“It would be difficult to imagine a game in which players were at greater risk of accidents”laments an American journalist in 1912. Under his bulging eyes, eight athletes try to propel, using a mallet, a ball into the opposing goal. With a notable feature: the players are behind the wheel of a car and practice auto polo.
“At the whistle, the two cars rush at full speed towards the ball in the center of the field, while the audience holds their breathadded a reporter from the Canadian daily Saskatoon Phoenix in March 1913. Suddenly the ball emerges from the scrum, the cars swerve to chase it and the match begins.” The observations of journalists do not really allow us to measure popular excitement. Because car polo galvanized the American crowds at the beginning of the 20th centurye century, thousands of spectators going to the competitions which will soon take place at the prestigious Madison Square Garden in New York.
The golden age of the automobile
How to explain this craze? Firstly by the fact that the beginning of the 20th centurye century celebrates the triumph of the American automobile. Having become the world’s leading economic power, the United States recognizes the car as an instrument of personal development, a guarantee of freedom. Domestic prosperity allows everyone, from white-collar workers to workers, to afford the keys. In Detroit (Michigan), the heart of the automobile industry, Henry Ford’s company produced 1,000 Ford T cars per day in 1910 and ten times more in 1920. The figures are dizzying: from 500,000 vehicles in circulation in 1910, we rose to more than 17 million in 1925.
Not content to see mainstream models sell out like hotcakes, some daredevils are considering turning them into high-risk entertainment. An anecdote tells that it was to promote the Ford T that a dealership in Kansas set up the first auto polo team in the summer of 1912.
Very popular at fairs, this sport soon united the two American coasts, being emulated as far as Canada and Europe. “The popularity of auto polo is evidenced by the formation of amateur teams throughout the country and the creation of playing fields all over Long Island, where members of the upper classes come together to play the newest and most popular sport”said in August 1913 the Canadian daily The Evening Record, based in Windsor (Ontario), a city bordering Detroit.
What are the rules? Essentially the same as horseback polo, but on narrower terrain and with a mechanic as a veterinarian. With an area equivalent to half a football field, the scene of the competitions could be an airfield, an indoor arena or a simple alfalfa field. As for the cars, occupied by two players (one behind the wheel, the other waving the mallet), they are generally Ford T models as light as possible, from which the roof, doors and windshield have been removed.
An accident-prone sport
Stripped in this way, these skeletal cars gain in speed what they sacrifice in safety. “The little machines drove at full speed in a completely carefree mood and one of them even satisfied the public’s appetite for breathtaking performances by rolling over several times and catching firereported an Iowa newspaper in August 1914. The driver and player were ejected from the machine and were not injured.”
Not everyone is so lucky. One of the stated objectives of the game – and for which spectators come in droves – consists of hitting opposing vehicles at speeds exceeding 60 km/h in order to eject the occupants. “The main attraction of this sport has always been accidents and not near-collisions”recognizes a witness.
“The most spectacular sport ever invented and popularized throughout the country.”
And too bad if we have to deplore numerous cracks, fractures and crushings which prematurely end the career of a self-poloist. “This rough and tumultuous discipline, which provides so much thrill to the public, very often leads to serious accidents for players and pilots, going as far as broken arms and legs and, in rare cases, almost causing the death of one of them”described a Southeast Missourian correspondent, in September 1922.
Despite the voyeuristic and unhealthy appeal of “the most spectacular sport ever invented and popularized throughout the country” (as praised by The Evening Record in 1913), the automobile version of the polo shirt will not make old axles. The damage caused to cars, combined with the dangers faced by its practitioners – which insurance policies cannot cover – contribute to deflating popular enthusiasm. After the First World War, its golden age was over: only a few rare mentions kept this sport going in the first half of the 20th century.e century, where nostalgic daredevils continue to practice it.
The culture of automobile adrenaline, however, continued to flourish in America in the 1950s, with both wild and official racing being received with ever-increasing enthusiasm. Also increasing will be the number of fatal accidents, favored by very lenient legislation, associated with the belief that road casualties are “inevitable”. “This is part of the price to pay for this new era which, whether it is worth it or not, is definitely here to stay”prophesied an observer as early as 1926. Coincidence? According to figures from the World Health Organization (WHO), the United States is still today the Western country with the most fatal road accidents, with nearly 14 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants.
