TICK,TICK,TICK GOES THE CLOCK NO MORE
By Steve Crowder
We are sad to say tick went down as Tom Oxley (TO), one of the most popular and probably best known people of Polo died from a brain tumor today, Dec. 17th, ‘09. Tick, Tick was one of the many things T.O. would say as he announced a polo game to keep everyone up on it and loved to predict overtime. Tom Oxley was all Polo from the days of Memorial Park, Southern Hills Oxley Farm in Tulsa, OK when he was a very young lad. He was a dashing, danger-loving golden polo boy at 6 goals at a very young age and going nowhere but up. Luck was not on his side as he had a big accident in South Florida in a match suffered a very severe concussion and was in a coma for months. Tom survived despite all signs this could not happen and with a monstrous effort he had to learn to walk, talk and eat again, but he did it with some fantastic support from family and many friends.
Tom tried to play polo again, but just never really got his balance back. Like a trooper, he decided to go forward and forget about the past and he did it well. It was here Tom excelled in Polo. He started managing Boca Polo and turned it into the High-Goal Capital of the World for the decade of 1970’s and well into the 80’s. He could be responsible for saving high-goal Polo in America when things were economically bad as they are again now. He also became an announcer where he was undoubtedly the voice of polo for over 25 years.
Tom was always fun for the crowd and always came up with some gift of gab no matter how bad the game was. He made the game fun. On Sundays Tom was always glowing and won the respect of thousands of Polo fans. Tom was probably the only person on this planet who would argue with his Father and never get in too much trouble for doing so because he won sometimes. His father was MR. J.T.O. or John T Oxley. The boss of Polo in many ways throughout the 60’s 70’s and a competitor until he was in his 80’s.
Tom was the voice of the first 80-goal game, of the US Open and numerous Sunshine League games throughout the years. He believed in making polo fun and he loved the fans and they loved him. He was the Mayor of the Mai Kai, a famous south Florida Restaurant, where the noble often dined. Tom was also a Man who dealt with his situation if he could not play polo he could play the market and was a huge winner at this as well.
We wish his Family the best in these sad times and know he is still ticking and predicting overtime where ever he maybe. A lot of thanks to the many days of fun he created at Sunday Polo at Royal Palm Polo. He will go down in History as a POLO MAN who had the Tick, Tick down.
See ya.
Steve Crowder