NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The HYP is back! After a three-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the most thrilling regattas of the EARC regular season will finally resume this Saturday, as the Yale lightweights head down to New Jersey to take on longtime rivals Harvard and Princeton for the Goldthwait and Vogel Cups. It's a triangular rivalry with an intensity that some say matches or surpasses any of the great ones in college sport.
The Goldthwait Cup was established in 1926 by Harvard 150 captain Henry Kimball Prince '24 in honor of his teammate Vincent Bowditch Goldthwait, who had drowned in Lake Champlain "on leaping from a burning motor boat" in the summer of 1922, according to a Harvard Crimson article at the time. Prince, from Short Hills, N.J., and Goldthwait (alternatively spelled Goldthwaite in the Harvard Crimson) of Boston, Mass., were elected leaders of the Electrical Department of the Harvard Dramatic Club in May of 1922, just months before Goldthwait's death.
The Cup was made retroactive to 1922, 100 years ago to this year and, with the exception of the war years from 1943-46 and the COVID-19 years from 2020-21, has been contested between the three schools ever since.
The Cup is awarded to the winner of the first varsity event. Princeton is the current holder, having won it in 2019.
Princeton comes into this weekend after losing by narrow margins in back-to-back weeks to Cornell and Georgetown. Harvard is looking to get back on track after some early season miscues.
After winning the Durand Cup against Dartmouth last Saturday, Yale seeks to continue their winning ways by focusing on the concrete and not the abstract.
"Now that it's here, we look forward to this race because it's the next race," commented senior captain Geoff Skelly. "The other seniors and I are proud of this team, and we hope to show some good speed as a team this Saturday."
The Vogel Cup is the team points trophy, named after Yale oarsman and longtime Yale coach of both the lightweight and heavyweight crews David H. Vogel '70. All five races will count towards winning the Cup, which currently sits on display at Gilder.
This legendary rivalry begins at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday. All races will be livestreamed on ESPN+ and internationally.
