So, what would you like to do on your eighty fifth birthday? If one Northern Alabama native has his way, he’ll be doing more than just blowing out a lot of candles. Ed Robbins is now known internationally for his love of “The Sport of Kings.” APR’s MacKenzie Bates reports Robbins has the record to prove it…
“I started in 1980 and that was 20, 36 years ago.”
Ed Robbins is talking about polo. The sport didn’t come easy to him. He first tried to ride a horse when he was seven.
“When I first saw it, I said ‘this is very intimidating I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to do that!’”
Clearly, he got over it.
That’s Robbins, sporting a blue helmet, a white uniform and leather boots, astride his horse, Lechuza—and warming up for his second polo game of the day.
But this sport means a little more to Robbins. It’s the first game where he is “Officially Amazing.” That’s the saying when the Guinness Book of World Records recognizes you. Robbins is now the oldest polo player in the world.
“I’m glad to be here at 85 playing polo,” Robbins says.
That’s right. Today is Robbins birthday. He’s 85 years young and playing a game where you hit a ball with a mallet while at times, riding full speed on a horse.
“I remember the first time I got up I got a hold of a polo mallet and it felt like a tree, a log, you know. So unwieldy,” Robbins says. “I said 'Lord have mercy. How do you wield this tree around?'"
Robbins replaces 83-year-old Armando Klabin of Brazil. That youngster held the Guinness record as the oldest polo player in the world for just a few months.
Back when he was learning how to play, Robbins attended a clinic in Jackson Hole, Wyoming when he first started playing back in the ‘80s and was hooked.
“Tommy Lee Jones was there,” Robbins says. “He had been playing about one year when he was out there and he thought he knew everything about the game and he hadn’t been playing but a year. I was out there in that clinic and he says to me, ‘If you don’t get out of my way I’m gonna run over your ass!’ Ha Ha Ha.”
Robbins founded Bluewater Creek Polo Club in 1980, a year after he was introduced to the sport. He loved Polo so much he wanted to bring the game to North Alabama. He did.
Thirty-six years later, Robbins welcomes any and all who wants to play the game, including 17-year-old Egan Spoltore of Santa Fe, Tennessee.
“You know, watching Mr. Ed play, seeing him out there at 85, Being able to see somebody every weekend, that is a Guinness World Record holder, it's really interesting and really cool to see," Spoltore says.
Robbins sees it another way.
“That in itself is quite an achievement when you’re 85 and you’re out there playing with these 16-year-olds,” Robbins says.
He scored four goals in two games or chukkas as they’re called. On a weekend afternoon where the temperature was already pushing 90 degrees and 85 years old, Robbins says keeping his stamina up is the top priority to keep playing the game he loves.
“You know if you’ve got a good horse and you’ve got good eye-hand coordination and you’re reasonably physically fit, you can enjoy the game at my age,” Robbins says. “My body seems to be able to take the game. It ain’t like I when I first started but I still enjoy it.”
His daughter, Teena Robbins Tucker plays polo with her father. But she’s been playing for nine years.
“I’m so used to my dad doing a million things at once,” Tucker says. “Race horses, polo, hunting, dogs. He’s a true sportsman from the south.”
Robbins does not have any plans to hang up the mallet or give up the record anytime soon. Each time he rides on to the grounds and swings for the goal, the record is his all over again. And at 85, he’s proving age is just a number.
“I don’t know,” Robbins says. “One day I’ll come out here and say I don’t want to play anymore. I don’t know when that day is.”