Polo

J.G.’s interest in polo began as early as 1896 when a St. Paul’s School and Harvard classmate, William Mansfield Scudder talked about “getting some ponies and playing polo next year. He knows the captain of the Chicago team, I believe and he wants me to join him (another plan for the summer of  ’97).” By July 1902 J.G. was playing polo with the Rochester Country Club against teams from the Genesee Valley Hunt and Buffalo. In September 1903, the Rochester team played in Toronto against the crack Canadian team from Calgary, winning the tournament.  

J.G. played with a variety of teams, most notably the Dedham, Massachusetts Polo Club, often competing against Devereux Milburn, a Myopia Polo Club (South Hamilton, Massachusetts) player from Buffalo who would become an international champion.  In J.G.’s final surviving letter, he comments after losing to Myopia: “I would give a good deal to beat them just once.”