What is the best sports team/individual nickname? [Archive]

Stink Fish Pot

06-26-2002, 10:43 AM

What great nickname sticks out in your mind? I have a few individual favorites...

Charlie Hustle - Pete Rose
Mr. October - Reggie Jackson
Iron Horse - Lou Gehrig
The Sultan of Swat - Babe Ruth
Elroy Hersh - Crazy Legs
Jim Hunter - Catfish
The Great One - Wayne Gretzky
Bob Kelley - Battleship
Jerome Bettis - The Bus
Richard Petty - The King
Karl Malone - The Mailman

As well as some team-specific nicknames:

The Purple People Eaters - Minnesota Vikings Defense
The Steel Curtain - Pittsburgh Steelers Defense
The Big Red Machine - Cincinnati Reds

You get the idea. What are some of your favorites?

Stink Fish Pot

06-26-2002, 10:45 AM

I seemed to have switched the list format in the first post. Oh well.

astorian

06-26-2002, 11:15 AM

Best Group/Team Nicknames:

Gashouse Gang (1930's St. Louis Cardinals)

Whiz Kids (1950 Phillies)

Doomsday (the 1970s Dallas Cowboys' Defense)

Orange Crush (the 1977 Denver Broncos)

Killer Bees (1982 Miami Dolphins Defense)

Over the Hill Gang (the 1970s Redskins under George Allen)

The Smurfs (1980s Redskins receivers)

The GAG Line (Jean Ratelle, Vic Hadfield & Rod Gilbert of the NY Rangers)

*

Individuals:

The Mad Bomber (Daryle Lamonica, Raiders Quarterback)

Dennis "Oil Can" Boyd (Red Sox pitcher)

"The People's Cherce" (Brooklyn Dodger outfielder, Dixie Walker)

"Skoonj" (Carl Furillo, Dodger right fielder... short for "scungilli," an Italian dish made from snails)

zev_steinhardt

06-26-2002, 11:33 AM

Back in the deadball era, they had a lot of great names. My personal favorite was Bob "Death to Flying Things" Ferguson.

Other good ones were Russ "The Mad Monk" Meyer, Tony "The Apollo of the Box" Mulane, Ed "The Only" Nolan.

Of course, we can't forget Fred "Bonehead" Merkle. An outstanding player whose career will forever be defined by one stupid mistake. Similar, in many ways, to Bill Buckner (except that Merkle's mistake happened in his rookie season).

Another odd one was The Rabbi of Swat. That was the nickname of Moses Solomon, a minor-league slugger who had a brief cup of coffee with the Giants in 1923 (and hit no homers in the majors).

Probably the worst nickname was Hugh "Losing Pitcher" Mulcahy. He pitched for the Phillies in the 30s and 40s, who ended up with a career record of 45-89.

Zev Steinhardt

jk1245

06-26-2002, 11:57 AM

Individuals:
[list]
The Refrigerator-William Perry
The Galloping ghost - Red Grange
Michael "Air" Jordan (Says it all really)
The Glide - Clyde Drexler
Sweetness - Walter Payton
"Shoeless" Joe Jackson
CuJo - Curtis Joseph
The Hammer - Hank Aaron
The Georgia Peach - Ty Cobb
"Mean" Joe Greene

Teams/Groups (In addition to those already mentioned)
New York Sack Exchange- Jets early 80's D line
Purple Reign - U Washington's 1984 defense
Phi Slamma Jamma- U. Houston early 80's basketball
Murderer's Row - 1927 Yankees

jk1245

06-26-2002, 12:03 PM

Mr. Moto

06-26-2002, 12:35 PM

Bill "Twin Killing" Mazeroski
"Mean Joe" Green
Willie "Pops" Stargell

Fan club - "Franco's Italian Army"

I'll give you two guesses where I'm from. :D

Kal

06-26-2002, 12:50 PM

Two East Midlands football (soccer) clubs:

Nottingham Forest FC - The tricky trees.

Derby County FC - The sheep shaggers. (For some reason Derby County fans don't like that nickname.):p

World Eater

06-26-2002, 01:13 PM

Does Mr. Armageddon from the Simpsons count?

xizor

06-26-2002, 01:13 PM

Not necessarily the athletes, but I like the names:

Deon "Primetime" Sanders
Andre "Bad Moon" Rison
Dale Earnhart - "The Intimidator"

conway

06-26-2002, 01:43 PM

My favorites:

Shawn Bradley (of the Dallas Mavericks): Human Hypodermic Needle

Corliss Williamson (of the Detroit Pistons): The Big Nasty

Crusoe

06-26-2002, 03:35 PM

Gianfranco "Gorgon" Zola
"One Size" Fitz Hall

Ike Witt

06-26-2002, 03:50 PM

Originally posted by brandocet
My favorites:

Shawn Bradley (of the Dallas Mavericks): Human Hypodermic Needle

Here in Dallas he is refered to as The Mantis.

