INDUCTEES 2007

LIVING NOMINEE

WILLIAM SINCLAIRE

William “Bill” Sinclaire served as a mentor for many who thought that polo was a game worth playing and promoting. Bill was instrumental to reviving polo in the Rocky Mountain area after WWII by building a field and organizing local ranchers and horsemen into polo teams. His decades-long involvement with local clubs in the Denver, Colorado, area—along with his participation in high-goal polo—gave him a unique perspective of and for the needs of players and clubs across the United States. Serving as an executive of the USPA for fifteen years, his positions included  USPA governor (1969-1971), treasurer (1971-1973), vice president (1973-1976), president (1976-1980) and ultimately as chairman (1980-1984). He was known as a fair and unbiased administrator and dedicated to the well-being of the sport. Bill was a member of the winning USA team in the Camacho Cup series with Mexico in 1975, won the Butler Handicap in 1976 and won and competed in numerous other club and USPA tournaments. For his stewardship and  his loyal services to polo, he was awarded the 1989 USPA Hugo Dalmar Sportsmanship Award.

POSTHUMOUS NOMINEES

JOHN ELLIOTT COWDIN

A player with the famed Rockaway Club, John E. Cowdin achieved a 10-goal handicap in 1894. Cowdin played on the American team in the 1902 Westchester Cup series and was a winner of the first U.S. Open Championship in 1904 with the Wanderers. His other titles include the Association and Added Cups, the Governor’s Challenge Cup and the Senior Championship in 1896, 1899, 1902 and 1903. In 1890, when the U.S. Polo Association was first organized, he was an original committee member. Playing with and rated on a par with the likes of Foxhall Keene, he was regarded as a formidable “great” of his era. According to some, he and his Meadow Brook team so dominated and surpassed all other players and teams at that time that the handicap system, introduced in 1888, was said to have been found necessary and desirable largely on account of his and his team’s unrivaled superiority.

IGLEHART AWARD RECIPIENT

ALFRED FORTUGNO

Alfred “Fred” Fortugno's passionate participation in and enthusiastic contributions to the sport of polo have spanned four decades. For more than 30 years he has served as USPA Eastern Circuit governor and continues his stewardship of the game by serving on the USPA Nominating, Constitution and Executive Committees. Fred played in the 1977 U.S. Open Championship and won the Monty Waterbury Cup (1977), the 26-Goal Sunshine League (1972), 16-Goal (1972), the Delegate’s Cup, Bronze Cup, National Copper Cup (1977, 1980, 1990) as well as five Eastern Circuit 12-Goal titles and the Gerald Balding Tournament. Fred is well-known for his sportsmanship and encouragement, both here and abroad, through gestures such as mounting numerous international teams from overseas and lending horses to the players at Brandywine to keep polo going there after a tragic fire killed many ponies. In addition to raising three sons who are accomplished players, Fred is always ready with a kind word of encouragement, a steady horse or a sympathetic ear after a win or a loss. Generations of players credit Fred for starting, mentoring and sustaining their interest in polo.

HORSES TO REMEMBER

BONNIE J

Recalled by 10-goal Hall of Famer Cecil Smith as the best pony he ever owned, Bonnie J was a dun mare who at first, as a five-year-old ranch horse from Texas, was comfortable around cattle but with no interest at all in sticks, balls or learning how to play polo. But when she took the field with other horses, something clicked, and she became a legendary pony of the 1930’s.

When the Old Westbury team was gathering horses for the 1937 U.S. Open, Sonny Whitney made Smith an offer. “You can’t afford to keep that horse,” he said. “I’ll buy her and you can play her in the Open.” Later, after Old Westbury emerged victorious, Whitney gave the mare back to Smith.

Smith played Bonnie J in England in 1936 and 1938, where she was well known for her agility and speed. Referred to by the English press as the “uncommonly fast Bonnie J.. probably the best in the lot”, she was judged the best playing pony in London.

