A Brief History of Waterpolo

This page is for those of you who still wonder, "how do they stop the horses from drowning?" Well, here's a newsflash: horses have absolutely nothing to do with waterpolo. The term "polo" is the English pronunciation of the Indian word "pulu," meaning ball. Just as the ball game played on horseback became known as "polo," the ball game played in water became known as "water polo," although there in no connection between the two sports.

The game that evolved into modern water polo began as a form of rugby football played in rivers and lakes with the object to "carry" the ball to the opponent's side. By 1869, an Indian rubber ball began replacing the original ball which was made from a pig's stomach. One year later, the London Swimming Club developed rules for football to be played in swimming pools. The first official game was played in the Crystal Palace Plunge in London.

By 1880 in Scotland, the introduction of the Trudgeon stroke permitted rule changes to make the game faster. The game moved from a rugby-style to a soccer-style of play. The goal then became a cage of ten feet by three feet and a goal could be scored by throwing the ball into this area. The small ball was changed to a leather association football (soccer ball). Players could only be tackled if they held the ball and players could only touch the ball with one hand at a time. In the late 1880s, these Scottish rules were generally adopted throughout Great Britain.

In 1888, the United States became the next country to play water polo when John Robinson, an English swimming instructor, organized a team at the Boston Athletic Association. Water polo spread to Hungary in 1889, Belgium in 1890, Austria and Germany in 1894 and France in 1895. The game was included in the Olympic Games of 1900 as an exhibition at the Paris Games. Only club teams participated and Great Britain defeated Belgium, 7-2, in the final game. A club from France took third place.

In 1911, a decisive advance was made in the game when the Federacion International de Natacion Amateur (FINA) made the English-Scottish rules obligatory for all member nations. It is fair to state that not until the 1920 VII Olympiad in Antwerp, when twelve nations competed, did the game really become popular and internationally represented. Even then, the Germans, Austrians and Hungarians were not permitted to participate due to their involvement in World War I. Beginning in 1928, first Germany and then Hungary began a reign of dominance over international water polo that lasted into the 1980s, when Yugoslavia, the United States, the USSR, Italy and Spain all fielded extremely competitive teams.