Will Rogers

There may have been no better spokesman for the sport of polo than Will Rogers. Well-known and highly regarded as a colorful and witty personality, humorist, writer and actor, Rogers was also a good polo player, reaching a handicap of 5-goals during what he described as the “hay day” of polo in the 1930s.

He was a consummate cowboy and championed the cause of polo in the West and introduced many movie stars to the sport. He played with many of the top Western players and identified with the “underdogs” style of polo, comparing the Western ways of cowboy polo to the things he learned growing up throwing a rope in Oklahoma. He played all over the world and helped establish and finance interscholastic and intercollegiate polo programs. He coined many famous phrases that have endured; one originated from the 1933 East-West series of polo matches: “Well, the hillbillies beat the dudes and took the polo championships of the world right out of the drawing room and into the bunkhouse.” Rogers met an untimely death in 1935 when he was killed while flying with celebrated aviator Wiley Post in Alaska.