Immortal French Tennis Champion Dies At 92 Lacoste, Progenitor Of Izod Sportswear, Last Of ‘Four Musketeers’ To Pass Away
Rene Lacoste, 92, the French tennis champion of the 1920s who transformed his nickname - “Le Crocodile” - into a status symbol on polo shirts around the world, has died.
His daughter, Catherine Lacoste, said Sunday her father’s heart failed in his sleep Saturday in a hospital in his hometown of St. Jean de Luz on the Atlantic coast, four days after surgery on a broken leg. Lacoste had been ailing for years.
Lacoste was the last survivor of the “Four Musketeers” of French tennis - Lacoste, Henri Cochet, Jean Borotra and Jacques Brugnon. Frenchmen won all six Wimbledon singles titles from 1924-29.
Lacoste was the world’s No. 1 player in 1926 and 1927 and won seven major singles titles in his career: Wimbledon twice, the U.S. Open twice and the French Open three times. And in perhaps the most meaningful victory for his country, he helped France win the Davis Cup in 1927 by beating Bill Tilden and Bill Johnston.
But Lacoste is perhaps equally famous for creating the embroidered alligator that has adorned millions of shirts.
His nickname, “Le Crocodile,” or the alligator, apparently came about after he admired a crocodile suitcase in a store window, and his Davis Cup captain promised to buy it for him if he won an important upcoming match. He never got the bag, but writers took up the name, he said, because it described his style.
“The public must have been fond of this nickname, which conveyed the tenacity I displayed on the tennis courts, never letting go of my prey!” he is quoted as saying in his company’s website. “So my friend Robert George drew an alligator, which I then had embroidered on the blazer I wore on the courts.”
xxxx VIVE LE FRANCE Grand Slam victories of Rene Lacoste, the last survivor of the French tennis champions known as the “Four Musketeers:” Wimbledon Singles Champion 1925, 1928 Wimbledon Doubles Champion (with Jean Borotra) 1925, 1929 French Open Singles Champion 1925, 1927, 1929 French Open Doubles Champion (with Borotra) 1925, 1929 U.S. Open Singles Champion 1926, 1927