clark]] splashed into the river to congratulate the crew personally and then rode back to campus at full speed to spread the news. The victory was viewed as enormously important for the new college, a vindication of sorts, and an affirmation that on an even field, the humble Aggies could stand up against and defeat their supposed social and intellectual superiors. A pamphlet that appeared shortly after the event captured both the pride in the Mass Aggie team and the class sensibilities involved: |
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| We used to hear a theory elaborated a few years ago, when Harvard was beating Yale in race after race, that the victory in rowing was due quite as much to brain as to muscle. We were told that there was a great deal in blood, a great deal in breeding, and insinuation was that while Yale could show very good limbs, and sinews and backs that one might approve, she somewhere lacked a culture (nobody thought then that it was agriculture she lacked,) for want of which she must be inevitably be beaten. You see, blood will tell, said the sagacious theorists, and the college that has the most culture, that puts the most brain power into the stroke, is bound to win. But Harvard went on winning, and there was no way to disprove the theory... | >We used to hear a theory elaborated a few years ago, when Harvard was beating Yale in race after race, that the victory in rowing was due quite as much to brain as to muscle. We were told that there was a great deal in blood, a great deal in breeding, and insinuation was that while Yale could show very good limbs, and sinews and backs that one might approve, she somewhere lacked a culture (nobody thought then that it was agriculture she lacked,) for want of which she must be inevitably be beaten. You see, blood will tell, said the sagacious theorists, and the college that has the most culture, that puts the most brain power into the stroke, is bound to win. But Harvard went on winning, and there was no way to disprove the theory... |
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| But what shall we say now? Here come the Farmers, about whose culture we have heard nothing, whose blood is very likely red, who may not part their hair at all, who may never even have seen the Charles nor the Back Bay, and row right away from a boat full of Harvard brains. It is an audacious and revolutionary piece of business, and makes necessary a reconstruction of a good many theories... //First Regatta//, p.24 | >But what shall we say now? Here come the Farmers, about whose culture we have heard nothing, whose blood is very likely red, who may not part their hair at all, who may never even have seen the Charles nor the Back Bay, and row right away from a boat full of Harvard brains. It is an audacious and revolutionary piece of business, and makes necessary a reconstruction of a good many theories... (//First Regatta//, p.24) |
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