True Blue: Oxford Boat Race Mutiny

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True Blue: Oxford Boat Race Mutiny

Paperback cover
Author Dan Topolski and Patrick Robinson
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Genre(s) Non-fiction
Publisher Bantam Books
Publication date 1989
Media type Print (hardcover and paperback)
Pages 320
ISBN ISBN 0-553-40003-7

True Blue: Oxford Boat Race Mutiny is a non-fiction book written by Dan Topolski and Patrick Robinson and published in 1989. It tells the story of the 1987 Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race and the disagreement amongst the Oxford team known as the "Oxford mutiny". It won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year in 1989, the award's inaugural year.

Topolski was Oxford's rowing coach, and the book describes his conflicts with the squad and principally five US international oarsmen who were enrolled that year at Oxford. Disagreements over training methods and crew selection ultimately led to the Americans leaving the team shortly before the race. With a severely depleted team, still suffering from the fall-out of the 'mutiny', Oxford went on to beat Cambridge in the 1987 Boat Race.

The book, and the mutiny itself, continue to divide rowers even 20 years afterwards. Alison Gill, an Oxford oarswoman at the time of the mutiny, wrote The Yanks at Oxford, a book that attempted to counter the perceived bias in Topolski's account.

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