Y E S T E RY E A R S
Great indoors Popularity of arena polo surges in 1930
Squadron A Armory in Manhattan offered plenty of space for spectators. Games were held on Saturday nights.
Indoor polo enjoys a unique place in American sport. Historically, it is the oldest form of the galloping game in the United States. Practically, indoor polo is a game of such obvious advantages for the lover of polo that it is small wonder it has grown with such tremendous leaps and bounds. Every student of sport knows that polo was first played indoors in this country. The game was brought here from England by the late James Gordon Bennett, sportsman and publisher par excellence, who introduced the game early in 1876 at Dickels Riding Academy, which once stood at Fifth Avenue and 38th Street, now the site of towering skyscrapers.
62 POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N
Indoor polo, then, is by no means a new game, though it is true that its widespread popularity is rather recent. And yet, it was inevitable that a game so keen, so readily available even for city dwellers, so comparatively inexpensive, so thrilling alike for players and spectators could not long remain in the background. Indoor polo has many advantages all its own. It is a game that captures enthusiasms and holds them enthralled. It is a game that will ever hold a high place in the heart of a sport-loving nation. How competent it is as polo many be gathered from the fact that half of the International team that played against England at Meadow Brook in 1930 was