Max Torque

06-26-2002, 04:07 PM

Raghib "Rocket" Ismail
"Marvelous" Marvin Hagler
Hector "Macho" Camacho
swimmer Ian Thorpe, "the Thorpedo"
Ed "Too-Tall" Jones

astorian

06-26-2002, 04:27 PM

A few more...

The French Connection (Gilbert Perreault, Richard Martin, Rene Robert), for the Buffalo Sabres in the 1970s.

The Minister of Defense (ordained minister Reggie White)

"Night Train" (Defensive back Dick Lane, the only NFL hall of famer born here in Austin)

Fred "the Chicken" Stanley (much beloved Yankees utility infielder of the 70s)

From the old ABA, there was Dr. J (Julius Erving) and the Iceman (George Gervin).

Remember the cool suits and hats that gave Walt Frazier the name "Clyde"?

Cardinal

06-26-2002, 05:22 PM

Berman (http://www.op.net/~lmk/baseball/berman.htm) has lots and lots of baseball nicknames.

ESPN (http://espn.go.com/page2/s/list/baseball/nicknames/010612.html) has a poll about them.

The Baseball page (http://www.thebaseballpage.com/faq/nicknames.htm) has a decent list too.

ricepad

06-27-2002, 01:12 AM

William Perry was known to his teammates as Mudslide, because that's allegedly what his body resembled when he took his shirt off.

And as much as it pains me to say it, Stanford's defensive line (?) in the late '60s was known as the Screaming Thunderchickens, or something like that. Go Bears!

Kaotic Newtral

06-27-2002, 10:21 AM

I can't believe noone has mentioned:

Earvin 'Magic' Johnson

Semp

06-27-2002, 06:53 PM

Johnny "Blood" McNally, running back for the Packers in the 1930s. At least I'm pretty sure his last name was McNally, you rarely hear that part mentioned. I'm surprised there isn't a comic book character named Johnny Blood.

racer72

06-27-2002, 07:40 PM

Bone Fans of the Seattle Mariners know of who I speak. When Griffey Jr. played here he was known as "The Kid". Guess middle age as finally caught up with him.

Dale Earnhardt was commonly known as "The Intimidator" to most fans as previously posted but to true NASCAR fans he was also known as Ironhead.

WSLer

06-27-2002, 07:57 PM

Originally posted by Cardinal
Berman (http://www.op.net/~lmk/baseball/berman.htm) has lots and lots of baseball nicknames.

I don't consider those nicknames, more like a play on words type of thing.

The Big E- Elvin Hayes-Washington Bullets

The Wizard Of Westwood-John Wooden-UCLA basketball coach

The Baron-Adolph Rupp-University of Kentucky basketball coach

The "Say Hey Kid"-Willie Mays-NY/SF Giants, NY Mets

The Diesel-John Riggins-Washington Redskins, NY Jets running back

The Scooter-Joe Washington-Washington Reds, Baltimore Colts running back

The Hogs-Washington Redskins offensive line early '80's-'90's

The Greatest-Muhammad Ali

"Sugar" Ray Robinson

"Sugar" Ray Leonard

"Iron" Mike Tyson

"Nails" Lenny Dykstra

dead0man

06-27-2002, 08:49 PM

"Dizzy" and "Daffy" Dean (brother pitchers for the Cardinals in the early 50s)
Stan "the Man" Musial
"Babe" Ruth

dead0man

Airman Doors, USAF

06-27-2002, 09:11 PM

Don Stanhouse-"Stan The Man Unusual"

Jimmy Wynn-The Toy Cannon

Mike Hargrove-"The Judge" (allegedly because he sat on the bench a lot)

Tony Lazzeri-"Poosh 'Em Up" (I kid you not...that's one of my favorites for sheer weirdness)

Darryl Dawkins-"Chocolate Thunder" (my favorite non-baseball name)

astorian

06-27-2002, 10:49 PM

Semp- the player's name was, indeed, Johnny Mcnally, but in his day, college athletes regularly made money by playing in semi-pro leagues under phony names.

(Jim Thorpe got caught playing semi-pro baseball, which is why he lost his Olympic medals- ironically, if he'd adopted a phony name, as so many of his peers did, no one need have known about his "crime.")

Johnny Mcnally and college teammate Ralph Hanson signed up with a semi-pro football team. They'd just seen a movie called "Blood and Sand," so they enrolled as "Johnny Blood" and "Ralph Sand."

Mcnally became a star under the assumed name, so it stuck.

bristlesage

06-28-2002, 12:57 AM

I think no one has mentioned my two favorites:
Frank "The Big Hurt" Thomas and Randy "Big Unit" Johnson. The latter one is just good on so many levels.

Snooooopy

06-28-2002, 01:46 AM

Originally posted by ricepad
And as much as it pains me to say it, Stanford's defensive line (?) in the late '60s was known as the Screaming Thunderchickens, or something like that. Go Bears!

Indeed, they were the Thunderchickens. In fact, when Stanford made the ahead-of-its-time decision to change its nickname from the Indians in the early 1970s, many students thought Thunderchickens would be a good choice.

Sadly, Stanford went with the Cardinal.

