by Steve Crowder
Many of you do not know this Man but if you did you would understand as I will tell you a story. Brian Murphy was about 42 when I met him and he was a Builder of very High End homes in Rancho Santa Fe – Del Mar area near San Diego,Ca. I was putting on a clinic at the Horse Park and Brian was one of the participants and in the first hour all though he was 20 years older than 90 % of them , I knew this man would play Polo and he did. He was very athletic and so damn tough he could have been 18 and did not know better. He had his own ideas about the sport he wanted to do it but as most beginners he wanted young and new horses. He grew up in Illinois and Kansas City so knew a lot of people with horses and ordered some from friends hired a Jumper trainer to make them and was on his way. He joined SD Polo Club and started the game. Well one weekend he came to spend the weekend in Santa Barbara with us and Artie Cameron had polo ever day so I signed him up and gave him about 6 horses 14 and older from Bob fell and Eric Friden he played very well and had a lot of fun and changed his tune , ok he said buy these horses and bring them to Del Mar so we did all for about 20 grand total. We played one of the first years in SD a 4 goal with him and 2 Fridens and won ever game by 6 goals or more and Murphy had the bug we went to Indio that year and played 6 and 8 and won 3 of them and Murphy at 40 something went from -1 to 0 and in 3 years was 3 goals winning 12 goals ,Spreckles Cup and whatever he played in all while working 6 days a week. He also never rode another green horse and never had a bad horse more than one game. WE went on a Summer trip in the early 90’s from SD to Norman, tulsa, Kansa City,St Louis,Kanakee his home town, Oakbrook, Naperville,Milwaukee,Minnesota, Jackson Hole, Sun Valley and won all but one game and made 100’s of friends playing all games with Murphy , Paula Baxt myself and someone from the last club we were at A TRUE POLO TOUR . Then about 3 years later about 1997 in a 12 goal game in Indio at El Dorado a tragedy happened in a polo crash Murphy went down and hit hard and I think because of a bad Helmet suffered an injury that never went away . He had taken off a new helmet at 1/2time because it was very wet and used his old one and then this happened, I have no idea if this is right but I think it was. Murphy was not only a good Polo player amazing for his age and limited riding experience he was a man you knew would help you no matter what and would always have your back and share his wisdom to make it work or be just as happy to say that is a stupid idea and he would have been 99 % of the time right. The sad thing is for the last 18 years we have hoped it would change but it never did and maybe it is a God Send that the Lord took him away to a better place. BRIAN MURPHY will leave his mark on Polo he is the Grand Father of the Julio and Megan Arellanos amazing family of Polo’s Young Guns. I know in my heart he has been trapped for a long time and he deserved to get away . SO LONG TO THE BEST MAN I EVER KNEW.
Well around the World in Polo it is Valiente and King Power meeting in the semis of the Gold Cup and this will be a war 3 of the best in the World and really 4 when you add Nero even though he is not rated 10 this year .
lA INDIANNA takes on Lyndon Leas Zacara in the other one and features only one 10 goaler Pablo Macdonough but some very hungry young guns including American star Nic Roldan so even at home you can see it live on the Polo Channel.com all lowercase and you will not have to be in the rain. In Connecticut there will be a finals in the Butler at Greenwich and in the West it is the Silver Cup getting underway in Santa Barbara who has former 10 goal star Adam Snow in the mix and a must is, to see Adams Book POLO LIFE WRITTEN BY him and his Wife and they do know POLO LIFE and lots of action in Portland as Sean Keys gets all kinds of attention at the new Portland Club an amazing place to be this summer. Calgary and the amazing club at Sheridan are also moving along. You cannot go wrong coming West for Summer Polo .
see ya MR MURPHY