1852 Oneida Boat Club ( Harvard ) Trophy Cup / Earliest American Intercollegiate Contest

Followers of this blog are primarily football researchers and collectors, and are certainly familiar with “The Game”; the annual football contest between Harvard and Yale that began in 1875. Before “The Game”, however, was “The Race”, a rowing event taking place between Harvard and Yale that began in 1852, and has taken place annually since 1859, excepting during the years of war.

The 1852 contest was the first intercollegiate competition in the U.S., in any sport, and is now the oldest collegiate rivalry. It was an event unlike any other up to that time. In 1852 the Undine Boat Club of Yale challenged the Oneida Boat Club (O.B.C.) of Harvard, who accepted the challenge “to test the superiority of the oarsmaen of the two colleges”. The Regatta, an idea conceived less than two months before the actual race by a Yale student by the name of James Whiton (rowed the number eight position on the Undine, who pitched the idea to Harvard's coxswain, Joseph Brown, an ex classmate from Boston Latin), was to take place on New Hampshire’s Lake Winnipissiogee (old spelling), at Centre Harbor, on August 3^rd, 1852. Most of the arrangements for travel and lodging, as well as the majority of the costs associated with the event were   arranged for and borne by the Boston, Concord & Montreal Railroad (Whiton's father was a director for the RR and was looking to encourage travel to the area). Future New Hampshire Governor Colonel Nathanial B. Baker of Concord was considered the 'general manager' of the event, as well as one of the six judges. The crowd was estimated at no less than one thousand on race day. Four boats , the Oneida of Harvard and the Shawmut, Undine and Atalanta of Yale were to race. The Atalanta withdrew before the race as it was a four-oared rather than eight -oared boat and it would not have been an even contest. On the day of the race there was a preliminary or scrub contest at 11:00 in the morning, the prize being a silk flag. This race was won by Oneida followed by the Shawmut and the Undine. In the afternoon, sometime around 4 ½ O’clock was the main race; a 2 mile contest. The boats were towed to the starting point by horse boats (powered by horses on treadmills), some two miles up the lake. About fourteen minutes after the bugle sounded Oneida once again placed first, beating out the Shawmut by several lengths. 

This trophy cup and the other trophies associated with this race are the first from what is America’s oldest intercollegiate athletic competition. The winning prizes we know of included a trophy cup (the subject of this blog), a pair of silver mounted walnut oars (presented by Franklin Pierce, future president, to the Oneida Boat Club), and also according to one source a silver plate “to be inscribed with a suitable legend”. One account lists this cup as gold, but this would not have been the case, and was a typical hearsay mistake. A second race scheduled for the following day did not take place due to inclement weather. The prize for the winner of that contest was a silver mounted boat hook, which was instead presented to the captain of the Shawmut, runner up to the Oneida in the first race. 

There was not another race for Harvard in 1852 or 1853 and in 1854 only the city regatta on the Charles took place. 

Sometime around 2006/2007 the walnut oars were discovered during a building renovation in Massachusetts and were being offered for sale. The asking price was an astounding eight figures. You read that correctly.  The whereabouts of the silver plate and the silver mounted boat hook are unknown to us. Awards from this event, the first American intercollegiate contest of any sport are certainly of considerable significance. 

Note 1: The Oneida was originally built and christened the Star. This 37’ lapstrake barge, built by Holbrook for Chelsea races in 1842 was bought by members of the class of 1846 for $85 and rechristened the Oneida. At the time of this race in 1852 the Oneida was owned by the Harvard class of 1853. In 1856 the Oneida was sold to Dartmouth and was soon after lost, being washed away over a dam.

Note 2: The trophies won by the Oneida Boat Club were known to have been kept together initially, presumably at the Boat House built in 1846, by the the three clubs that existed at that time.

Note added 20Feb2023: Several years ago we located, with a high degree of confidence, the silver plate or tray referenced above. We have been waiting on one piece of correspondence that now appears, after numerous contacts, will not be coming to us, thus this addition to the blog post now. The tray "travelled with" and was out of the same collection as the trophy cup. It is marked by Harris & Stanwood, Boston (working 1847 - 1853), and was "floor buffed" removing the inscription. It really is disappointing that history was wiped clean with so little consideration. Photo of the tray follows.