What Happened To Auto Polo...?

Today's mystery is a question...what caused the end of Auto Polo?

I mean, it's similar to the destruction derby' right? Maybe it was a case of common sense finally setting in, but I doubt it!

Auto Polo

Photo credit: Bain News Service

In 1912, a Kansas Ford dealer held what he hoped would be the first of many sporting matches with an eye toward generating business. It was held between the two inaugural teams, the Grey Ghosts and the Red Devils, of America’s newest sport: Auto Polo. It was played pretty much exactly as one might expect, like traditional polo but with cars instead of horses.

As cars were initially marketed as a replacement for horses, this makes a strange sort of sense. In this first match, held in a Kansas alfalfa field, two teams of three men competed: two men to drive the car and one to swing a giant mallet at a basketball-sized rubber ball. Despite (or perhaps because of) the likelihood of crashes, injuries and deaths, the sport skyrocketed in popularity for the next several decades, with the last matches taking place in the mid-1950s.

Seems to me that we take part in equally dangerous sports today. It might be fun to catch one of the old Auto Polo matches for a change. I'm sure that the horses would appreciate having a replacement

Coffee in the kitchen again today. Wet and chilly outside!