Newport vs. US Military Polo Team
The Newport Polo Club Hosts Third Annual Special Exhibition Match on
Independence Day.
On July 4, Independence Day, The Newport Polo Club will host the visiting US
Military Polo Team for a friendly exhibition match at 4pm on the polo
grounds of Glen Farm in Portsmouth (home of the Newport Polo Club). U.S.
military personnel will be traveling from Colorado, Virginia and New York to
join local Newport Navy members, in this third annual game.
Admission will be free for this special match. For more information about
attending this match and the NPC directions, schedule, including
weather-related concerns, and season passes, call the Info Line at
401-846-0200 or visit www.glenfarm.com.
History of US Military Polo Association
The game of polo has been a military sporting tradition throughout all 2000
years of the sport’s history. After polo’s introduction in the US in 1876,
the US Military Polo Association became one of the largest groups playing
the sport in the country, and by WWII each military service had its own polo
team. Some notable players of the era were George Patton, Chesty Puller,
William Westmorland, and George Brown.
WW II interrupted the course of polo history globally, causing an abrupt
dearth in military sponsorship, taking the lives of many leading players as
causalities of war, and revolutionizing military technology, rendering the
use of cavalry obsolete. As a result, US Military Polo clubs faded to near
extinction. While dormant in the US, military polo was, and still is,
actively supported by the armed forces of Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador,
El Salvador, India, Pakistan, Greece, Nigeria, New Zealand, Great Britain,
Mexico, Brunei and others.
In 1992 the US Military Polo Association re-emerged in response to an
invitation from the Prime Minister of India to send a team to compete in
India. From then until 2001, the US Military Polo team participated in
matches in France, England, Chile, Greece, India, Germany, Brazil, Argentina
and in the Newport International Polo Series, and the USMPA played host to
visiting teams from India, Chile, Britain and Brazil.
After the terrorist attack of 9/11, US Military Polo fell dormant once
again, as most of the players were assigned to active duty overseas.
However, in August of 2005, the USMPA was brought to life again to raise a
team for a match against the Newport Polo Club in Newport. From that time
on, the USMPA has grown in membership and has played on the international
stage in a tournament in Nigeria last year, and again in Newport last
summer.
Historically the home of the USMPA had been at Ft. Bliss in El Paso Texas.
Ft. Bliss at one point had been the home of numerous polo fields, now all
converted to parade grounds. Since its re-emergence in 2005, the USMPA has
focused it efforts in Newport, in conjunction with the Naval War College
Polo Club. In recognition that Newport has become the new center of gravity
for military polo, this spring the USMPA officially moved its headquarters
to Newport.
Capt Steve Kornatz, USN, (a member of the US Military Polo and President of
the Naval War College Polo Club) explains, “With the generous support of Dan Keating and the Newport Polo Club, we’re keeping the military polo tradition alive here in Newport.”
The USMPA is open to active duty, reserve, fleet reserve and retired
military personnel, irrespective of service and rank or sex. For those
interested, please contact Steve Smith (CDR, USN, Ret) at 401-841-1242, or
visit the U.S. Military Polo club website at www.milpolo.org
.