The newly-crowned Fastest Man in the World has what must be the best name for a sprinter ever: Bolt. How cool is that? I never heard that surname before. Maybe there’s a John Lightning or Mary Dash out there tearing up the track, but until they surface, Usain Bolt is the king of great athlete names.
What other oddly appropriate athlete names have you seen? Know of any weightlifters named Armstrong? Baseball players named Ball? Golfers named Green? I’m preferably looking for pros or Olympians, but that guy you knew in college will do too. There must be someone out there to rival the great name of Usain Bolt!
(I guess this belongs here because it’s about athletes, but if it’s more MPSIMSy, Mods, please shuffle it off at will.)
Stirling Mortlock, an Australian Rugby player. I don’t know what it is, maybe the “lock” part in reference to holding the ball? But something there screams “rugby,” not to mention “I’m more of a man than you’ll ever be.”
How could you be anything but a great American football player when you have the name Bronko Nagurski?
Or if you want something more literal, there was a boxer named Jimmy Thunder, who holds the record for the fastest victory by knockout in a professional fight (ten seconds, including the count).
Lock is a position usually played by the two tallest guys on the team, aptly named because they lock their legs out during a scrum.
Probably doesn’t count, and no cite, but I remember hearing that the Cleveland Browns went from 1960 to 1985 (or something like that) with only two years without a player named Brown.
According to BasketballReference.com, there have been five NBA players with the last name Long. The tallest was Art, who played with four teams between 2001 and 2003. (Also on the list: Grant, John, Paul and Willie. Paul was the shortest.) And Luc Longley was 7’2" but Bob Bigelow was only 6’5."
Along similar lines, it’s too bad Larry Bird wasn’t a great jumper. I don’t know how fast Bob Quick was.
Bobby Hooper had a short career, but a very appropriate name!