Auto Polo

77 points21 comments3 days ago
etrautmann

Fun to see this here. I had the good fortune of participating in the first match of motorcycle polo in Rwanda back in 2007. This continued on for a while and eventually got a writeup in the NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/09/sports/motorized-polo-gai...

esperent
show comments
cheschire

I’m sure many of us are reminded immediately of the old Top Gear auto football matches:

https://youtu.be/SIeu7_-iwdw

arlobish

"The official inventor of auto polo...devised the sport as a publicity stunt in 1911 to sell Model T cars."

Amazing to see how little has changed in 100 years when it comes to competing for attention

TomMasz

Unsurprisingly, it died out "mostly due to the high cost of replacing vehicles". Was it the inspiration for demolition derbies?

msuniverse2026

Australian Motorcycle Chariot Race

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1avID4bJ3pw

show comments
rmoriz

Bike Polo is still alive https://youtu.be/CBZgC7u6ji8 and for example https://youtu.be/PxMms5Yh_gI

prmph

What an incredibly bad idea!

To hear it was "popular"...

merelysounds

I guess the modern day equivalent (technology that’s relatively new, unsafe and unregulated) would be electric scooter polo? I found no sign of a sport like this though.

I think kick scooter polo exists. And bike polo[1] is well known.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardcourt_Bike_Polo

show comments
xg15

> though deaths due to auto polo were rare.

Oh well, then...

haunter

Was? Not with this attitude!