SCENE | The Harvard Raft Race

Photos of the annual Harvard Raft Race by Spencer Grant, 1973 via Massachusetts Collections Online.

Once a year the student houses of Harvard and Radcliffe would race on the Charles River. This annual tradition (which ended in 1990), was "no gentleman's canoe race as practiced in England" however. In the Harvard version, attacks on other Houses' rafts, acts of piracy, and hurling of eggs and tomatoes were not only condoned, but encouraged. The winner enjoyed not only the glory of winning, but cases of beer as their trophy.