Early Dayton sports teams have seen a resurgence of interest in recent years, especially football’s Dayton Triangles who hosted the very first NFL game right here in the Gem City on October 3, 1920 at Triangle Park.
There are plenty of other examples of early Dayton teams in various sports, ranging from the highly competitive to the more recreational.
Pictured here is the Gem City Polo Club in the 1880s, with sticks and roller skates visible.
Roller polo is a sport that has largely been forgotten today, but about 150 years ago it was a wildly popular winter competition. It was a rough and tumble affair, with little padding and plenty of injuries.
The sport originated in England in the 1870s, and it was officially brought to the United States in 1882 when the National Roller Polo League was formed right here in Dayton.
At its foundation the league featured teams in seven different cities. Other leagues soon followed across the country, and celebrities including silent film stars Stan Laurel and Charlie Chaplin would take to the rink to play the sport in the early 1900s. But roller polo would soon be overshadowed by other burgeoning sports and it would never again regain its luster.
The sport does survive today as the more familiarly named roller hockey, and international competitions in recent decades have been dominated by Spain and Portugal. But here in the US, it was Dayton that was the original site for organized competition.
Photo courtesy of Dayton Metro Library
Sources
James Turner and Michael Zaidman. The history of roller skating. Lincoln, Nebraska: National Museum of Roller Skating.
It’s very very close cousin is field hockey, which is alive and well in the US.
Yes, good point!