Polo Ball, c. 1897-1915
P20080020003

The game of polo was introduced onto the physical and cultural landscape of southern Alberta prairies in 1889. That year, Pincher Creek rancher Captain Edmund M. Wilmot returned to Alberta from England, sporting polo sticks and balls, and formed the first polo club in Canada.*

In 1935, Freda Graham Bundy wrote in the Lethbridge Herald, “(Polo), being a game which required expert horsemanship, seized the fancy of all young riders, and in a very short time [1890s] Cowley, North Fork, Pincher Creek, High River, MacLeod and Cochrane all had teams.”

This Polo Ball was given in the 1980s to Mick Porter by his cousin Mary Isabella “Molley” Milvan (nee Gunn). The ball was used by Porter’s maternal uncle Harry Gunn during his membership with the North Fork Polo Club.

In addition to Gunn, Porter’s father (George English Porter) and maternal Uncle Hal Burn were also members of the Club. In 2008, Mick Porter stated that his father was “a member of the club before he got married (but that) after he started raising a family that was the end of the polo for him.”

In 1905, the North Fork Club spread the popularity of polo after it provided a demonstration of the sport in Winnipeg. Seven years later, the team returned to the City to compete for and win the Earl of Winterton Cup which represented Western Canada’s polo championship event.

Donated by Mick Porter

* Tony Rees. Polo: The Galloping Game. (Western Heritage Centre Society, 2000). Pg. 10

Polo Champions, c. 1912 The champion North Fork polo team of 1912 - (left to right) Bert Connelly, Harry Gunn, Rollo Burns and Harry Evans. The year the photo was taken, the Club won the Winterton Cup in Winnipeg. Photo courtesy of Doug Connelly