Jean Rene Lacoste was born in Paris, France in 1904. By 1920 Rene Lacoste had become a famous French tennis player. In 1925 he designed the first "polo" shirt. When Lacoste won the US Open in 1926, his friends nicknamed him "crocodile" and he had an embroidered crocodile emblem sewn to his blazer. IN 1933 Lacoste established La Chemise Lacoste Company. The Lacoste polo sport shirt became the international favorite shirt for tennis and golf. Simone Lacoste , the wife of Rene was a women's champion golf player as was their daughter Catherine Lacoste .