Arcade Roller Polo Team Champions 1906 - 1907

"Real photo" postcards were one of the predominant forms of roller polo ephemera during the early 1900s, as opposed to the albumin cabinet photos executed in the 1880s and 1890s. Note: Roller polo ephemera is relatively difficult to come by.

Early 1880s Roller Polo Team

        

                                   Early 1880s cabinet card of a seven member roller polo team.                                                Photo 8 1/4" x 6 1/4"

A Short History Of Roller Polo

The first indications we came across that organized roller polo was being played in the United States was in an April 1879 newspaper article that covered the game between the teams of Baltimore and Washington. Basically hockey on roller skates, played predominantly at indoor skating rinks or halls. The new sport was referred to by a number of names early on, including, "polo on skates", "polo on wheels", "rink polo", and finally, "roller polo".
Records show roller polo being played in 1881 between Chicago and Detroit, and in 1882 in Rhode Island there were city and college teams that played among themselves and with Providence and Newport's teams. It was a rough sport and when Providence played Newport in August, 1882, the news reporting stated that there were "innumerable numbers of skirmishes" (in 1885 Massachusetts instituted rules changes to attempt to make the sport less "rough and tumble"). By 1883/1884 roller polo, which was largely a New England, East coast and Midwest phenomenon was in full bloom and had already become one of the major spectator sports of the day, many larger cities and towns fielding their own teams. It was not uncommon to have several thousand spectators at an important match.
Something to keep in mind - this all was being played out roughly a decade and a half before hockey was to gain in popularity in the U.S.
In the earlier years of the sport, up until 1886 plus or minus, there were seven members on a team. Reviews of game rosters generally show seven members on a team up through 1885, although one game that we came across for this year referenced six members. By 1887 there were five members per team, the goal-tend, one half-back, one centre and two rushers. There were no further changes to the size of the teams after this time.
Roller polo was falling out of favor by the turn of the 19th to 20th centuries, due in part to the growing popularity of ice hockey. It is rare to see roller polo photographs or ephemera past the early nineteen-teens. We hope you find the largely photographic history of roller polo, that will be the basis for this blog, as interesting as we do.