Princeton Lightweights 1948-1950

HTBS special correspondent in London, Tim Koch, is writing in an e-mail from this morning: “I have found this great, twenty minute archive film of the 1948-1950 Princeton Lightweights. It is a wonderfully evocative home movie of the Ivy League from a time when students dressed like men, not boys, cars were built to last and boats were beautiful pieces of art, crafted from wood. It shows the ‘150 lb Crew’ rowing at Princeton (against Yale and Harvard), Pennsylvania, Columbia, Cornell, and on the Charles in Boston and generally engaging in undergraduate high jinks.”

Tim, this was a wonderful find. Thank you for sharing this film with the HTBS readers.

A little foot note: Seeing the Princeton crew rowing, it made me think of Jim Dietz, Head Coach of the University of Massachusetts Women’s Rowing Team. He gave a very interesting talk yesterday evening at a cocktail reception at the Mystic Art Center. This event sort of kicked off the upcoming Coastweeks Regatta weekend held in Mystic, Connecticut, on 18-19 September (more information about this rowing weekend will be posted on this blog shortly).

Jim Dietz talked about how he is coaching the coaches so to say. He is giving seminars and travels around the U.S. to help rowing coaches to teach out the right (sweep) rowing and sculling techniques. He would not approve of the way the Princeton crew is rowing in this film!