The Press: Harvard and the Pirates

In the spring of 1936, as the Yale boat race approached, a panicky Harvard crew decided it could not win without inspiration: Since most members of the crew liked to gloat over Milton Caniff's comic strip, Terry and the Pirates, which runs daily in the Boston Herald, they hit on the idea of asking him to send them a picture of one of his luscious, semi-nude female characters. Cartoonist Caniff obliged with a sketch of a girl named Burma. Harvard won by six lengths.

In 1937 and again last year Harvard wired Caniff for a picture, got it, won. By this time Yale was beginning to feel that it was being jinxed, and so last fall Yale's junior prom committee wrote to Cartoonist Caniff and demanded a picture for Eli. Caniff knocked off a quick sketch of The Dragon Lady, which the committee blew up to enormous proportions and used as a wall decoration at the prom.

Last week, thirteen days before the Yale-Harvard race, Cartoonist Caniff received a wire. Even though The Dragon Lady had been to Yale, could Harvard have her picture for the boathouse? Cartoonist Caniff—who went to Ohio State—rushed it off (see cut). Yale had not been heard from at week's end.