LPC: What is Polo? : History

History of Polo

"Those who do not know their history are condemed to repeat it" -Looking it up

For Lakeside Polo History, see: https://lakesidepolo.tripod.com/his5060.html

This history page is intended to include dates for the establishment of polo in your country, also to include the date your club was founded, just send mail with the details..

600 BC, manuscrits can be found describing polo in the East. [1]
521-485 BC, the time of Darius, polo mentioned by historian Tabari (914 AD) [1]
590AD An epic poem describes the queen and the ladies of her court playing before King Khusru Parvez, by Nizami (1126-1180) a Persian Poet. [1]
1200 Evidence of a breif precensce of Polo in France, brought by crusaders. [2]
1863 Europeans first play polo in Calcuta, India. [1]
1873 Hurlingham Club includes polo. [1]
1874 Hurlingham Rules first drawn up, included offside rule and limited the number of players per team to five. [1]
1876 Mr. James Fordon Bennett is credited with introducing polo to the USA with the first game at Dickel's Riding Academy in New York City (corner of Thirtyninth Street and Fith Avenue). The following spring the players established the Westchester Polo Club at the Jerome Park race track. [1]
1877 Argentine polo begins at Mr. Shennan's estancia.
1888 A system of handicapping was started, initially determined by a single "handicapper" Mr. H. L. Herbert. [1]
1890 The United States Polo Association established. [1]
1915 Formation of the Indoor Polo Association. [1]
1922 Argentine polo players make a twenty-thousand mile journy to establish their dominance of the polo world. [1]
1929 Black Hills Polo Club Founded, Rapid City, South Dakota, USA
1936 Polo dropped from the Olympic Games. [2]