One of Bonnie J’s outstanding traits, her ability to stop in an instant and whirl around, resulted once in a broken collar bone for Cecil in Mexico in 1937, and ultimately in her own death, the result of a broken leg – “the biggest blow of the 1938 Open was the demise of Cecil’s cherished Bonnie J.”

BURRITO

Burrito was a handsome, “blindingly fast” dark bay/black thoroughbred gelding bred by John T. Oxley. Originally named Ike’s Chivo he was by Chivo out of Real Glory both bloodlines reaching back to racing greats. Started his first season in polo by the great Memo Gracida when he was six goals and playing for John Oxley, Burrito was then played by polo legends Gonzalo Pieres and Ernesto Trotz in the 1980’s, each crediting this remarkable horse with helping them rise to their 10-goal handicap and named as a him as a favorite. Considering all of the great ponies these two have played in countless tournament victories all over the world it is noteworthy that both singled out Burrito. Gonzalo Pieres put Burrito on an even plane with Levicu, another of our “Horses to Remember.” Ernesto Trotz played Burrito for three years, and once scored six goals from the field in a single chukker.

Memo Gracida, had this to say about Burrito in a 1986 interview “... You always like to believe your own ponies are the best, …but the horse I most respect belongs to somebody else… The horse is Burrito and he is still playing. I saw him develop into the complete polo machine, and he deserves full recognition as one of the top ten polo ponies in the world.” Gracida went on to say, “He always played two periods in all the finals matches and always played his best – outstandingly. That’s what makes Burrito such an extraordinary horse. What makes him so different is his fitness and stamina, in other words, his endurance. His speed is tremendous. I don’t think we’ll ever see a horse like that again on a polo ground or find another to emulate his performance.”

Oxley said when interviewed that he had stopped counting Burrito’s numerous Best Playing Pony awards, but did recall those won in the 1978 America Cup, 1978 Continental Cup, and the 1981 USPA Rolex Gold Cup (played by Hector “Juni” Crotto).

 One-time owner David Wigdahl who owned Burrito for a two years and later sold him back to Oxley, noted, “When the chips are down, there’s no better horse than Burrito, the ‘Secretariat of Polo’

Burrito played many successful seasons until he suffered a leg injury and was retired to pasture. He eventually died of colic. When the veterinarians performed an autopsy, they found the horse to have an unusually large heart, something that Pieres, Trotz, Gracida, Wigdahl and Oxley already knew.

INDUCTEES 2006

LIVING NOMINEE

ROBERT D. BEVERIDGE

Bob Beveridge played polo for 35 years and was the embodiment of the gentleman polo player. By the time he reached his 7-goal rating in 1967, he was considered one of the best amateur players in the game, maintaining that handicap for four years. Thereafter, he maintained a 6-goal rating for more than a decade. He has won numerous major tournaments, including the U.S. Open four times over a span of three decades, 1957, 1963, 1971 and 1973. He was always well-mounted, and one of his horses, Chips Royal, won the Hartman Trophy for the U.S. Open in 1973. His teams recorded titles in the 20-goal Silver Cup in 1954, 1960 and 1961; the Butler National Handicap in 1956, 1957 and 1977; the America Cup in 1966; the Chairman’s Cup in 1967 and 1968; and the Inter-Circuit in 1953, 1966 and 1968. Internationally, he played on the victorious U.S.A. teams for the Camacho Cup in both 1974 and 1975; played on the U.S.A. World 30-Goal team that played in Argentina in 1966; and won the Benson & Hedges tournament in South Africa in 1974. In addition, he was governor of the United States Polo Association’s Southwest Circuit and served for many years on numerous USPA committees, including as chairman of the Handicap Committee.

