Crews

Penn was on the inside lane, Yale on the outside, and Columbia in the middle. On the course at the Schuylkill at Philadelphia, with its staggered start and its finish laid at an angle past a bend, the outside lane was much the hardest. But the course did not bother the Yale crew. It was in front when the three boats settled down after the racing start and it stayed in front, fighting off Columbia's sprints, to win by three quarters of a length. Penn was three lengths behind Columbia.

At Cambridge the heavy Harvard crew pushed over a rough mile and three quarters of the Charles River to nose out M. I. T. by a quarter of a length. And on other rivers other crews were practicing, watched by critics who every season go from college to college, watching workouts from launches or from the boathouse platform. Other commentators, believing that things in rowing, more than in any other sport, are decided by training methods, considered the theories and personalities of the various coaches. Most discussed last week was Edward O. Leader (Yale), gruff and domineering, who has built his crew out of meagre material. A week before the race at Philadelphia he found a stroke, Woodruff Rankin Tappen. He believes that Yale will row in the Olympics.

No other coach has turned out as consistently fine crews as Leader. He lost two races last year: one to Harvard, when a Yale man "caught a crab," and one to Princeton, through overconfidence. The Yale crew did not raise its beat until it was inside the flags marking the last quarter mile and even at that it finished within a few feet of the winner. If it had not been for these two slips Leader would have a record of six years without a defeat. He is efficient because he is absorbed in training a crew to row, without considering the minor problems of morale, college politics or his personal popularity. He is liked by the great tribe of Yale alumni, most of whom agree that if Leader thinks his crew will be in the Olympics he is probably right.