2025 Hall of Fame Inductee: Tom Harris

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Over the next few weeks, USA Field Hockey will be celebrating and honoring the 2025 Hall of Fame inductees. This class honors five individuals who have played a significant role in the development and support of the sport in the United States during their long careers and are all being inducted as Contributors.

Tom Harris, the founder of the California Cup and a former president of the Field Hockey Association of America (FHAA), is being inducted as a Contributor. Harris started the California Cup in 1972 and has seen it blossom into one of the largest tournaments in the world. He has played a significant role in the support and development of the men’s game in the United States.

Harris, a former engineering professor at Moorpark College from 1967 to 1995, first picked up field hockey in 1970. In 1972, he received a request from a German club coming to the Los Angeles area to play some additional games. He invited two teams from Canada, added three teams from the Los Angeles area, and Cal Cup was born. Since its inauspicious beginnings 53 years ago, Cal Cup has become of the most prestigious tournaments in the world, welcoming more than 2,000 athletes ranging from ages 10 to 100. Multiple Olympians and national teams have come to Moorpark, Calif. to play, eager to participate against world-class competition.

In 1984, Harris and his wife, Karen, founded the Field Hockey Federation (FHF), Inc. as a nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation to grow and promote youth field hockey leagues and tournaments at their Moorpark College field. Many youth players came out of the FHF to later be selected to play high school, college, Junior and Senior U.S. National Teams. Some of these athletes went on to represent USA in the Pan American Games, Olympic Games and World Cup competitions.

Harris is a long-time advocate for the men’s game and has continued to participate in significant events as a player, having played in 53 Cal Cups. At the 2018 Grand Masters World Hockey Event in Barcelona, Spain, Harris was a member of the Alliance Team in the O-60 Division, an inspiration to the multitude of American players competing.

The President of FHAA in 1993, Harris led the organization during the merger of FHAA and the United States Field Hockey Association (now called USA Field Hockey) as the USOC instructed all National Olympic Committees to have one national governing body for both men and women. Harris had previously served as the vice president for eight years as well as the registrar for a four-year term.

Harris also served on the committee for development for the Pan American Hockey Federation.

USA Field Hockey will formally honor these legends of the game at an event in the Philadelphia area in December.