Poughkeepsie Regatta

The Poughkeepsie Regatta was an annual regatta contested by the Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) in the United States. In June 1895 a single IRA championship race was held on the Hudson River at Poughkeepsie, New York, with Cornell, Columbia, and the University of Pennsylvania competing. After 55 years the IRA National Championship moved in 1950 to Ohio, in 1952 to Syracuse, and in 1995 to Camden, New Jersey. But Poughkeepsie Regatta, the name of its heyday was permanent.

The IRA was established by Cornell, Columbia, and Pennsylvania in 1891, the third year of their race on the Thames River in New London, Connecticut. There Harvard and Yale had established and maintained "The Race" as an exclusive head-to-head contest. The newly formed IRA "left New London in frustration and disgust" next year and selected a permanent site for its own annual regatta in June 1895.

The course was a straight four miles, wide enough for 20 boats.

In 1899 there were 48 cars in the observation train that slowly followed the race as "a moving grandstand" (on the heights above the river).

The Regatta grew to be "the greatest one-day sporting event in America" early in the 20th century, the culmination of a "carnival" regatta week on both sides of the river every June.

Harvard and Yale remained self-segregated until long after the Poughkeepsie Regatta left Poughkeepsie and the Hudson River.

Revival

The Hudson River Rowing Association "welcomed back" the Poughkeepsie Regatta in October 2008, running races in eight classifications on a 2.3-mile segment of the traditional course.

Marist College "reenacted" a Poughkeepsie Regatta on the Hudson River at Poughkeepsie in 2009, for the quadricentennial of Henry Hudson's trip on the river. There a repeat in 2010 and a cancellation caused by foul weather in 2011. The latest rendition was September 2012 and it is now called annual.

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