Robert Wrenn

Robert Duffield Wrenn (September 20, 1873 – November 21, 1925) was an American left-handed tennis player, four-time U.S. singles championship winner, and one of the first inductees in the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

Biography
Wrenn was born in Highland Park, Illinois. Wrenn attended Harvard University, where he was a prominent quarterback on the football team. Wrenn was considered "one of Harvard's greatest all-around athletes," a star player at football, ice hockey, and baseball.

Wrenn played a small role in the formation of collegiate ice hockey in the United States. In the fall of 1892, Wrenn and fellow tennis champion (and doubles partner) Malcolm Greene Chace played in an international tennis tournament in Niagara Falls, New York. There they met some Canadian athletes who invited them to return the next winter to learn about their sport of ice hockey, which differed from the game of ice polo which was then played in American colleges. Wrenn and Chace gathered some friends from other northeast colleges including Cornell University and returned to Canada over Christmas break 1894-95 for a series of hockey matches. Each of the students returned to their respective campuses to promote the sport of ice hockey. Wrenn later played for the St. Nicholas Hockey Club.