THE SILENT SEASON

Traditions unavoidably altered, Myopia Polo endures

by Brion O’Connor

PHOTOGRAPHS BY JACQUELINE MILLER

There are benevolent ghosts that float along the soft breezes that whisper through the stately evergreens and across the great expanse of Myopia Hunt & Polo Club’s historic Gibney Field. That’s not surprising, given that the sport of polo in Hamilton dates back more than a century, starting with an exhibition match in 1888.

Throughout town, you’ll find sepia-toned images of General George Patton, who settled in Hamilton in 1928, playing the game. But Patton, while the most famous of Myopia’s historically significant figures, is only one member of an enormous cast of characters that collectively define the club. Take, for instance, James H. Proctor. Historian Joseph E. Garland, in his book “The North Shore,” wrote that polo in the early years, was “crashing, bashing madness on horseback.” For proof, Garland revealed that Proctor “proudly displayed in his home a mallet with his two front teeth embedded in it.”

As Patton and Proctor illustrate, the rough-and-tumble game was an immediate sensation, hugely popular among players and spectators alike.

Last summer, however, the sidelines along the edges of Gibney Field sadly looked more like a ghost town, abandoned due to a sweeping pandemic that brought many athletic events from coast to coast to a sudden halt. The polo matches — including the high-level tournaments that Myopia is best known for — were played, but the atmosphere was irrevocably changed.

The crowds, considered by many polo players an essential part of the sport, were nowhere to be found. The result, for Myopia players, was a silent season.

“Tradition defines polo,” says David Strouss of Ipswich, a member of Myopia Polo for more than a quarter century, and currently the Club’s captain of polo. “Gibney Field is arguably the oldest playing field in polo in the United States today, and Myopia is one of the oldest clubs. Crowds have always been part of the tradition here, and without them, there was a true emptiness.”

Even in a sports-mad country like the United States, it’s still difficult to imagine any athletic event that can match the excitement and sheer pageantry of a polo match. From the first matches played at Gibney Field, crowds have made the trek to Hamilton to watch the ponies run.

According to a Boston Globe article, the 1888 match was a social success, as “200 people came from Nahant, Swampscott and along the North Shore, in private carriages ... and the Salem brass band discoursed music on the lawn from 5 to 6 p.m.” With polo fairly new at the club, several members were less than impressed with the quality of competition. Longtime Myopia member Crocker Snow Jr., in Edward Week’s 1975 tome “Myopia: A Centennial Chronicle,” wrote that club wit Jack Wheelwright quipped he “saw several contests that afternoon, but thought the best playing was done by the band.”

Shortly after the turn of the previous century, however, Myopia was hosting worldclass polo. Snow wrote that Myopia teams — including the Freebooters and the Gulls — competed against squads from Dedham and The Country Club, among others. In 1907, Harvard faced off against Yale at Myopia in the nation’s first collegiate polo match. The Club, and the game, did suffer setbacks during the Great Depression, when local ponies “were turned out to pasture where they grew fat and happy,” and World War II, when Gibney Field “went uncut as it gradually turned from good turf to fallow hay,” wrote Snow.

In between those two monumental events, Myopia polo enjoyed a renaissance, with the club’s top team winning the inaugural Forbes Cup, signifying the New England Championship. And fun-loving spectators always gathered when the ponies were running.

“The crowd is an essential part of the polo experience,” says Jennifer Williams of Hamilton, a member of Myopia Polo Club for three years and coach for Myopia Interscholastic Polo. “I enjoy talking to spectators who have never seen the sport and answering their questions, telling them my favorite parts of the sport, and letting them know that virtually anyone can play polo.

“In particular, I love seeing children having fun on the vast fields and playing with their friends.”

Eighty years after Wheelwright’s humorous critique of the 1888 match, Hollywood director Norman Jewison came calling,

tabbing Myopia for his famed polo scenes for the 1968 classic, “The Thomas Crown Affair.” The moments featuring dreamboat Steve McQueen actually playing the game may have been some of the finest in the movie. But it was Faye Dunaway, stunning in her widebrimmed hat, sitting atop her exceedingly rare burgundy convertible Ferrari 275 GTB/4 Spyder, movie camera in hand, recording images of the action, who threatened to steal their scenes together.

