Talk:Intercollegiate Rowing Association

Merge?
Should the article on the Poughkeepsie Regatta be merged into this one? Maybe not if it still uses the Poughkeepsie name; is that so?--BillFlis 12:24, 3 November 2007 (UTC)
 * yes, it is the same thing09er (talk) 04:53, 25 May 2008 (UTC)
 * Five years later today I expanded our Poughkeepsie Regatta article from ultra-stub to Start with content from a few online sources. Evidently the IRA regatta for much of its time on the Poughkeepsie course was a major sporting event. I believe it needs expansion rather than merge.
 * How commonly is the IRA championship called the Poughkeepsie Regatta today? By whom? Our article lead implies that that remains the common name. But Poughkeepsie has recently hosted some so-called Poughkeepsie Regatta revivals.
 * --P64 (talk) 23:52, 11 May 2013 (UTC)
 * I have revised Poughkeepsie Regatta. The article no longer states or implies that that nickname for the IRA championship survived its departure from Poughkeepsie --without saying that it was not used for a time after 1949, which I don't know. --P64 (talk) 21:15, 24 June 2013 (UTC)

Table
Would anyone be willing to create one of those cool chart things (like the page for Eastern sprints) with all of the winners? 66.10.167.1 (talk) 17:28, 1 May 2008 (UTC)

Harvard and Yale
quote this article
 * (After losing to Cornell in 1897, Harvard and Yale chose to avoid the IRA, so as not to diminish the Harvard-Yale Regatta. It soon became part of each school's tradition not to go).

According to one of our sources at Poughkeepsie Regatta and now/soon at Harvard–Yale Regatta, Peter Mallory The Sport of Rowing: [1] the IRA was established in 1891 and left New London CT in 1892 (before or after one race there under the IRA moniker?) because HY were already self-segregated in favor of exclusivity; [2] the previous collegiate association RAAC disintegrated after Yale post-1875 and Harvard post-1876 withdrew --partly because of competition with and defeats by plebes or bucolics (agricultural schools Mass-Amherst and Cornell) "RAAC limped on with fewer and fewer participants into the 1880s". [3] Harvard joined the RAAC regatta in 1871 during dispute with Yale such that there was no H-Y race that year; Yale joined in 1872 "having no choice" (and finished last) "Now they were being marginalized in an increasingly common, plebian sport."

Source for [1] [2] [3] is Peter Mallory, reading backward through chapters 28 and 27. See Poughkeepsie Regatta

So the so-called tradition was much older than IRA not to mention its 1897 race.

I suspect that H & Y participation in 1897, like Y participation in 1872, was related to whatever dispute caused them not to meet in 1896 as in 1871. (Beside major wars 1871 and 1896 are the only years H & Y did not race from 1859 to date.) --P64 (talk) 23:52, 11 May 2013 (UTC)

Schedule, seniors
See also Talk: Harvard–Yale Regatta.

Does the IRA Championship regatta always follow the end of the academic year at all the member colleges? Are seniors eligible after their graduation? Do teams generally retain seniors?

Has this changed at all during the 120-year history? --P64 (talk) 19:47, 2 June 2013 (UTC)


 * Seniors are now eligible regardless whether they have graduated. Rowing coach Harry Parker served as dean and presented diplomas to seniors after this year's H-Y race, only because their participation in the IRA championship conflicted with the commencement ceremony. --P64 (talk) 21:15, 24 June 2013 (UTC)

Course length
Mallory, The Sport of Rowing, p. 324, includes a map attributed to "Alama, Mark of the Oarsman, and captioned "[I.R.A.] Course, 1895-1949 [/] Poughkeepsie, New York".

The map depicts a 4-mile course with eight half-mile segments marked by parallel dashed lines across the river. There is another, heavier straight line slightly askew at the 3-mile mark (label unfortunately too small for me to read) and a dotted curve across the river near that point ("Ferry").

Page 324 also quotes a contemporary reference to "the four miles" (date unspecified); "Crowther, p. 111". This online selection (chapters 27-35) does not include Mallory's citations but I presume that is Samuel Crowther (journalist), American Rowing, 1905. --P64 (talk) 20:49, 24 June 2013 (UTC)

Camden County, New Jersey?
I noticed Camden County, New Jersey among the categories at the bottom of the page, and am baffled as to why. I don't see any schools mentioned that are from that county -- Princeton is a couple counties north, and Penn is of course across the state line in Pennsylvania -- nor did I see anything about competitions being held on waterways in that county. Does anyone know why this category appears, or whether it was added mistakenly? Thanks! SiimaTamba (talk) 02:49, 7 January 2023 (UTC)
 * I noticed in another article that there was a Camden County Freeholders Trophy that was given to the IRA champion women's team from 1997 through 2000. See http://irarowing.com/freeholders-trophy/ Jeff in CA (talk) 03:35, 7 January 2023 (UTC)