The first record of a New College boat comes from 1840: however, the club only consistently entered crews into intercollegiate competitions from 1869. After this, the club emerged from comparative obscurity to claim Torpids headship in 1882 and Eights headship in 1887.

From 1886 to 1922, New College claimed Eights headship in 13 of 33 years of racing, including a four-year spell at the top from 1896 to 1899, and never dropped out of the top three spots on the Eights chart. For the vast majority of this period, another of those spots was occupied by Magdalen, sowing the seeds for the intense rivalry between the two college rowing juggernauts that erupted after the 1912 Stockholm Olympics incident.

At the 1912 Olympics, both NCBC and another British crew, composed of Magdalen and Leander men, reached the final. The Stockholm course contained a clear discrepancy between its two lanes: one would require the cox to avoid a protruding boathouse. Thus, before the race, a toss was made for the lanes.

New College won the toss, and following tradition, offered the choice of lanes to their opponents, who would - as gentlemen - refuse the offer. But the Leander-Magdalen crew instead took the offer and chose the better lane, going on to win the gold. The words of our stroke Robert Bourne as New College crossed the line in silver medal place remain today as the NCBC toast: 'God Damn Bloody Magdalen!'. It's said that King Gustav V of Sweden was so disheartened by the behaviour of the Leander-Magdalen crew towards NCBC that he presented, as consolation, the colours of the Swedish coat of arms to the club: purple and gold. (For this reason, NCBC doesn’t share its colours with the other New College sports teams).

After a hiatus for the First World War, New College remained one of the strongest rowing clubs on the river, frequently taking headship and never dropping from the top few spots until the late 1950s. The men’s side last took headship in 1986, a landmark celebrated in the name of our men’s four, “Spirit of ‘86”.

New College took part in the first women’s Summer Eights in 1976, with our women’s crew achieving headship in 2004 after a decade near the top of the table. They rowed over to remain at the Head of the River the following year. The women’s crew also achieved headship in Torpids in 2001 and 2005, thus attaining the coveted achievement of double headship in both Torpids and Eights that year, an event whose 20th anniversary we will celebrate at Eights Dinner.