Best Sports Nicknames

I have to admit I am a bit of a sports junkie. My family will tell you I spend some amount of spare time in front of SportsCenter, my co-workers will tell you that my car radio is tuned to sports radio and I'm sure our network administrator could tell me how much time I spend on sports web sites.

So I was driving in to the office one morning last week listening to NFL game results from the weekend and they were talking about the Detroit Lions game against the Dallas Cowboys and how much of an impact Calvin Johnson had on the game. They referred to Johnson by his nickname "Megatron". I smiled and thought "now that is a good nickname". Which got me thinking, what are the best sports nicknames of all time?

After some research, I concluded there are a lot more notable nicknames that I realized. I quickly figured that I needed to qualify my list a bit. For example should I just list the best nicknames regardless of where they came from, how famous the person was, how the nickname was earned or any other qualifying criteria? So I came up with different categories - including, Top 10 Nicknames That You May Have Thought Was His Real Name, Top 10 Nicknames Based on Physical Attributes, Top 10 Nicknames Based on a Play on Words and of course Top 10 Best Sports Nicknames (Overall). Here's what I came up with:

Top 10 Best Sports Nicknames (Overall):
10. Chocolate Thunder - Darryl Dawkins, NBA - truly one of the most descriptive and visually imaginative nicknames ever
9.  God - Gary Ablett Sr, Aussie Rules Football - I have to give credit for having the nerve to call yourself "god"
8.  Mean Joe Greene, NFL - it just rolls off your tongue and sounds right + it immediately gets the point across
7.  Michael Air Jordan, NBA - one of the most prolific nicknames in history given that it has spawned an entire brand group at Nike
6.  Pistol Pete Maravich, NBA - points for being descriptive, meaningful to the sport, highlighting the defining characteristic of the athlete and bonus for the use of alliteration
5.  Yogi Bera - Lawrence Bera, MLB - one of the best of all time
4.  Boom Boom Geoffrion - Bernie Geoffrion, NHL - a hockey player named "Boom Boom", do I need to say any more?
3.  Dr. J - Julius Erving, NBA - the name says it all and evokes the memory of the first time I saw a man fly through the air
2.  The Sultan of Swat - Babe Ruth, MLB - one of the most elegant nicknames of all time, perfectly describes what he did better than anyone else in the history of the game
1.  The Wizard of Oz - Ozzie Smith, Short Stop, MLB - have you ever watched Ozzie Smith play the game?


Best Sports Nicknames That You May Have Thought Was His Real Name:
Meadowlark Lemon, Basketball Player - Real Name: Meadow Lemon
Pele, Soccer Player - Real Name: Edison Arantes do Nascimento
Deacon Jones, NFL - Real Name: David Jones
Catfish Hunter, MLB - Real Name: Jim Hunter
Chi Chi Rodruguez, PGA - Real Name: Juan Rodriguez
Tree Rollins, NBA - Real Name: Wayne Rollins
Yogi Bera, MLB - Real Name: Lawrence Bera
Ickey Woods, NFL - Real Name: Elbert Woods
Magic Johnson, NBA - Real Name: Earvin Johnson
Tiger Woods, PGA - Real Name: Eldrick Woods


Best Sports Nicknames based on Physical Attributes:
Pocket Hercules - Naim Suleymanoglu, Bulgaria, Olympic Weightlifter
Three Finger Brown - Mordecai Brown, MLB
Pee Wee Reese - Harold Reese, MLB
Butterbean - Eric Esch, Boxer
Hands of Stone - Roberto Duran, Boxer
Sleepy Floyd - Eric Floyd, NBA
The Big Unit - Randy Johnson, MLB
The Big Hurt - Frank Thomas, MLB
The Big Tuna - Bill Parcels, NFL Coach
Ed Too Tall Jones - Ed Jone, NFL
Lefty - Phil Mickelson, PGA
Pudge - Carlton Fisk, Ivan Rodriguez, MLB

Best Sports Nicknames Based on a Play on Words:
The Wizard of Oz - Ozzie Smith, Short Stop, MLB
Cujo - Curtis Joseph, NHL
Cementhead - Dave Semenko, NHL
The Grim Reaper - Stu Grimson, NHL
Lester The Molester - Lester Hayes, NFL
The Pearl - Earl Monroe, NBA
Stan The Man - Stan Musial, MLB
The Great One - Wayne Gretzky, NHL
Meadowlark - Meadow Lemon, Basketball Player

And a special award that I was reminded of while researching this post. The funniest mis-pronunciation of an athlete's name (or in this case nickname) in a public setting, goes to the character Les Nessman from WKRP in Cincinnati whose pronunciation of Chi Chi Rodriguez, goes down as one of the funniest moments of the show. He referred to him as - "Chy Chy Rod-ri-gweeze". If you've never seen the episode, look it up. True sports fans will laugh.

Here is the best of the rest. They are good, but did not make one of my lists:

Megatron - Calvin Johnson, NFL
Prime Time - Deion Sanders, NFL
The Minister of Defense - Reggie White, NFL
The Human Highlight Reel - Dominique Wilkins, NBA
The Splendid Splinter - Ted Williams, MLB
The Iron Horse - Lou Gehrig, MLB
The Refrigerator - William Perry, NFL
Sweetness - Walter Payton, NFL
The Glove - Gary Payton, NBA
Broadway - Joe Namath, NFL
The Golden Bear - Jack Nicklaus, PGA
Crazy Legs - Elroy Hirsch, NFL
Skywalker - David Thompson, NBA
Bear - Paul Bryant, College Football Coach
Charlie Hustle - Pete Rose, MLB
Iron Mike - Mike Tyson, Professional Boxer
Shoeless - Joe Jackson, MLB
The Assassin - Jack Tatum, NFL
The Mailman - Carl Malone, NBA
The Galloping Ghost - Red Grange, NFL
Mr. October - Reggie Jackson, MLB
The Rocket - Maurice Richard, NHL
The Say Hey Kid - Willie Mays, MLB
The Yankee Clipper, Joe DiMaggio, MLB
The Flying Tomato - Sean White, Snowboarder
Marvelous - Marvin Hagler, Boxer
The Bus - Jerome Bettis, NFL
The Golden Jet - Bobbie Hull, NHL
Sugar Ray - Ray Robinson, Ray Leonard, Boxers
The Wizard of Westwood - John Wooden, College Basketball
Papa Bear - George Halas, NFL
Bonecrusher - James Smith, NFL
The Iceman - George Gervin, NBA
The Raging Bull - Jake LaMotta, Boxer