Hitchcock, Thomas, Jr.

Thomas Hitchcock, Jr., byname Tommy Hitchcock, (born February 11, 1900, Aiken, South Carolina, U.S.—died April 19, 1944, Salisbury, Wiltshire, England), American polo player, generally considered the greatest in the history of the sport.

The son of an outstanding player, Hitchcock achieved a 10-goal rating (the highest awarded) in 18 of the 19 seasons from 1922 through 1940. He was a member of four U.S. National Open championship teams (1923, 1927, 1935, 1936) and of five U.S. teams that won Westchester Cup competitions with Great Britain (1921, 1924, 1927, 1930, 1939).

In World War I Hitchcock was a combat aviator with the Lafayette Escadrille, a French unit composed of volunteers from the United States. A fighter group commander in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II, he was killed in an air crash.