Polo 1: Early History
and Development
Polo is probably the oldest existing team sport in the world. It originated somewhere in Central Asia, probably among Turkic-Mongol peoples. It may be descended from a game similar to buzkashi, the national sport of Afghanistan, in which two teams of players on horseback battle for possession of a headless goat carcass.
A Persian poet, Firdausi, described a match that supposedly took place in about 600 B.C. However, Firdausi wrote more than 1,500 years later, so his description may not be historically accurate.
It is certain, though, that a form of polo spread throughout Asia, into China, Japan, Tibet, India, and Egypt. The sport, frequently played with 100 or more horsemen per team, was often used as training for high-ranking cavalry officers.
Imam Square in Isfahan, Iran, was once a polo ground, laid out in 1598 by King Shah Abbas I. The stone goalposts stand at one end of the square; they're 8 yards apart, which is still the standard goal width.
By 1800, polo had died out except in some mountainous areas in northern India. Lieutenant Joseph Sherer of England's Indian Army saw some tribesmen playing a match in Assam, a province in India's northeast corner, in 1857 and reportedly said, "We must learn this game."
His commanding officer, Captain Robert Stewart, agreed. Stewart, Sherer, and seven English tea planters organized the Silchar Polo Club in 1859. Club members played regular games against the local Manipuri tribesmen.
(The tribesmen called the sport "sagol kangei," but the English adopted the much shorter name, "polo," from Tibet. In the Balti dialect of Tibetan, "pulu" means "ball." It's not known where and how the English picked up the word. Presumably it was used by non-tribesmen in Silchar.)
Stewart introduced polo to Calcutta in 1861 and the first public match was played there during Christmas Race Week of 1862. Sherer visited Calcutta the following year and helped to organize the Calcutta Polo Club, which is the oldest still in existence.
By 1870, polo had spread throughout India. British cavalry units were competing with one another regularly and some Indian princes had also taken up the sport.
In the meantime, it had also reached England. A cavalry officer read a magazine article about polo early in 1869 and organized an impromptu game among fellow officers, using walking sticks and a billiard ball. That didn't work very well, but the players liked the idea of it.
Later that year, Captain Edward "Chicken" Hartopp of the 10th Hussars returned to England from India with polo equipment and organized the first official match on Hounslow Heath.
As in India, the sport spread rapidly. Four British cavalry regiments began playing regular matches at Richmond Park in 1870.
Polo was then played with eight men to a side and few rules. Captain John Watson of the 13th Hussars drew up the first formal rules in the early 1870s. When the Hurlingham Club was founded in 1886 to standardize rules, Watson's rules formed the foundation.