Portland Was Once Called "America's Greatest Polo City" by Sports Illustrated

Remember the Portland Berries?

I sometimes go to the TriMet lost and found, look upon its blue doors and remember the gates to the rickety grandstands that used to be there, that would pack thousands during the salad days of the Portland Berries, the city's beloved professional polo team.

How I miss going to Berries games at Bush Stadium—or, as we faithful called it, "the Berry Bush." The unmistakable thunder of 32 hooves trampling the great squared oval, the thwack of the mallet and the whoosh of the ball, and the rabid, chanting fans.

Many longtime Portland residents probably realize that most of the chants sung by the Timbers Army were co-opted from chants originally used to cheer the Berries. I don't mind. The Timbers are probably the closest thing we have to the Berries these days, and I will venture to Providence Park for an occasional game. Just don't blame me if I share with you that compared to what an afternoon at the Berry Bush was like, most Timbers games remind me of preschool nap time.

Portland was once called "America's Greatest Polo City" by Sports Illustrated. This was not only because the Berries were winning and selling out every game, but also because for several years the city had a second professional polo team called the Portland Lavender.

This was an interesting case. The Lavender were a better team than the Berries, but this was because they played in the Pan-Pacific Polo Federation. As anyone who follows the sport of kings knows, the PPPF is a prestigious polo league based in Oceania and coastal Asia that, at the time, was seeing extraordinary growth in popularity. The PPPF wanted to tap into an American market. What better market than America's Greatest Polo City?

There were significant logistical problems with being a professional sports team in a league where every other team was at least 7,000 miles away. The biggest obstacle to success was that the Lavender would play in Portland for just three weeks of the 20-week season. That meant only five games at Civic Stadium, and the rest of the time the team was traveling in exotic locales.

I also wonder about the poor horses, and what an emotional and physical toll all that seafaring took on them.

Sadly, the Portland Berries folded—not because of a lack of fan interest but rather a lack of interest in every other team in every other city. A few years later, it was announced that the Portland Lavender were relocating to Canberra. And thus did Portland's reign as "America's Greatest Polo City" come to an end.

Dr. Mitchell Millar can be reached via a wooden drop box somewhere in Forest Park. If you don't know where it is, you may find out eventually. If you need to reach Dr. Millar urgently, go into the photo booth at the Avalon arcade with the out-of-order sign. Insert $3 and say your message after the tone.

Willamette Week

Willamette Week’s reporting has concrete impacts that change laws, force action from civic leaders, and drive compromised politicians from public office. Support WW's journalism today.