POSTHUMOUS NOMINEES

PAUL W. "BILL" BARRY

Paul Weldon Barry better known to his friends simply as “Bill”, was a true horseman, and for more than six decades generations of players from all over the country sought to be mounted on his exceptionally well-trained ponies. His superb mastery of the horse allowed Barry to maintain his 7-goal rating for five years, in 1948, 1949, 1955, 1956 and 1957. Over the years, he played in numerous polo tournaments. He was on the victorious U.S.A. team in the 1946 Camacho Cup, and he went on to capture the 1955 U.S. Open Championship, the 1954 Butler Handicap, the 1954 National 20-Goal (Silver Cup) and the National 12-Goal in 1957. Remembered as a true gentleman by those who knew him, he also influenced many aspiring polo players, to whom he was endearingly known as Uncle Bill.

RAYMOND R. GUEST

Raymond Guest played in the Golden Age of Polo, when the best players in the world were amateurs competing for honor, glory and a good bit of fun. He, along with his immortal brother, Winston Guest, competed and excelled in all of the major high-goal events in the pre-World War II era. A perennial all-star in both the arena and the outdoor versions of the sport, he first achieved an 8-goal outdoor handicap in 1933 playing for his Meadow Brook Polo Club. As part of the famed Templeton team, he won the U.S. Open in 1932 and 1934 and the Monty Waterbury in 1931 and 1934. His defensive skills were legendary, and he was accorded the honor of playing Back for the East team in the legendary 1933 East-West series.

IGLEHART NOMINEE

TONY COPPOLA

A by-the-bootstraps polo player and entrepreneur, Tony Coppola created a successful polo career and polo equipment and supply business. Introduced to polo as a young man by Joe Rizzo, he went on to compete in numerous outdoor and arena national, circuit and club events, eventually winning the 1983 Monty Waterbury. He managed several important polo clubs in his time, including the Burnt Mills, Gilbertsville and Saratoga clubs. For more than 30 years his business, The Tackeria, evolved from humble beginnings as a field-side tack trailer to one of the best-known international polo enterprises. Tony has been called the Voice of Polo for his colorful and insightful commentary as the announcer for many polo tournaments across the country. For nearly 40 years he has continued to be a true friend to polo by initiating and supporting many worthwhile charitable organizations.

HORSES TO REMEMBER

GAY BOY

Considered the greatest polo mount of his day, Gay Boy was an incredible athlete with remarkable speed who played in the 1924 International series and was most remembered for his sensational play in 5 chukkers of the 1927 International matches - 2 in the first match and 3 in the second by polo Hall of Famer Malcolm Stevenson who regarded him as “supreme among ponies”. His play, described as “an unequaled performance” by Newell Bent in his book American Polo, was crucial in that last match and his courage and dependability were a deciding factor in the US victory. He was later also played by Hall of Fame greats Robert Strawbridge,Jr. and Tommy Hitchcock, Jr. Gay Boy may have been an inappropriate name for this gallant Texas-bred cow-pony who had the reputation of being one of the quickest horses on the get-away, a pony that could turn on a dime and scoot away like a quarter-horse. In later years he was sold by Fred Post to Averell Harriman and as part of Harriman’s formidable Orange County team string, Gay Boy was described as an outstanding pony in a string of outstanding ponies. Gay Boy's curious and tragic death, crushed by a falling airplane as he stood in his stall at Meadow Brook in 1928, removed a great figure from the game.

LEVICU

Remembered as one of Peter Brant’s great mares in the 80’s, Levicu was bred by Hector Barrantes, and made her reputation first in Argentina, then as the star of the White Birch string in the U.S. The compact bay mare was cited by many great players such as Ernesto Trotz, Christian LaPrida, Benjamin Araya, Owen Rinehart, both Piereses, and Marcos and Eduardo Heguy. She played three chukkers in the finals of the Argentine Open, leading La Espadana to victory, and was then “the best horse in Florida for at least five years” according to Rinehart. Such dominance over a long period is perhaps the best measure of her greatness. Ridden by Gonzalo Pieres of the White Birch team, Levicu fought out an exhausting three chukkers for the team’s victory in the Piaget World Cup. Gonzalo Pieres said she had everything, including the proverbial big heart; she never gave up.