‘Sport of Kings’ disappears

By Dale M. King
CITY EDITOR

Like dozens of other people with an abiding love of polo, John Stetz of Boca Raton was looking forward to next year.

It was to be the 50th anniversary of the Royal Palm Polo Club.  And all of the negatives that had accumulated this year – the rain that interfered with the games, the injuries and the low attendance he blamed on a “lack of marketing” – were to be forgotten in a glorious celebration of a half-century of hosting “The Sport of Kings.”

Right now, it appears that celebration won’t happen.

The morning of April 15, the assembled staff, club members, players and horse boarders learned that the club was closing down.  Employees were to leave immediately. Boarders were told to be off the property by May 15.

The sport that traces its Boca Raton history to such luminaries as Addison Mizner, Arthur Vining Davis and the Oxley family will no longer be played within the Boca Raton city limits.

Actually, a final polo event is planned for May 16, and a farewell reception will follow.

‘A Shock’

Stetz, who has been the videographer at nearly every polo game for the past 17 years, said the closing was a shock.  “We had been told by Peter Rizzo (former general manager) that next year would be better,” he said. “Everyone was saying, ‘This is the 49th year.  In year 50, we’re going to do something significant.’”

The silent polo stadium sits on property easily visible from Jog Road; its nearly empty horse stalls a short distance north.  A long driveway still connects to the stadium.

Stetz recalled the parking area as a place where polo fans held “tailgate parties” and invited everyone to join in.  Then, they would just turn the chairs around and watch the polo action.

The videographer said Boca offered a kinder, gentle form of polo than Palm Beach, where the games were reserved for the elite.

“In Palm Beach, you’d see the people with the tuxes and the hats and the outfits,” said Stetz.  “Boca was for the regular people.”

Famed Boca architect Addison Mizner promoted polo as part of the Boca lifestyle.  But it was Arthur Vining Davis, aluminum industry magnate and founder of real estate giant Arvida, who built polo fields on the property abutting the Boca Raton Hotel and Club, which he owned, in the mid-1950s. He moved the fields west to Glades Road a few years later when he built the Royal Palm Yacht Club – the first housing development in Boca – where the polo fields had been located.

Enter Oxleys

But it was the Oxley family – headed by John T. Oxley, an Oklahoma oil multi-millionaire -- who built the polo fields off Jog Road and solidified the sport in Boca.  His sons, Tom and Jack, purchased the club from the father in the 1970s, and continued to operate the facility after the elder Oxley’s death in 1996.

In 1977, John T. Oxley built the multi-million dollar sports complex that hosted polo games until the end.  In its heyday, it boasted seven polo fields, 320 stalls and a polo stadium, among other things, on a 160-acre plat.

Stetz said Tom and Jack “are regular people” and he enjoyed working for them.

Both of Oxley’s sons became high-goal polo players. Tom’s career was cut short in 1966 when he was thrown from his mount and a horse rolled over him.  He was in a coma for a month.

When he came out of it, Tom Oxley was told he would never walk again, let alone ride.  But the determined young man confounded the odds and taught himself to walk and talk.

Joey Casey, a third generation polo player and general manager of Royal Palm Polo, remembers working for the Oxleys in his youth.  Even to the end, he took part in polo games and trained horses.  “I have never bought a made pony,” he said. “I make my own horses, raise them and break them as yearlings.”

Casey talked of the hard work that goes into training horses – something the crowds never see.

Though the grounds of the well worn polo grounds are now silent, Stetz still holds on to hope that someone will purchase the property and bring polo back to Boca.

And he hasn’t given up his dream that there may be a 50th anniversary celebration next year.

Staff Writer Skip Sheffield contributed to this article.

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