Myopia
through the years MEMBER ENTHUSIASM KEEPS THE COUNTRY’S OLDEST POLO CLUB THRIVING The oldest continually active polo club in the country, Myopia can trace its roots back to the 1800s — when the sport was first introduced to the United States. As polo traveled up the coast from New York in 1887, Randolph M. “Bud” Appleton, who played on the Harvard Polo Team, encouraged a few enthusiasts to knock a ball around at Gibney Field. The following summer, more than 200 people traveled by carriage to watch players scrimmage and to listen to a performance by the Salem Cadet Band. Although a witness to that event declared that “the best playing was done by the band,” Myopia was emboldened by its popularity and issued a challenge to the Dedham Country and Polo Club, igniting an intense rivalry that was to last almost 50 years. “There have been so many great things about Myopia,” former Captain of Polo Lyle Graham says about the venerable club.
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“You’re looking at a history which has this blend of British aristocracy, ordered military and the can-do attitude of Americans. That’s compelling. That’s what Myopia was and is today.” While enthusiastic spectators arrive on Sundays in SUVs instead of horse-drawn carriages, not much else has changed at Gibney Field, where players have been swinging mallets since 1887.
1887-1930: polo grips north shore elite In 1890, when the United States Polo Association formed, Myopia joined as a charter member. Five years later, the young team from Hamilton competed in the Senior Championship, the equivalent of the National Open today, and managed to take the top prize. Ties to the Harvard Polo Team, which are strong to this day, grew in 1907, when the team started practicing at Gibney Field; it was there that it defeated Yale during the country’s first formal college game. Pictures from those early days showed the sidelines crowded with carriages and parasols. When automobiles first appeared on the scene, they were segregated to one corner, so as not to scare the horses.
1930-1958: the lean years Cars soon became an accepted fixture on the sidelines, but the Great Depression and World War II brought growth of
