The Cochrane Cup has been competed for since 1961 by the Men's Varsity Eight rowing

College rowing (United States)

Rowing is one of the oldest intercollegiate sports in the United States. However, rowers comprise only 2.2% of total college athletes. This may be in part because of the status of rowing as an amateur sport and because not all universities have access to suitable bodies of water. In the 2002-03...

 teams of Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...

, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...

, and Wisconsin

Wisconsin Badgers Crew

The Wisconsin Badgers Crew is the rowing team that represents the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Rowing at the University dates back to 1874.The women's openweight team is a NCAA Division I team...

.

The cup was placed in competition by Mrs. Edward Cochrane in 1961 for heavyweight races among Dartmouth, MIT and Wisconsin. The cup is named after Admiral Edward L. Cochrane, former president of M.I.T., and director of the Navy’s Bureau of Ships. After one race of one mile (1961), one of 1.75 miles (1962) and another of two miles (1963), the cup has been raced on a 2000-meter course ever since.

The cup is named after Adm. Edward L. Cochrane

Edward L. Cochrane

Vice Admiral Edward Lull "Ned" Cochrane was a United States Navy officer and noted naval architect who served as Chief of the Bureau of Ships during World War II...

 of the Navy's Bureau of Ships

Bureau of Ships

The United States Navy's Bureau of Ships was established by Congress on June 20, 1940, by a law which consolidated the functions of the Bureau of Construction and Repair and the Bureau of Engineering. The new Bureau was to be headed by a Chief and Deputy-Chief, one selected from the engineering...

 who is a former president of MIT.