Polo Rides on Jones’ Gifts

For many, the most visible association Tommy Lee Jones ’69 has had with his alma mater was his cameo in the movie “Love Story.” But for the 20 members of the Harvard Polo Club, he is more than just a Hollywood A-lister—as well as their coach and mentor, they consider him their biggest fan.

With Jones’ support, the team, which was resurrected in 2006 under husband-and-wife coaching duo Crocker Snow Jr. ’61 and Cissie Snow, has mounted a new campaign to institute a polo program with a more stable future.

Though the history of the polo club dates back to the early 20th century, the team has struggled to maintain a consistent roster of players, and ultimately, it has never lasted for more than a few consecutive years.

The renewed efforts will be on display Sunday, when Jones and other alumni donors attend the club’s annual match against Yale at the Canter Brook Equestrian Center in Hamilton, Mass.

Jones has led the club’s early endeavors to develop a competitive intercollegiate team, providing financial assistance and donating three new horses, named Patches, Commondante, and Munyeca.

“He is a generous and just an all-around nice guy,” said women’s captain Stephanie A. Hon. “We have an arena and 14 horses because he made it financially possible.”

In addition to those contributions, Jones also has invited the athletes to his Texas ranch before the start of the school year for intensive pre-season training.

“I was asked 10 or 15 years ago to see what I could do to help the polo team, which at that time had no place to play and no horses,” Jones said in a phone interview Sunday. “I had two polo fields and plenty of horses, so I conducted a pre-season clinic in my San Saba ranch. It was a terrific success last year. It was a success this year. The kids worked hard and learned a great deal.”

While trips to the estate of a movie star may seem glamorous, Crocker Snow said the experience is far from the idyllic Hollywood stereotype.

“Tommy Lee Jones really emphasizes that the students are not to be treated like princes during their stay at the ranch,” he said. “They are working on horses and riding every day, so it’s more like boot camp.”

Perhaps that’s why team members say that despite their trip to England last summer—they competed alongside the vaunted Oxford and Cambridge teams and were written up in the polo magazine Hurlingham—Harvard polo is no tea-sipping, aristocratic hobby.

“At Harvard, polo is not an elitist sport. Money or experience is not a limiting factor if you have the dedication,” team member J.P. Stilz ’11 said. “I think there is nothing less elitist than cleaning up horse crap.”

Indeed, Harvard polo players have long had to deal with an unstable program, plagued by a lack of continued student commitment, a scarcity of athletic equipment—both live and inanimate—and the lack of a stadium close to the Harvard campus, said men’s captain Nicholas B. Snow ’09.

Unlike other universities with long-standing polo traditions like Cornell and the University of Virginia, Harvard faces several key disadvantages, including a practice space that is at least 40 minutes away from campus and a stable of only 14 horses, sufficient to host home games, but incomparable to Cornell’s collection of 30 ponies.

“This year we certainly have a lot that makes practice difficult,” Stilz said. “But with that said, I do think that the 40 minutes of travel each way and the two hours of work we put in to take care of the horses each practice speaks very highly of the dedication of the team.”

For now, the team says its main objective is to showcase the progress it has made to students and the larger Harvard community in Sunday’s match.
(The team will also host a luncheon preceding the men’s game.)

“I expect to see some honest polo,” Jones said. “The kids improved a lot during the pre-season clinic, and I am looking to see how much the team has improved since then.”

Nick Snow, the son of the team’s coaches, said that Jones has “played a large role in our existence to this point.”

“I am excited that he is coming,” said Nick Snow. “It will be a great chance for him to see that there is support for the team from the Harvard community as well as other polo players in the area.”