Ivy League Crew
College Rivalries Come Out for the Prestigious Head of the Charles Regatta
Photographer Martien Mulder captures the timeless beauty and athleticism of the United States’ largest boat race, the Head of the Charles Regatta. Over 300,000 spectators attended the Brooks Brothers-sponsored weekend in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to watch a hundred river races and the classic rivalries between Harvard, Yale and other Ivy League schools play out. First held in 1965, the Head of the Charles Regatta was established by three Cambridge Boat Club members with advice from Harvard University’s sculling instructor, who proposed a three-mile race to the head of the river. Although participants ranged from school children to seniors, the faces that caught a few eyes this year were Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the identical twins portrayed in David Fincher’s The Social Network and who rowed in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, racing against each other. Fred Schoch, who has been director of the event for 21 years and is a prize-winning rower himself, has seen tensions between clubs come and go. “The rivalries between Harvard and Yale now pale in comparison to the East vs. West rivalries,” he explains. “The University of Washington (Seattle) and California Berkeley have been wreaking havoc with the Ivies for generations.” Regardless, it was celebrations all around for Harvard, who fought off 17 teams to claim victory at the Men’s Championship Eights with its first victory in the competition since 1977.