Thomas Hitchcock Sr.

Thomas Hitchcock was an accomplished steeplechaser who learned polo as an Oxford undergraduate and began playing in the U.S. with James Gordon Bennett. In 1879, Hitchcock played before 10,000 spectators in the first public match in America. He was elected to captain the United States team in the first Westchester Cup against Great Britain in 1886. He was one of the founders of the United States Polo Association in 1890. He attained his ten-goal rating in 1894, becoming one of the first ten-goal players in the history of American polo, and held that rating as late as 1901.

He was founder of the Meadowbrook Polo Club and – with his wife Louise Eustis Hitchcock – fostered the growth of polo in Aiken, South Carolina. They were the parents of polo legend Tommy Hitchcock.