Crimson Sports

As the song says, a polo player without a pony is like a ship without a sail. The recently reactivated Crimson polo team, which has just completed a six-game first postwar season, is probably the only aggregation of its kind ever to do the job under borrowed canvas.

The seven-man, no-horse squad, reorganized last fall to revive the sport of kings at Harvard, was forced to arrange an all-away schedule, with opponents who were willing to supply nags on both sides of the table. Mainly as a result of the difficulty in establishing a temporary rapport during game-time with shy, suspicious horses loaned by their antagonists, and of their grounded condition at all other times, the Crimson riders dropped five of their six contests, winning only from Yale's second string.

Despite this pedestrian record, however, members of the team point to the fact that they showed continual improvement as the season progressed, and view the future with unbridled hopes--provided they can obtain a string of Dobbins and some place to practice stickwork.

According to Sandy Calhoun, who held a respectable one-goal handicap from the American Polo Association before the war as a result of his play at Manila, these practice facilities are all that Harvard needs to regain its former prominent position among Eastern college polo teams.

Calhoun points out that, without exception, his fellow pony-pushers have had previous experience on the polo fields. Besides his own Manila participation, which was shared in a lesser degree by his younger brother Tom, team members have played in the Argentine and on squads in New York, Cleveland, and Arizona.

"With all this game-time behind us, we should have no trouble developing a first class team if we can arrange for a practice cage of some sort and get the use of some nearby ponies--possibly from one of the local riding clubs.

"We'd like to see some of the prewar Massachusetts polo clubs revive," Calhoun says, "But they all seem to be waiting for the others to take the first step."

No Financing

Manager Bob Bennett will submit a report of the year's efforts to the H.A.A. before the end of the term in an attempt to secure reinstatement for polo as a minor sport next year. The H.A.A. would then arrange a schedule and include the mounties on its list of official College athletic events, but would not back them financially.

This year's season included three matches with Norwich, two with Yale (varsity and second string), and a final gallop against Williams, played early this month, which the Crimson visitors lost by a fetlock in the last chukker, 9-7.

Argentine Experience

Besides the Calhoun brothers and manager Bob Bennett, the anthropoid half of the polo team involves Emil Van Peborgh--who earned his spurs on Argentine fields--Amory Houghton, Dusty Howland, Stu Bennett, and Tim White. Van Peborgh, captain Calhoun, and Howland comprise the usual starting three. All of the present squad will be back next year, booted and spurred.

If they achieve their goals of H.A.A. recognition and equine assistance, the Crimson players should return to a full schedule. Yale, Williams, Cornell, Georgetown, Norwich, and the University of Miami have already organized teams, and plans are astride in several other Eastern colleges for a polo renascence.