Charles Cary Rumsey

An avid sportsman and equestrian, Charles Cary Rumsey played polo in the earliest days of the game in America, reaching a level of 8-goals in 1917. Although his polo accomplishments were many in his short career, he was the unfortunate victim of a fatal automobile accident in 1922.

Rumsey began play in Buffalo with his father, uncles and a family friend named Devereux Milburn. As a student at Harvard, he played at Dedham and later at Meadow Brook. Rumsey’s polo accomplishments include three U.S. Open Championships, back-to-back wins in 1912 and 1913 and another in 1916, and runner-up finishes in 1919 and 1920. As a member of the famed Cooperstown team, he swept all the major tournaments in America, including the Senior Championship in 1913 and 1919; and the Junior Championship in 1912 & 1913. In 1921 he was selected as one of six members of the U.S. team for the Westchester Cup matches against England.

Rumsey achieved fame not only in polo but also in art, as a sculptor who worked mainly in bronze. He had a particularly keen focus on horses and polo, and did statues of favorite horses for Harry Payne Whitney and Tommy Hitchcock, and a medallion for the National Polo Pony Society in 1919.