During his training for the national team, Parker's name was forwarded to the athletic director at Harvard, Tom Bolles, who appointed the 27-year-old oarsman as the freshman coach in 1961. When Harvard's varsity coach, Harvey Love, died suddenly of a heart attack in the spring of 1963, Parker was promoted to the varsity level, purely on an interim basis. The crew had an uneven spring, and performed poorly at the Eastern Sprints (the league championship for the EARC). The annual highpoint of the Harvard rowing season is the Harvard-Yale race (the oldest and longest-running intercollegiate sporting event in the United States) held in June. Parker meticulously prepared his crew for their biggest race of the year. Heavy underdogs against the favored Yale crew, the Harvard varsity pulled off an upset. Parker was appointed permanent coach of the varsity crew. Harvard would not lose to Yale until 1981.