“Comin’ thru: The Golden Age of Women’s Polo 1934 – 1941”

Probably not many people in the area know that during the 1930’s when most women were pretty much in “homemaker status,” there were daring young ladies challenging men at the age-old game of polo! But the secret is now out. Colleen McInerney Meagher and Joan Gilbert Martin have co-authored a book called, “Comin’ thru – The Golden Age of Women’s Polo 1934 – 1941.”
The two authors gave a fascinating presentation at the Scotts Valley City Council Chambers on Sunday, December 6^th, to a small group of interested listeners. The two authors took turns telling about the location and history of Pogonip where the polo games were played on land leased from the Henry Cowell family. Historian Joan Gilbert Martin gave us a good idea of what the Pogonip area was like all those many years ago.
Although the Pogonip area was not in Shoshone Indian land, it seems that the word “pogonip” is of Shoshone-Paiute origin and means “icey pond.” The mystery of the name lives on. Ms. Meager said they always thought of Pogonip as “golf, polo and a nip of something afterward.”
Meagher and her sister, Elaine McInerney, grew up playing polo in Southern California. Her family knew many people in the entertainment industry, some of whom were polo players. Who would have guessed that Spencer Tracy, his wife Louise, and son John played polo? Will Rogers, Carole Lombard, Johnny Mack Brown and Leslie Howard were some of the other Hollywood movie stars who also played polo.
She related that in 1934 when sportswoman Dorothy Wheeler wrote to the U.S. Polo Association asking for help in starting the first U.S. Women’s Polo Association, their reply was, “We do not consider polo a woman’s game.” Although today a sexist remark, their attitude was understandable at the time because polo is known as “the most dangerous sport in the world,” according to Meagher.
However, many polo playing women were such excellent riders that some of them did horse riding stunt work in Hollywood films. And eventually, with the help of the more forward-thinking men in California, the women prevailed and formed their own association. And what’s more, the polo-playing women permitted men to join in their polo games!
The first U.S. Women’s Open tournament was played in San Francisco’s Golden GatePark. They continued playing tournaments mostly on the coast of California from Southern California north to Oakland until 1941, when they, as everyone else in the nation, set to helping the war effort.
After the war, society changed and in 1948 the Pogonip Polo Club disbanded. It became a social club for many years but eventually fell to ruins. In 1989 the City of Santa Cruz was persuaded by the Greenbelt Committee to Save Pogonip to buy the land and keep it as a “green belt.” It is now an open nature area that everyone can enjoy. The clubhouse remains in ruins but the city hopes to eventually restore it.
More information at https://www.facebook.com/ScottsValleyHistoricalSociety.