In the 80s I remember many athletes wearing glasses or prescription goggles: Reggie Jackson, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Kurt Rambis, etc. Now with Lasix few athletes wear them anymore. Who do you remember wearing glasses? And what current athletes still wear glasses?
John Jefferson
Chuck Muncie
John Lowenstein
Martina Navratilova
Jabbar wore goggles for eye protection, not to correct his vision. He had twice had scratched corneas from game contact - the goggles were to prevent this from happening again.
Dom DiMaggio’s glasses helped give him the look that led to his nickname of The Little Professor.
Eric Sogard of the Oakland A’s wears glasses. There’s also Eric Gagne and Eric Dickerson.
Chris Sabo played for the Reds and wore the goggles.
Amare Stoudemire of the Knicks wears them; like Kareem, they are protective rather than prescription.
Thought of another: James Johnson of the Sacramento Kings. His look like regular glasses, secured with a headband, rather than goggles. He doesn’t wear them every game, though.
Horace Grant
Bob Griese
Amare Stoudemire - he might be the only current one, though there are plenty of athletes that will wear the fake glasses as a fashion accessory - Westbrook, Wade, Durant, James, Harden, etc.
eta - ninja’d!
Washington Senators 6’8" slugger Frank Howard
Cy Young-winning Detroit Tigers pitcher Denny McLain
Minneapolic Lakers center George Mikan
Relievers Ryne Duren and Kent Tekulve
Tennis star Billie Jean King (don’t know if Bobby Riggs wore glasses when younger)
Edgar David’s.
1983 American League Rookie of the Year Ron Kittle.
Joe Lavender, a former Redskin DB, wore glasses.
Probably not what your looking for but a lot of golfers wore glasses. Tom Kite, Miller Barber, even Arnie Palmer wore them late in his career.
It’s not much of an issue for modern American pro athletes. Most pro teams have a LASIK surgeon affiliated with them; any athlete who needs glasses or contacts gets the surgery. This is why you’ll hear LASIK surgeons refer to themselves as the “Official Team LASIK Surgeon of the [Local Pro Team]” in radio ads.
I actually asked about this when I went to the official surgeon of the Arizona Diamondbacks for a consult.
Didn’t seem to help much.
Eric Gagne.
Pitchers Kyle Farnsworth and Francisco Rodriguez.
Vance Worley and Brian McCanndo, or at least did recently.
Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Brett Cecil.