TRIBUTE Remembering Three Legendary Members

by Brion O’Connor

The storied history of polo at Myopia could not be written without the intriguing cast of players who have saddled up their ponies at Gibney Field for more than a century. In 2022, Myopia lost three of those memorable figures.

Richard W. “Rick” Hartnett

Hollywood will always have a debt of gratitude to former Myopia polo captain Richard “Rick” Hartnett, who passed away in early November 2022, at the age of 73.

“My dad was always very proud of the fact that he taught Steve McQueen how to play polo for a summer at Myopia to get him ready for the polo scene (in “The Thomas Crown Affair”) that was filmed at Myopia,” said his son, Willie Hartnett. “He was also proud of being a part of and captain of polo for Myopia’s Golden Age of polo in the 1980s and ‘90s, when they had as many as 12 teams for the 20-goal East Coast Open.

“He grew up in Hamilton and was a member of Myopia for as long as I can remember,” said Willie. “He was intro- duced to polo and Myopia by Donald Little when he was a teenager, and he was a multiple time winner of the Chairman’s Cup and the East Coast Open.”

A graduate of Hamilton-Wenham Regional High School and then Norwich University, Hartnett took his degree in business management to the investment firm Kidder Peabody in Boston. He lived at Mill Pond Farm in Rowley and was an active member of the United States Polo Association, including serving as vice chairman and handicap chairman.

A U.S. Polo tribute essay noted Hartnett’s penchant for polo. “Although left-handed, Rick quickly rose through the ranks to become one of the highestrated players at Myopia Polo Club in Hamilton,” stated the essay. “At age 13, he was featured as an athlete to watch by Sports Illustrated.” According to his obituary, Hartnett was “a force to be reckoned with on the field,” and “never saw a line that wasn’t his.”

“Rick loved horses, and that was something that he passed on to me and we were able to share,” said Willie at his father’s funeral. “Rick and I spent a huge part of our lives together on horseback and around the farm. He never found a horse that he wasn’t brave enough to get on and go fast.”

Steve McQueen wasn’t Hartnett’s only protégée. David Strouss, the current captain of Myopia polo, said “Rick took me under his wing when I first began playing tournaments at Myopia in the 1990s.”

“Together with his son, Willie, we won many 8- and 12-goal tournaments playing on the Hartnett’s Pond Hill Polo team,” said Strouss. “What impressed me most about Rick was not only his strength as a 2-goal player, but also his commitment to a standard of excellence for playing polo, whether it was organizing a tack room, training horses or preparing for a game.”

Michael S. Fawcett

A native of Pittsburgh, Pa., Michael Fawcett was born in 1944, the oldest of four children. He graduated from