Dan's Papers - August 10, 2007 - The History Of Polo

Polo is the oldest team sport in the world, originating in China and Persia approximately 2,000 years ago. The name polo comes from the word pholo, which means 'ball' or 'ballgame' in Tibet's Balti dialect. Polo was first used as a training exercise for elite cavalry units. To these players, the game was more like a miniature battle played with as many as 100 people per team.

The earliest record of a polo match dates from 600 BC and was played between the Turkomans and Persians. Shah Abba the Great constructed a polo ground at Ispahan, then the capitol of Persia, in the 16th Century. The polo grounds are now a park, but still have the original stone goalposts in place. However, it was the Moguls who took the game from Persia to the east, mainly to India, where it remains a popular sport. India still boasts the world's oldest club, the Calcutta Polo Club, established in 1862.

But polo didn't achieve worldwide fame until the 1850s, when British tea plantation owners discovered the game in Manipur, where it was played by everyone from the very rich to the commoners. The game was brought back to England and quickly spread to the rest of the world during the late 19th Century, with the help of traveling military officers smitten with the sport.

New York City hosted the first polo match in the United States at Dickel's Riding Academy on 39th Street and Fifth Avenue in 1876. The Westchester Polo Club, America's first formal polo club, was established in 1876 at the Jerome Park Racetrack in New York, the site of the first American outdoor polo match, which was played on May 13, 1876. The next year, Thomas Hitchcock Sr., Oliver W. Bird, August Belmont, Benjamin Nicoll and their friends played the first polo match on Long Island on the infield of the racetrack of the Mineola Fair Grounds.

The Meadowbrook Polo Club of Long Island was established in 1877 and members played regularly at the Mineola Fair Grounds. In 1884, The Meadowbrook Polo Club's first polo field was created, which facilitated Long Island's reputation as the "Polo Capital of the World" during the 1920s and 1930s.

Polo quickly became a top American sport - a single polo match at the Westchester Cup Tournament had 45,000 spectators, while the Cup of the Americas in 1928 was seen by over 100,000 fans.

Currently an active sport in more than 77 countries, polo was played as an Olympic sport from 1900-1939. However, professional polo is played in only a handful of countries - Argentina, England, Pakistan, India, Australia, Spain and the United States. Unlike other professional team sports, amateur polo players are often hired to play in matches alongside top professionals.

Although polo is played by equestrians worldwide, Argentina dominates the sport. Its team has claimed the World Championship title every year since 1949 and most of the world's top ranked players are Argentine. Their 100-plus-year-old Campeonato Argentio Abierto de Polo tournament is still one of the most important polo competitions in the world. However, the United States is unique in that it possesses both a men and women's professional polo league, with 32 teams across the country.

A typical polo match lasts about two hours and consists of six time periods called chukkas, each seven minutes long. The object of the game is to hit the ball down the field and through the goal posts in order to score. The most famous polo tradition is divot stomping during halftime, when spectators go out onto the field and press down pieces of torn-up grass and earth.

Often referred to as polo ponies, the horses or mounts used in the game are actually small thoroughbreds, not actual ponies. And because professional polo ponies are fast and can run over three miles during a period, they are not permitted to play a second consecutive period. After resting for at least two periods, some horses will return to the game, although most polo players bring at least six horses to each match.

If you're more into people than ponies, check out the VIP tent at the Mercedes-Benz Polo Challenge or Hampton Cup, where everyone from Deborah Messing and Kelly Ripa to Aretha Franklin can be spotted stomping divots.

The Hampton Cup polo tournament begins on August 9 and continues through September 5. General admission is $20 per car. The Hampton Cup takes place at JetOne Jets Field at the Bridgehampton Polo Club, located at Two Trees Farms on Hayground Road in Bridgehampton.