Harvard University

Charley Butt was named the Bolles-Parker Head Coach for Harvard Men's Heavyweight Crew on August 13, 2013. Butt enters his 41st season with the Harvard rowing program in 2025-26, having previously served as the Friends of Harvard Lightweight Rowing Coach for Men’s Lightweight Crew for 28 years. 

The ninth coach in Harvard heavyweight crew history, Butt assumed his role after the passing of the legendary Harry Parker, who guided the Crimson for 51 seasons. Butt is just the fourth coach to lead the Crimson since 1946.  

Butt led the Crimson to an Eastern Sprints victory in 2024-25, the programs first since the 2014 season. The first, second, and third varsity eights claimed victory at Eastern Sprints. The first and second varsity eight earned silver at the IRA Championships, while the third eight claimed the IRA championship title. Butt also led the Crimson to a sweep at the 158th Harvard-Yale Regatta. 

The 2023-24 season resulted in a Head of the Charles win, second-place finish at the IRA Championships, and the first win at the Harvard-Yale regatta since 2014. 

Following the cancelation of the 2020 and 2021 spring campaigns by the Ivy League, Harvard has posted a combined dual-race record of 11-3 the last two seasons (2022, 2023). From 2015-19, Butt led the Crimson to a 32-6 dual record and five top-5 finishes at the IRA National Championships (2015 - 5th, 2016 - 5th, 2017 - 3rd, 2018 - 4th, 2019 - 3rd).

The Crimson posted a perfect 8-0 record in 2014 during its dual season, including a sweep of Yale in the 149^th Harvard-Yale Regatta. Harvard also won the EARC Sprints for the fifth time in as many years, as the varsity eight took home the inaugural Harry Parker Cup. Butt led the team to a fifth-place finish at the IRA National Championships.

Butt led Harvard’s lightweight program for nearly 30 seasons, steering the Crimson to nine Eastern crowns and nine national championships, including the 2012 and 2013 IRA National Championships.

Consistently among the nation’s best, Butt’s crews posted winning dual records in 25 of his 28 seasons at the helm.

Harvard also won the Head of the Charles Regatta for the first time since 1975 during the fall of 2012.

An outstanding oarsman himself, Butt rowed on the United States lightweight entry in the 1980 world championships, finishing fourth. He was a member of the winning four with coxswain at the 1979 IRA Championship and later that year was selected as an alternate on the national lightweight team.

Butt graduated from Rutgers in 1983. In 1985, he was a silver medalist for the lightweight eight at the world championships in Belgium. In 1986, Butt was part of the Wyfold Cup championship crew at Henley.

As a coach, Butt's experience extends well beyond Harvard, including four stints as a United States Olympic coach, a position he continues to hold. Andrew Campbell, a junior Harvard oarsman and Butt’s pupil, became the first American to win gold as a single sculler at the 2013 World Rowing Under 23 Championships.

At the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Butt helped Radcliffe alumna, Michelle Guerette '02, earn a silver medal in the women's single sculls. He served as her coach at the 2005 World Championships, where she won bronze medal in the single sculls.

Four years earlier at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Butt and associate heavyweight coach Bill Manning worked with former Crimson rowers Artour Samsonov '02, Henry Nuzum '99 and Greg Ruckman '96 in the pair, double and lightweight double.

At the 2000 Games, he coached the men's lightweight double, a boat that included Greg Ruckman '96. He also coached a pair featuring former Crimson oarsman Adam Holland '94 and a bronze-medalist lightweight single sculler at the 2002 world championships in Seville. At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, he coached the men's pair, a tandem which included Holland. He coached Holland's pair again in 1997 and '98 when they were third and a very close fourth, respectively, at the world championships.

Butt previously coached the U.S. men's quad that captured the silver at the 1991 Pan Am Games in Havana, was an assistant coach for men's sweep rowing (4+) at the 1993 world championships in the Czech Republic and coached the coxed four to silver at the 1994 world championships. That boat featured three Harvard oarsmen: Holland, Bill Cooper '93 and Chris Swan '92.