A left-handed, big-serving Harvardian who won the Intercollegiate title in 1899, 6-foot, 190-pound Dwight Filley Davis ranked in the U.S. Top Ten four times between 1898 and 1901, No. 2 in 1899 and 1900. But he is best known for launching in 1900 the great worldwide team competition that bears his name: Davis Cup. He intended for it to be called the International Lawn Tennis Challenge Trophy when he purchased the silver bowl at the Boston jeweler, Shreve, Crump & Low. His fellow members at Longwood Cricket Club, where the inaugural was staged in 1900, jocularly referred to it as "Dwight's pot." Soon, just-plain "Davis Cup" was the accepted handle.

The original U.S. team was a Harvard production, Davis captaining, he and schoolmates Malcolm Whitman and Holcombe Ward playing a 3-0 victory over the British Isle. Davis was a member of President Coolidge's cabinet as Secretary of War, and also served his country governor-general of the Philippines. He was born in St. Louis July 5, 1879, and died November 28, 1945, in Washington, D.C. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1956.