The Harvard–Yale Regatta or Yale-Harvard Boat Race (often abbreviated The Race) is an annual rowing race between the men's heavyweight rowing crews of Harvard University and Yale University. First contested in 1852, it has been held annually since 1859 with exceptions during major wars fought by the United States and the COVID-19 pandemic. The Race is America's oldest collegiate athletic competition, pre-dating The Game by 23 years. It is sometimes referred to as the "Yale-Harvard" regatta, though most official regatta programs brand it "Harvard-Yale." Originally rowed on Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire, it has since moved to the Thames River, near New London, Connecticut. Although other locations for the race have included the Connecticut River at Springfield, Massachusetts, and Lake Quinsigamond at Worcester, Massachusetts, the Thames has hosted The Race on all but five occasions since 1878 and both teams have erected permanent training camps on the Thames at Gales Ferry for Yale and at Red Top for Harvard. The race has been exclusively between Yale and Harvard except for 1897, when the race was held as part of a three-boat race with Cornell on the Hudson River at Poughkeepsie, New York, where, although it lost to Cornell, Yale was deemed the winner of the Harvard-Yale race. Due to the COVID-19, there was no Yale-Harvard Regatta in 2020, the first cancellation since 1945. History On May 24, 1843, with the arrival of the shell Whitehall in New Haven, Yale University founded the first collegiate crew in the United States. A year later, Harvard founded their boat club. These boat clubs served primarily a social purpose, until Yale's 1852 issuance of a challenge to Harvard "to test the superiority of the oarsmen of the two colleges". Dr. James M. Whiton (Yale 1853) and Joseph Mansfield Brown (Harvard 1853) were the prime movers in bringing about the race. The idea of a race was suggested by James N. Elkins, the superintendent of the Boston, Concord and Montreal Railroad, during a train journey with Dr. Whiton. The first Harvard–Yale Boat Race—and the first American intercollegiate sporting event—took place on August 3, 1852. In this two-mile (3.2 km) contest, Harvard's Oneida prevailed over Yale's Shawmut by about two lengths, with Yale's Undine finishing third. The first place prize was a pair of black walnut, silver-inscribed trophy oars. The trophy oars were awarded to Harvard by General Franklin Pierce who in 1853 became the 14th President