They are both institutions on the annual rowing calendar and have about as many similarities as the Queen and Elvis. This is The Boat Race and the Harvard-Yale Regatta.

The Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race began just outside of London, England between two universities well over 100 years ago on the Thames River. The Harvard-Yale Regatta is just over 100 years old and is raced near New London, Connecticut on the Thames River, between two universities.

The Boat Race Finish 2002
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Both events have created their own traditions and both claim to be unique in their situation. The British sporting institution, known simply as The Boat Race is billed as the ?world’s longest surviving sporting challenge.? It’s the result of a challenge presented to Oxford by Cambridge in 1829. After a number of venue changes The Boat Race became a four and a quarter mile fixture between Putney and Mortlake on the Thames River.

Harvard racing at Henley, 2002
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The Harvard-Yale Regatta bills itself as the United States’ oldest intercollegiate athletic event and began after Yale issued a challenge to Harvard, ?to test the superiority of the oarsmen of the two colleges.? The original challenge was in 1852 and it evolved into a major sporting event spurred by the attraction of betting. The site moved several times before establishing itself at New London over a four-mile distance. A crowd of over 100,000 spectators was estimated in 1925 and viewers have included former United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt. However, following the ban on sports betting, crowds began to decline and the event became more of a college-based tradition.

The Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race has grown into one of the most popular televised sporting events in Great Britain with an estimated global television audience of 400 million. About a quarter of a million people line the banks of the Thames and the race is part of the social season, attended by debutantes and society figures with strict entry and dress codes for some parts of the riverbank.

Celebration for the British event extends to New York City where a pre-Boat Race dinner is held at the Harvard Club and is billed as the ?oldest uninterrupted Oxford-Cambridge alumni event in the world.?

In April this year Oxford won by a slim margin over Cambridge in a race that saw the lead change several times. The overall score is now 71 wins to Oxford and 77 to Cambridge. Last weekend Harvard beat Yale comfortably bringing the Crimson’s total wins to 85 over Yale’s 53.