MICHAEL BUTLER A Passion for Polo

By Zia Wesley

MMichael Butler was born in 1926, the son of Paul Butler and grandson of Frank Osgood Butler, the founders of the American polo empire Oak Brook Polo. Michael grew up on Oak Brook Farm, the family’s property north of Hinsdale, Illinois. In those years it was the largest piece of privately owned land in the county, occupying 5,000 acres with sixteen separate farms, the popular Natoma Dairy, and several polo fields.

Frank Osgood owned Butler Paper, as well as large cattle and horse ranches in the Dakotas and Montana, where he indulged his passion for breeding fine livestock, breeding beef cattle, and remounts for the United States Cavalry. Frank initially began playing polo with his cowboys on a polo field he built in the center of his racetrack in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and it was there that Paul was introduced to the sport which would dominate the family’s lives for seven decades. The lives of Michael's grandfather, his father, Michael’s sister Jorie and ultimately their respective children Adam and Reute who were both accomplished players for many years were all greatly influenced by the world of polo. " All the talk around the dinner table centered on polo and ponies and everyone, including me, assumed that I would follow in their footsteps," Michael once said. That changed when Michael was seven years old. His pony bolted into the barn through a partially closed door that irreparably shattered his right arm. Blood poisoning from rusty nails began coursing through his veins and the local hospital wanted to amputate.

Michael' s dad intervened, and the doctors created a system of small macaroni-shaped objects in order to drain the poison. After several months of enforced stillness, the arm healed in a permanently bent position with limited movement from the shoulder only. This was a handicap that would initially prevent him playing polo. Instead, Michael took up show jumping and fox hunting, and in 1947, with sister Jorie’s support, designed an innovative hunter-jumper course at Oak Brook for the Olympic Hunter Trials that would later be adopted for the Olympic Games.

Ten years later, while walking through the stable in the polo wing of their barn, Paul turned to his son and said, "[Maharaj] Prem Singh is not coming this summer, so why don't you take his ponies and play? Cecil and Jackie can help you figure it out." Texan Cecil Smith, polo’s most legendary player and Paul’s pro, was the highest rated player in the country at 10 goals, a ranking he held for 25 years, a record that is still unmatched. He taught Michael how to compensate for his inability to swing a mallet "the normal way." He and Jackie Murphy, who also played for Paul, helped him find his stroke to become a one-goal player. Michael explained, "They wanted me to increase my handicap from one to two, but I felt more valuable at one because most tournaments are based on two to forty-goal handicaps. A lot of players want a higher handicap for their egos, but at one goal, we could enter more tournaments- and I just wanted to play more.

Once Michael began playing, he says, "It became what I wanted most in the world. Nothing else in my life would ever be as exciting, challenging, or fulfilling as polo. It's a very dangerous sport, and I've seen three people killed on the field. I have also seen dozens, maybe hundreds, of accidents and had quite a few myself. But the game is so demanding and exciting that it overcomes all of that. Also, it' s a kind of theater because you are playing and performing in front of an audience, and that appealed to the ' producer' aspect of my life."

Being a player in the world of polo opens doors to extraordinary people all over the world, and polo people enjoy hanging out together. The "common ground" of polo immediately allows people to feel comfortable about certain aspects of a person. These relationships led to Cecil Smith being named as godfather to Michael’s son Adam. Players are highly skilled athletes who take the sport seriously and regardless of political or religious preferences, may usually be relied upon as ethical when it comes to the game. Michael thought cheating does not exist in polo, and he believed this carried over into all aspects of a polo player's life. Michael reminisces, "You can go to a strange city and walk into a polo club and be welcomed instantly. It's also the sport of kings, generals, industrialists, great sportsmen - and cowboys like Cecil Smith, who came from nothing and rose to great prominence. It is truly a sport that levels the playing field."

Polo was the most dominant aspect of Michael's life, and the schedule always took the highest priority. Even when he began producing Hair, polo dominated his time. "I think most of the Hair people understood that from day one during production in California and Chicago, I was able to blend the two quite often by bringing Hair people to matches. I even had an authentic teepee erected on the field at the Santa Barbara Polo Club for our private use." This typifies the way Michael blended his two worlds of polo and theater despite their inherent differences.

He notes, "Polo was a gentleman's game, while Broadway is not. The game demands total discipline and control - it' s not a question of greed or going after money, while Broadway is all about dollars-although I admit to a certain amount of greed for the sterling silver trophies that are commonly referred to as polo 'silver' and I have a lot."

"There are people who play with fewer, but I usually had about thirty-six horses that served the whole team. In those days, the Butlers bred horses on our ranches in Montana and purchased them in Argentina at about $1,000 to $15,000 dollars a head. Now that number is in six figures-and that is just the cost of buying the horse; then it has to be housed, fed, trained, and kept healthy. Today that cost alone can run into the millions."

"The social aspects of the polo world were always important. The spectators or ' audience' consisted of prominent individuals in that part of the world, so players mingled with important, influential people. A respectable number of my business dealings stemmed from the high-end networking in that world. Almost all the original financing for Hair came from friends in the polo world, and many made a handsome profit.

"I loved playing polo in England where the Royal Family all play and/or attend matches, and have always regretted selling Warfield Hall, my English estate, because it was a ten-minute drive to Windsor Castle and the Guard's Polo Club. There is something old world and gentlemanly, an elegance perhaps, about the way players conduct themselves both on and off the field in England. Perhaps because of the Royal Family' s involvement and presence, but also going back to the way the British conduct themselves, their innate civility, sportsmanship, and sense of humor."

The Oak Brook Polo Club hosted the U.S. Open Polo Championship, the most prominent polo tournament in the U.S. twenty-two times from 1954 to 1978. Paul Butler's team won six of those championships. Michael's team won three Butler Handicaps. In 1971, his team, consisting of Ronnie

"Little Cowboy" Tongg, Heath Manning, Billy Linfoot, and himself, flew to England to win the Coronation Cup, an event he had reinstated. It became the biggest polo event in England. In 1973, Michael's team consisting of Fred and Mike Dailey and Stuart Mackenzie, won the coveted Gold Cup in Ireland's version of the Open, The Freebooter's Tournament. In 1986 he inaugurated the International Cup at Oak Brook by hosting the British team captained by H.R.H., The Prince of Wales, Prince Charles. Michael passed away on November 7, 2022 in California. He was a frequent spectator at the Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club and enjoyed a beautiful day at the club in late August 2022 with his son. He was often accompanied by his fellow polo enthusiasts Dr. Madison Richardson and Ms. Stefanie Powers. His last visit to the Oak Brook Polo Club was in 2019 for the Friends of Conservation and the international match with Mexico. Michael was disappointed that his health kept him away from attending the 100th Anniversary of the club, but he was most certainly there in spirit and requested a play by play from Adam upon his return from the centennial celebration.

Mariani Landscape is thrilled to partner with Oak Brook Polo Club as an Official Sponsor for the 2023 season. Two organizations that actually have a very similar mission —bringing friends and family together to make memories and enjoy time outdoors. Here’s to a great season on the pitch.

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS | CRAFTSMEN | CARETAKERS www.marianilandscape.com

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