Only be seen at a distance. (AP) CONCORD, NH:
The 170-yearold prize awarded in the first US intercollegiate sports competition is going up for auction next month.
Sotheby’s estimates the trophy oars from the inaugural HarvardYale
Regatta will fetch $3-to-$5 million in online bidding May 17-24. Made of black walnut with engraved silver plaques, the oars were presented to the winning Harvard crew on Aug 3, 1852, 17 years before the first intercollegiate football game and 43 years before the first such basketball game.
“It’s about Harvard and Yale on the surface, but what I think is truly interesting is it’s the real beginning and genesis of the rivalries in college sports that we sort of take for granted today,” said Richard Austin, Sotheby’s global head of books and manuscripts. “It’s just part of America’s cultural fabric.”
The inaugural race between the Ivy League schools was held on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire after a Yale oarsman from the state struck a marketing deal with a regional railroad line looking to boost ridership. New Hampshire’s own Franklin Pierce, who was elected president three months later, presented the prize. (AP)