Photos created and designed by Marc Viquez, Stadium Journey
It’s a cold winter’s night, with lines full of cacophony from the fans, and the action on the floor is palpable. Cheers echo off the wooded seats and bounce off the steel beams, and chants of a score are equal to the roar of a victory. However, the squeak of the sneaker is repelled by the grind of the roller skate. The game is roller polo, and it was the first love in the state before basketball.
Indiana was gripped with “polo fever” in 1903. The sport blossomed like a tulip and attracted the attention of entrepreneurs looking to capitalize on the sport. They built beautiful palaces, attracted top talent, and created a movement that filled the newspapers from Indianapolis to Fort Wayne to Terre Haute.
Once the sport reached its peak, it swiftly fell from grace. What led to its rapid decline and eventual obscurity within a single generation? Maybe the old newspaper articles hold the story of a sport that seemed destined for greatness, if only for a brief time.
Roller Polo is hockey on roller skates for today’s audience. However, there were differences. There were five players: two rushers, one halfback, one center, and a goalkeeper. They played on a wooden regulation rink of 80 feet by 40 feet with curved wooden sticks, shinguards, and a goalpost. Each game would be split into three 15-minute periods.
The sport was first introduced in the United States from England in the early 1880s and received a second wave of popularity in Indiana in the late 1890s, thanks to M.C. Henley and a few others in Richmond. They formed a polo team, and soon, other cities began holding exhibitions of the new sport.
In 1901, the Western League was formed and operated with three clubs. Around the same time, polo leagues back East were not as popular, and local polo magnates decided to entice them to Indiana with high salaries. Soon, the Western League became a professional entity for its second season, with the best players earning double $50 a week. One of these players, Frank Woedtke, was paid $110 to play for Anderson.
The quick success of the sport attracted entrepreneurs who suddenly became polo magnates. They formed the six-team Central Polo League for 1903-04. These men built or converted existing buildings into polo rinks to house their new investments. There would be 12 teams, from Terre Haute to Richmond and Fort Wayne to Logansport, to satisfy the masses.
Several new polo rinks were constructed to cash in on the popularity of the sport in 1903.
Kokomo built a 3,000-seat building and called it “The Alhambra”; Indianapolis constructed a 3,500-seat auditorium, the Terre Haute Coliseum offered over 2,000 seats, and the Lafayette Coliseum had a capacity of 5,000. Anderson opened the Apollo Rink, Fort Wayne opened The Princess Rink. They all offered modern conveniences: electric lights, steam heating, and unobstructed views of the game.
When leagues began play in November of 1903, the fans packed many rinks to see what the Indianapolis News described as “the vim and fire that characterize polo are to be found in no other game. Its excitement is nerve-racking, and as it is “reasonably” dangerous, it appeals to the hearts of Americans.”
The same newspaper filled the sports section with "Polo Dope" with box scores, statistics, stories, and recaps from all over the state. Next to this data would be advertisements for that evening's game, costing 50 cents for a box seat and 25 cents for general admission.
In Richmond, local businesses closed during matches, and employers bickered that employees spent the workday talking about previous or future games. Theater performances in Elwood closed during games, city council meetings were held an hour early on game nights, and many cities hosted amateur matches before the main event at home rinks. It was reported that over a million tickets were sold to polo games and Marion attracted 140,000 fans for 45 home games.
There were 12 teams that took to the rinks in 1903 in Indiana and Illinois.
Before the start of the 1904-1905 season, both leagues knew that they no longer could afford to pay top dollars for players, but team managers wanted the best athletes to draw crowds. The Central League paid reasonable salaries, drew crowds, and made money, but the Western League paid exorbitant salaries, drew crowds, and made a small profit. They decided to impose a $265 weekly salary limit, much to the chagrin of its players.
Meanwhile, Central decided to do away with its $175 weekly limit and pay top dollars for players. Fort Wayne then announced they would pay $75 per star to join their club. Many players refused to take a pay cut and signed with the Western League. The Central had filled its 7-man roster and was in fine shape as its season approached.
The Richmond Quakers were not happy with the salary limit and wanted to raise it to secure better players. The team almost left the league in dispute; they had the money to sign better players, but couldn’t based on league rules. Quakers president Micajah C. Henley explained his thoughts.
“High salaries ought to bring the best players and the best players will bring the best crowds. The salary limit seems reasonable, but until there is assurance that every team in the Central League will not try to get players in the Western League there is danger. We must outbid them.”
The 1904-05 season started for both leagues, but whatever peace was made between the two leagues was shattered when the Indianapolis Indians left the Western League for the Central League early in the season. The reason was that Marion Royals allowed Long John Wiley to sign with Lafayette Sycamores instead of them.
This led to all Western clubs posting a forfeit of $1000 to finish the season to discourage any other club from jumping over to the Central. When Elwood failed to post, they were having trouble signing players, they announced that they were ceasing operations. Elwood sold two players to Kokomo of the Central for $1,000, which was a direct violation of the agreement between the two leagues. Both players should have been sent to teams in the Western League.
