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A R C H I V E
BRIAN GRAHAM
P L A Y I N G A W A Y
For Yale Polo players today, away games tend
to mean a few hours packed into a crowded
car with textbooks, headphones and
a generous amount of iced coffee. But alumni
Doug Barclay (1955) and Joe Williams (1956)
can remember one tournament that was
a very different kind of travel experience.
During the winter of 1954, Salvadorian
Yale Polo member Larry de Sola invited the
team to his home town to compete against
collegiate-level teams from Guatemala,
Mexico and El Salvador. He offered to let the
team stay with his family for free, as long
as they found their own transport. Yale
accepted the challenge and sent Williams off
to New York to meet Juan Trippe, chairman
of Pan American World Airways. When
Trippe realised Williams was asking for five
seats – not a cargo liner full of horses – he
gave him the tickets, threw in four free tourist
passes and told him to get out of his office.
Both Williams and Barclay remember
an idyllic stay at De Sola’s beautiful coffee
plantation and an exciting tournament. Yale
had a lot of fun, despite only winning one
of their games. Williams recalls at one point
during a match, their fourth player Freddie
Lutz’s horse had run off the pitch and was
jumping over tombstones in a nearby
graveyard with rider in tow.
Despite Williams later being thrown into
the air along with his saddle (after his girth
broke), no one was hurt beyond bruised
prides after the games.
Doug Barclay returned to El Salvador
in 2003 as US Ambassador under the Bush
administration, where he attended a polo
match and had the good fortune to meet
some of those present in 1954 (although,
sadly, his opponents were all deceased).
The 1954 San Salvador tournament is a
perfect example of how a community of polo
players, students and supporters can come
together through unconventional channels.
Although polo at Yale is no longer a Varsity
sport, travelling to our opponents remains
a pleasure and a privilege, and the ties
between teammates remain for years to come.
A rare opportunity to compete in San Salvador in 1954 proved unexpectedly memorable
for Yale Polo members Doug Barclay and Joe Williams, writes Antonia Campbell
