More weird than bad, but: In the '70s and '80s the West German national ice hockey team had a coach named Xaver Unsinn. “Unsinn” means “nonsense” in German.
Nitpick… the Mad Bomber (my favorite athlete when I was a kid) spelled his name DARYLE.
Whilst on the subject of Kuntz, there is this infamous piece of football commentary from the ever reliable John Motson
A good name: Joel Youngblood. Anyone else remember him?
No, the Mad Bomber of that era was Mike Taliaferro (Joe Namath’s backup before 1968). Lamonica did throw a short pass from time to time; Tiliaferro never tried anything but long bombs (usually because he came into the game when it didn’t matter). Lamonica made it to the Super Bowl; Taliaferro couldn’t even start for the Patriots when the job was handed to him.
I do like Taliferro’s name, since it was pronounced “Tolliver.” I like players whose names aren’t pronounced the way you’d think they were, like Jim Beauchamp (“Beechum”). And of course, Walt Tkaczuk, whose name was pronounced “TAY-chuck” by everyone for years before he mentioned that it was “Ka-CHOOK”
I do remember Joel Youngblood, best known for getting hits for two different teams in two different cities in one day.
Yup, outfielder, played mostly for the Mets and Giants. In that same era, the Los Angeles Rams had two guys named Youngblood: defensive end Jack, and linebacker Jim. AFAIK, none of the three of them were related.
In the early 90s, when Knoblauch was a young second baseman for the Twins, I had him on my Strat-o-Matic Baseball team. I went on a trip to central Europe (Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Czech Republic)with my wife’s family. I know almost no German; one day, we walked into a supermarket, and, in the produce section, I saw a big stack of garlic bulbs, with the sign “Knoblauch” on it. I couldn’t stop laughing. ![]()
Similarly, I always thought that Patriots linebacker Tedy Bruschi should’ve played for the Packers, given how much Packer fans love brewskis. ![]()
Bien Figueroa, whose full name (Bienvenido Figueroa) apparently means “Welcome Maker of Statuettes”.
Good football names:
Kregg Lumpkin
Richie Incognito
Dick Butkis
It always makes me think of the word “choad.” (Possibly NSFW link goes to Urban Dictionary)
Which reminds me that Justin Smoak seems like a really good baseball name. Maybe it’d be better if he pitched.
I’m quite prepared to believe that multiple quarterbacks were nicknamed “the Mad Bomber,” but Daryle Lamonica was DEFINITELY one of them.
Texas had a kicker named Happy Feller.
There was a wide receiver named Fair Hooker. That conjured up some weird thoughts.
At least he wasn’t the kicker.
Good name: Former U of Washington QB, Sonny Sixkiller
Cracked’s 9 manliest names in the world includes a few athletes, most notably Australian Rugby Player Stirling Mortlock.
Randy Johnson
Somewhat related, Anthony Weiner giving John Boehner a hard time at the correspondents dinner. Link
Wow. I couldn’t believe the book cover for the Dick Pound (not an athlete, but part of a sports governing body) entry wasn’t a photoshop job, but check it out.
The Sabres had a rugged defender back in the 70s named Larry Playfair. He often didn’t, as witnessed by his high penalty minute totals.
J.J. Putz is a very unfortunate name for a player, but then to be traded to the NY Mets made it 100 times worse as I suspect every New Yorker knows putz means: A stupid or worthless person and worse yet is Yiddish slang for Penis.