Cornell University Athletics

Considered by many as the greatest of the old tennis masters, he shares the U.S. record of seven national championships with William Tilden and Richard Sears. His first success came in the fall of 1892 – his junior year at Cornell – when he won the intercollegiate championship. Perhaps the most incredible evidence of his greatness is the fact that from 1892 to 1912 – a 20-year span – his name found its way into the nation’s elite designation was 1898, which he spent at the Spanish-American War as one of Roosevelt’s Rough Riders. Of his 19 national rankings, he was rated No.1 eight times, No.2 five times and No.3 four times. Larned played in Davis Cup challenge rounds in 1902, 1903, 1905 and 1906; captained the U.S. squad in 1903. He was elected to the National Tennis Hall of Fame in 1956. An inner wall at the Forest Hills stadium contains a bronze tablet in his honor.