That kind of casual opulence has, in many ways, come to represent Sundays at Gibney Field. Today, Myopia offers world-class polo that rivals the game’s top-flight festive feel. Granted, the matches don’t draw enormous numbers like the Kentucky Derby, but the spectators who do attend the Sunday games don’t take a backseat to anyone in the tailgating department.

“If you are going to go, go big,” says photographer Don Toothaker, who typically brings his photography students to the grounds every summer. “Do it up in grand style. Be part of the culture for the day. Drive your car in, pack some chairs and a table, bring lots of food and beverages, and commit yourself to having a great day.

“Each time I go to Myopia, I see more and learn more about the sport, as well as the atmosphere and culture that surrounds it,” says Toothaker. “The atmosphere is charged with the excitement of a fast-paced sport as well as a fantastic family social event.”

Dr. Bryan Parrott, a veterinarian, polo player and seasonal Myopia polo member, says the matches and the crowds reflect the timelessness of the game and often speak to a bygone era.

“The Myopia polo matches are a reflection of the Great Gatsby years,” says Parrott, adding that he’s attended hundreds of matches over the past two decades. “The games are beautiful to watch.”

In the 50-plus years since “The Thomas Crown Affair,” Myopia crowds have raised spectating and celebrating to art forms, seamlessly blending a lighthearted, high-society vibe with spectacular competition. It’s not unusual to find rows of vehicles lining the field, separated by teeming onlookers sporting their Sunday best attire and impressive table settings with fancy linens, fine china, crystal glassware and the occasional candelabra, featuring sumptuous spreads of food and libations.

“Tradition is a huge part of the sport, not just for players but for the crowd too,” says Terri Campbell of Hamilton, a member of Myopia Polo since 2013. “Doesn’t everyone remember Julia Roberts stomping divots in ‘Pretty Woman?’ The effort and style that goes into a proper tailgate is a big part of the tradition.

“It’s great when we have a big crowd for a game,” says Campbell. “One of the most fun things about polo is the social aspect of the sport. Everyone can be involved and enjoy this great sport, even from the sidelines.” Unless, of course, you’re dealing with a potentially deadly virus. For every player, it was jarring when the pandemic brought those Sunday festivities to an abrupt end. Even though the matches were played outside, recommended social distancing measures prevented the type of gatherings that characterize Sunday matches at Myopia.

“I absolutely love playing in front of crowds,” says 18-year-old James Grayken of London, England, who has played at Myopia for the past two years. “Crowds energize the game, and make it so much more intense. I missed them greatly last summer.”

Grayken was not alone. While every player was grateful for the chance to saddle up and compete, they all acknowledged that not having spectators had an impact.

“Polo is always fun to play, with or without a crowd, but it is more fun with a crowd,” says Campbell. “Because we still held competitive tournaments, everyone still was excited to get on the field, but it’s a disappointment not to be able to share a big win.”

That said, the players universally agreed that polo is such an intense game that, during the action itself, the absence of the crowd was hardly noticeable.

“It was strange to play without crowds last summer. However, polo is polo,” says Grayken. “You’re either 100% in the game, or you’re out of the game. It requires so much concentration that you often don’t notice the crowds. You could be playing in front of three or 3,000 people, and the intensity of the game would stay the same.”

Likewise, Strouss says: “To me there’s not much difference once the game started. It’s all business.”

“We’re playing to win. And it’s super, super competitive,” he says. “Once you’re playing, you’ve got tunnel vision. I’ve got a job out there, just like every player. The level of polo was pretty comparable to seasons past, the only difference being there wasn’t a crowd. It wasn’t like the match was played at an easier pace, or it was a little more cordial out there.”

Still, the crowd, says Strouss, is “very important overall to the sport and its success. I do think the presence of the crowd adds to the pressure to play well.”

That pressure inspires the participants to raise their level of play, which is one of the many reasons that the matches at Myopia are considered among the best anywhere.

“The honest truth is, when you’re playing in front of crowds, you tend to want to play

your best,” says Strouss, adding with a laugh, “It’s like any sport. When you have people watching, you don’t want to make a fool of yourself.” Even the ponies take notice. “The horses pick up on (the crowd). They’re energized,” says Strouss. “It’s not like they’re out of control or anything, but I can feel the energy in the horse. They are looking all around, their ears are up, there’s just a lot more activity. I think horses always feel what’s in the players legs. And in a big game, the player radiates nervous excitement to the horse as well.”

