Ledyard - Harry Parker recalls that even Malcolm Howard, who won three national championships while rowing in Harvard's varsity eight, as well as an Olympic gold medal in Beijing, wasn't ready to compete at the varsity level when he was a freshman.

"He was a pretty rough customer when he arrived. … I've never felt that in the past (that a freshman should be on varsity). There's only been a few," said Parker, the legendary coach of the Harvard men's crew, in his 51st season.

This year, for the first time since 1852, the year the teams first began their storied rivalry, freshmen will be eligible to compete in the varsity boat at the Harvard-Yale Regatta, scheduled for 10:45 a.m. Sunday on the Thames River (upstream).

In June, 2012, the Intercollegiate Rowing Association voted to allow freshmen to compete at the varsity level in the national championship regatta. The Ivy League soon followed suit, allowing freshman eligibility for all races throughout the season and extinguishing what was the last sport in the country to disallow freshman participation, perhaps due to the longstanding traditions of the sport.

Parker disagreed wholeheartedly with the decision, saying the true freshman crews allowed the newcomers to acclimate themselves to the university and the program without the pressures of having to perform right away. It made for a strong class bond, such as last year's senior class, which joined the varsity as sophomores and won three straight Harvard-Yale Regattas.

"I opposed it as vigorously as I could, but to no avail," Parker said on Tuesday's annual regatta media day. "It was being pushed for years. We held it off as long as we could. It clearly hasn't changed the overall pecking order at all. I tried to tell 'em that."

Meanwhile, Yale coach Steve Gladstone embraced it, although appreciating Parker's take.

Gladstone, in his third year at Yale, won six national championships while coaching at Cal and is trying to elevate the Bulldogs to that level, as well. This change, he feels, has made the team more competitive.

Yale features four freshmen in its first varsity eight and two in its junior varsity eight, with the team's captain, senior Jon Morgan, competing in the JV race.

Instead of a freshman race, Harvard and Yale will now contest a third varsity race. Yale's third varsity features members of all four classes, including two seniors, while Harvard has kept its third varsity as a true freshman boating.

"My mom actually mentioned something about that," said Yale freshman Adam Smith, the stroke in the varsity boat, of making history. "I don't really feel like a freshman. We've done so much racing it doesn't matter. I feel like part of a squad. I guess it will be nice to look back and say that (I was one of the first)."

Smith, Thomas Pagel, Hubert Trzybinski and David DeVries, all freshmen, are in Yale's varsity boat. Harvard has one freshman in the varsity boat in Vincent Breet. All the rookies in both camps are still staying in the freshman quarters, regardless of their boatings.

The upperclassmen's take on the freshman takeover?

"Part of me would have loved to be up with the varsity," Harvard senior captain James O'Connor said. "But it was nice almost to have that institutional limitation. We (as freshmen) took a lot of pride in making that boat go as fast as possible. We'd live together in the freshman quarters. That's how a lot of our class came together."

"I think it's all for the better," Yale's Morgan said. "The freshmen are still very close as a class, but it's made us more competitive. It's great for them, it's great for us."

The teams are competing for the 148th time in their series, with Harvard looking to complete its third straight perfect dual season. Harvard, which has won five straight varsity races and 12 of the last 13, was second to Washington at the national championships last week in Sacramento, Yale seventh.

v.fulkerson@theday.com