“While we realize that a war over players at this time would be a bad thing for both organizations, we will do everything in our power to prevent it,” said Foor. “I do not think we stand to lose by it as much as the Western League. We are not looking for trouble and will make any reasonable concessions to prevent a clash, but if a fight is necessary we can stand it.”
Daily newspapers had plenty of photographs of polo players of the era
The rest of the month, the magnates of the Western Loop tried in vain to add two more clubs. They suggested a new one in Indianapolis and contacted Cincinnati Reds management to operate a team. In the meantime, both leagues continued talks of consolidation, but the Central League did not want to add all four teams from the West.
The four-team Western League continued to struggle financially. Richmond lost $1,200, and only Marion made money. Anderson had only four players on its roster, and other members were unwilling to give players to strengthen the club. League president Norton had this to say about the situation.
“This fight has not only been expensive to both leagues but has injured attendance. I believe that we are both ready to quit.”
The Western loop would cease operations on January 16. Whether it was the fighting between the two leagues that was printed in the daily newspapers, the switching of players, the promises of new teams, or the same four teams playing each, interest sagged, causing management to call it quits. A few days after, Anderson and Marion joined the Central League, while Richmond and Muncie closed shop.
With the polo war over, you think the Central League would see smooth sailing for the rest of the season. It was not the case, clubs were shedding money, attendance had fallen, and there was still fighting over players’s rights. In many cities, the sport’s popularity was fading quickly, and managers of each rink were looking to get out of the polo business.
The league would end one week earlier when Lafayette chose not to finish the season and awarded the pennant to Danville, who finished the season in first place with a 59-32 record.
The Central League would start a third season, but there was concern with salaries; the profits were no longer large enough to pay $300 a week for players. Two new polo leagues, the Interstate and National League, opted for amateur players and paid them $25 weekly. Danville president William Foor, who owned three clubs in these leagues, said it cost him less to operate them than his Danville team.
“The managers and owners of these clubs are not reaping a harvest, but they are making money.”
All one had to do was open up the newspaper to see if there was a game that night
Unless salaries were cut under $200 a week, there was no chance of reviving the league for a third season. Another argument was that the public was losing interest in roller polo, according to the Fort Wayne News.
“The crowds toward the end of the season grew smaller and smaller until the general public gave open evidence of its impatience with the sport and stayed away.”
An eight-team league, minus Terre Haute—whose owner opted to transform his rink into a vaudeville theater—launched its 1905-1906 season on October 23. Teams were scheduled to play 3 to 4 games a week, with Sundays off, and player salaries were slashed to $50 for star athletes and $200 per week for the entire roster.
The opening night crowds drew 1,500, but it was apparent from fans and reporters that the type of polo was slightly above amateurism. An elderly man in Anderson called it “punk” and said he had seen better play in local leagues, and one reporter said the following.
Attendance figures fluctuate from as high as 2,000 in games in Indianapolis to as low as 500 for contests in Fort Wayne. Many of the best players held out for higher salaries and refused to participate in the league.
On February 11, 1906, Fort Wayne played its last game due to heavy financial losses. The Lafayette franchise shifted to Champaign, Illinois, but folded three days later due to poor attendance. Logansport players decided to finish the season despite not being paid. Only Kokomo made a profit, and Danville, Indianapolis, and Marion were ready to quit.
The season ended with the top four clubs participating in a post-game series. The winner would receive the Hennings Cup, created to award the champion of the Western League, and be in storage at the Hotel Anderson. Despite some of the largest crowds in recent months, including 3,000 for the final day in Kokomo, a champion was not crowned.
Danville and Indianapolis were 2-1 heading into the final day and were expected to play for the cup, but the last-minute change forced Kokomo and Marion to play one another, resulting in all four teams with an even 2-2 record. A $100 prize money was divided evenly among all players, and a majority of the players boarded trains the next day to head back east to start the New England leagues.
Fans no longer looked at the game being “on the square” and that gamblers were heavily involved with games in Anderson and perhaps elsewhere in the league. There would be no fourth season for the Central League for 1906-1907.
Team pictures were taken with uniforms and equipment, highlighting the styles of the time.
Soon, managers moved on to other business ventures, and players returned home to New England. The ornate rinks that were created for the game went on to hold roller skating sessions and basketball games, soon they were razed or lost by fire. Business and attendance were more profitable for roller skating sessions throughout the week and on weekends.
Indiana had been cured of its “polo fever” and though there were revivals of the game, it would be played sporadically until 1958, but never reached the zenith it had during the 1903-1904 season. It had a good run of 4 years in small and large markets in the state. However, one has to believe that with better efforts by league managers and players, maybe it could have lasted a little bit longer.
The tale of the two polo leagues is a reminder that some things never change in American sports. Salaries, operation costs, competition of players, and rapid expansion have killed many leagues this past century and will continue to do so in the future. If roller polo was allowed to grow organically without competition for players and high salary demands, who knows, it might have had a chance.
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Follow all of Marc’s stadium journeys on Twitter @ballparkhunter and his YouTube channel. Email at Marc.Viquez@stadiumjourney.com
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