Fern Forest

06-28-2002, 04:52 AM

I've always like the "Demon Deacons."

imthjckaz

06-28-2002, 05:13 AM

Bronko Nagurski
Jerry West "Mr Clutch"
Wilt Chamberlain "the Stilt"
OJ Simpson "the Juice"
Vinnie Johnson "the Microwave"
Ron Cey "The Penguin"
Craig Stadler "The Walrus"
Orel Hershiser "Bulldog"
Oscar Robertson "the Big O"
Kevin Garnett "The Big Ticket"
Dominik Hasek "The Dominator"
Bill Lee "Spaceman"
Charles Barkley " The Round Mound of Rebound"
Jamaal Wilkes "Silk"
Earl Monroe "the Pearl"
Qadry Ismail "the Missle"
Randy Moss "the Freak"
Dominique Wilkins "The Human Highlight Film"
Bill Walton "The Big Redhead"
Larry Bird "the hick from French Lick"
Roberto Duran "Manos de piedra" (hands of stone)"No mas" could also be used, but thats just not right

Magic's Lakers "Showtime"
Isiah's (Zeke) Pistons "Bad Boys"
The Ramblin Wreck of Georgia Tech
UC Santa Cruz Banana Slugs (http://slugweb.com/slugweb/index.phtml?loc=AboutHistory.phtml)

Go alien

06-28-2002, 05:42 AM

Hartlepool Town FC - "The Monkey Hangers". From an incident in the Napoleonic wars when a shipwrecked monkey was hanged as a French spy. The club mascot, a monkey, was recently elected mayor of the town.

RickJay

06-28-2002, 08:34 AM

Tom Henke was the first of many relief pitchers to be called "The Terminator," a perfect nickname for a relief ace.

Mike Hargrove was "The Human Rain Delay" for his stalling while at bat.

I agree with Bill James; "Sudden" Sam McDowell is maybe the most appropriate nickname ever given to a baseball player.

For team nicknames, I just like "Dodgers." By virtue of being older, baseball has carried a tradition of having a lot of team names that aren't the usual aggressive animals/silly names like "Sparxx." "Dodgers" is a historical anomaly, isn't used in any other sport I can think of, and just sounds cool. Other cool team nicknames that seem unique to baseball; Phillies, Blue Jays, Padres, Red Sox, White Sox, Orioles, Twins, Expos, Mets.

Jerrybear

07-03-2002, 01:23 PM

The Dodgers got their name because Ebbetts Field in Brooklyn had trolley tracks running in front of it. People had to dodge the trolleys to get to the park, so the team became known as the "Trolley Dodgers," later shortened to simply "Dodgers." The name was retained when the team moved to Los Angeles, although it no longer had the significance it had in Brooklyn.

Similarly, "Lakers" was a very appropriate nickname when the basketball team played in Minnesota, but does not make nearly as much sense in Los Angeles.

As for some cool nicknames:

Rick Leach, Michigan quarterback in the late 70s, was the "Guts and Glue of the Maize and Blue."

His successor, "Wingin' Wangin'" Johnny Wangler, threw many a touchdown pass to Anthony "the Darter" Carter.

The above were all coined by the late, beloved (if you are a Wolverine fan) Michigan football radio announcer, Bob Ufer.

lurkernomore

07-04-2002, 10:22 AM

The best name is no more, I saw a report they are moving the team this year. It was a minor league hockey team in Macon, GA.

Yes, there will be no more Macon Whoopee....

We may as well go north to the Castor (Alberta) Raiders....

AskNott

07-04-2002, 10:49 AM

The Macon Whoopee is no more??! Dang. I've never been to Macon, but I bought a T-shirt from the Whoopee online. I'm sorry to see 'em go.

guitarmax_99

07-04-2002, 12:32 PM

Surprised no one mentioned Ted Williams' nickname: "The Splendid Splinter"

Also thought "The Rooster" was pretty cool (Rick Burlson).

Telemark

07-04-2002, 12:50 PM

"The Human Eraser" Marvin Webster
"Pistol" Pete Maravich

How about nicknames for individual plays, like "The Imacualte Reception", the "Hail Flutie", and "The Drive".

RickJay

07-04-2002, 02:57 PM

Originally posted by Telemark
"The Human Eraser" Marvin Webster
"Pistol" Pete Maravich

How about nicknames for individual plays, like "The Imacualte Reception", the "Hail Flutie", and "The Drive".

We should make a list:

The Immaculate Reception
The Catch
The Drive
The Hail Mary/Hail Flutie
The Shot Heard 'Round The World
The Hand of God

Ol'Gaffer

07-05-2002, 03:23 PM

Originally posted by guitarmax_99
Surprised no one mentioned Ted Williams' nickname: "The Splendid Splinter"

Gotta agree with that (tips hat) :(

"The Fab Five" - Michigan basketball team of all freshmen featuring Chris Webber and Jalen Rose.

The North Carolina Gamecocks. A guy I went to high school with had a t-shirt that read "You can't lick our Cocks" on the back.

Mark "Marco Solo" McGwire. It was a local name for him during his rookie season because he hit so many solo shots.