Intercollegiate Rowing Association

The Intercollegiate Rowing Association runs the IRA National Championship Regatta, which is considered to be the United States collegiate national championship of rowing. Since 1895, it has been held in numerous locations, such as the Cooper River in Pennsauken, New Jersey. This regatta includes both men's and women's (lightweight) events for sweep boats of all sizes. Today, Columbia, Cornell, Pennsylvania, Navy, and Syracuse are members of the association. Each year these five schools choose whom to invite to the regatta and are responsible for its organization along with the ECAC. The IRA is the oldest college rowing championship in the United States. The IRA governs intercollegiate rowing between varsity/club rowing programs across the United States. It is the direct successor to the Rowing Association of American Colleges, the first collegiate athletic organization in the United States, which operated from 1870–1894.

Columbia, Cornell and Pennsylvania were the organizing stewards of the IRA Regatta first held on the Hudson River at Poughkeepsie, New York, on June 24, 1895.

...
Wikipedia