Dwight Davis

As a student at Harvard, Dwight Davis achieved the ultimate prizes in collegiate tennis by winning the Intercollegiate Singles and Doubles titles in 1899. That same year, Davis and his name would become synonymous with elite men’s international team tennis with the founding of the Davis Cup. As a player, Davis, a left-hander, not only reached the top of college tennis, he was ranked in the top 10 in the United States from 1898-1901, reaching the No. 2 spot in 1899 and 1900. Playing with Holcombe Ward, Davis won three straight U.S. National Men’s Doublers Championships (1899-1901) and reached the finals of Wimbledon in 1901. Davis, Ward, Malcolm Whitman and Beals Wright came up with the idea of putting together an international team event. Davis even bought and donated the trophy for the first event, which pitted the top players from the U.S. against the British Isles. In the inaugural Davis Cup, Davis, Ward and Whitman carried the Americans to a 3-0 victory at the Longwood Cricket Club in Boston. A native of St. Louis, Davis played in the 1904 Olympics in his hometown, reaching the second round in singles and the quarterfinals (with Ralph McKittrick) in doubles. He later served as president of the United States Lawn Tennis Association before entering the political world, serving as President Calvin Coolidge’s Secretary of War (1925-29) and governor-general of the Philippines under President Herbert Hoover (1929-32). Davis was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1956 and received a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame in 1996. Davis died in 1945 at age 66.