Think. Feel. Win.

By and large, the fellows who coach college crew are about as poor-mouthed as the coaches in any other sport. Say something nice about their boys and their eyes open wide in disbelief; the corners of their mouths curl down, and they launch into a wail about injuries and other miseries. Harvard's Harry Parker, 29, has only been varsity coach for three years. So he has a lot to learn. When experts say this year's Harvard eight is one of the best college crews in the history of the sport, Parker not only agrees but goes up a stroke. "I suspect that this crew is faster than most, if not all, previous college crews--faster at whatever distance."

The Crimson has gone to the mark four times so far this year. Until the Eastern Sprint Championships last month, no one has come closer than 5 lengths. In the Stein Cup race on Boston's Charles River, Harvard shaved 10.2 sec. from the 1 3/4-mile course record, outpulling Rutgers and Brown by 5 lengths. A week later, on Princeton's choppy Lake Carnegie, the Cantabs knocked an incredible 20.8 sec. from the Compton Cup 1 3/4-mile record, swamping M.I.T. by 7 lengths and Princeton 9 1/2 lengths. In the 1 3/4-mile Adams Cup regatta on Annapolis' Severn River, they finished 5 1/2 lengths ahead of Navy and 9 1/2 lengths in front of Pennsylvania. The 2,000-meter Eastern Sprints on Worcester's Lake Quinsigamond were a little closer: Harvard walloped undefeated Cornell by 2 1/2 lengths--widest margin in the Sprint's 20-year history. "Even seeing doesn't help," mutters Princeton Coach Dutch Schoch. "You still don't believe it."

Call It Talent. Parker's crew is essentially the same one that was unbeaten last year until its loss to Philadelphia's Vesper Boat Club in the Olympic trials. Now the Crimson is stronger, more mature, more confident. They average 6 ft. 3 in. and 180 lb.--including Coxswain John Unkovic, who stands 5 ft. 6 in. and weighs 120 lb. after dinner. Four of them--Captain and No. 6 Oar Paul Gunderson, Stroke Geoff Picard, No. 3 Oar Tom Pollock, No. 2 Oar Bob Schwarz--have been in the same boat since their freshman year at Harvard.

In practice, they row 6 to 10 miles a day, smoothly and powerfully shifting the stroke from 20 to 32 beats per minute; each man fitting himself to his boatmates. They may look like metronomes, but Coach Parker calls it "talent." "They are always thinking and feeling what's going on," he says, "rather than being out there just slugging away at it."

Tulips on Cedar. Parker knows what's going on. He starred on Pennsylvania's varsity from 1955 to '57, then shifted to single sculls and in 1959 won the National championship and the Pan American Games gold medal, went all the way to the finals of Britain's Henley regatta before losing. A few months later, Harvard offered him a job coaching its frosh, moved him up to the varsity in 1963 when Head Coach Harvey Love died. "This sport tends to be conservative," says Parker. "I'm inclined to try things out to see what works best."

Last year he switched to English-made "tulip" oars, which get a better grip on the water because of their broad, shovel-shaped blades. For the past 50 years, most U.S. colleges have used 62-ft. Pocock shells made from Washington cedar. Now Harvard has a new, Swiss-made Staempfli shell of hard Spanish cedar that is shorter (by 3 1/2 ft.), stiffer, and seems to slip through the water a bit easier. Even the placement of Parker's oarsmen is different. Instead of alternating positions all the way down the shell, he has borrowed an idea from Germany's 1960 Olympic Champion Ratzeburg crew, in which the No. 4 and No. 5 men both pull on the starboard side (see cut). The positioning seems to eliminate the tendency of the stroke in No. 8 position to pull the bow around to starboard, thus makes it easier for the cox to keep a straight course.

Frosting for the Cake? This week Harvard goes against Yale on New London's Thames River. It will be the 100th meeting between the two rivals (score to date: Harvard 52, Yale 47), and though Yale has won only twice this year, Parker has had his men out on the Thames for two weeks practicing for the brutal, four-mile grind. Then Harvard will fly to England for the Henley Royal Regatta against the world's top crews, including the only outfit that has beaten them: Vesper's Olympic Champions. "A victory there," says Captain Gunderson, "would be the frosting on the cake." And a little bit more. In 1955 Coach Parker rowed No. 2 oar on the Pennsylvania crew that won at Henley.

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