Strouss’s comments reinforce that the ponies, as well as the players, are athletes, and every athlete reacts to external stimulus. Williams says “horses are very curious about the crowd. I have two that thrive on cheering, and I swear they go faster when people scream for them.”

That’s a common refrain among Myopia Polo members.

“The horses can definitely feel the energy of the crowd before a game,” says Campbell. “They get visibly excited and often prance to the field.

“Not all horses can be a polo pony, and the ones that you see playing on Sunday definitely like the game,” she says. “You can’t force a horse to play if they don’t want to.”

There’s also a practical, and crucial, role that the crowd plays during a polo match. The half-time tradition of spectators “replacing the divots” keeps the field in optimal playing condition.

“I love seeing people out on the field having fun,” says Williams. “As a player, I cannot emphasize enough how much it helps when spectators put the field back together at half time. This is a critical part of the game event, for players and spectators.

“I always thank people for helping with the field,” she says. “Just walking on it helps. Ladies’ wedge heels are the best for field maintenance.”

As immaculate as the fields are at the start of each match, the hooves of eight galloping ponies can do serious damage to the turf during the first three 7.5-minute chukkas. By participating in packing down dozens and dozens of divots, crowd members allow players to concentrate on the match itself.

“Not having spectators replace divots at half time has a real impact on the game in the second half,” says Strouss. “As a player trying to catch my breath, check horses out and meet with teammates, I really don’t notice the activities on the field at half time.”

Campbell agreed, saying “half time is the time when each team meets to plan for the next half of the game. The players usually don’t go on the field during divots because they’re either trying to figure out how to keep their first half lead, or trying to figure out how to get the lead and win the game.”

Post-game rituals, including the trophy presentations, also felt a bit more subdued without fans participating. Polo has an intimacy rarely seen at the highest levels of sports, where fans and players (and ponies) can actually mingle after the final horn is sounded. Just imagine, being able to wander down to the field at Fenway Park to hob-nob with your favorite Red Sox players following a game.

“It’s always fun to meet the spectators after the game when trophies are handed out,” says Campbell. “It isn’t the same without the crowd there. We all love the sport so much that we genuinely want to see others enjoying it too — even if they enjoy it on the sidelines and the social time afterward.”

If there was a silver lining to the loss of the spectators, it was that the players were reminded of what an integral part of the game the crowd is.

“Playing without a crowd does give me a much renewed appreciation for the fans,” says Strouss. “Fans would often visit the trailers and horses before a game and during half time, admiring the horses and taking pictures. “The fans who attend polo at Myopia love the setting, watching a great sport only a few feet away and tailgating with friends and family,” he says. “The silent season was also a true loss for the polo crowd.”

Williams, who runs Blue Pegasus Polo Academy, pointed out that spectating can lead to actually taking up the game, which helps nurture the sport.

“The crowd is where the sport can draw new players, bringing them over the sideboards and into the saddle,” she says. “There are easy ways to get into polo if you have the time and the will.”

For many, the return of crowds to Myopia will be a welcomed harbinger of a return to normalcy for society in general.

“Since the major games and events are often on Sundays, for me, it is my ‘church,’” says Williams. “This is where I gather to fill my soul and congregate with fellow outdoor loving, thrill-seeking, social individuals.

“My favorite type of event to play in is a charity match, which tends to attract large crowds,” she says. “Using the sport and its tradition to raise funds for great causes is a wonderful way to bring a variety of different people together for a common cause.”

For now, though, the players will be grateful to simply have the spectators back on the sidelines.

“I hope that everyone gets through this COVID period safely and healthy and that widespread vaccinations occur well before summer,” says Campbell. “Polo is important to me, and I’m looking forward to getting back to normal soon, but mostly I want all of us to get through this pandemic as quickly as possible.

“Since so many sports were faced with limited crowds, or virtual-only crowds, I think all sportsmen and sportswomen are thrilled to have crowds back soon,” she says. “We love our sport and want to share it. It’s exciting to see when others get to experience the thrill of the ‘Sport of Kings’ too.”