They farewelled the Doc last week.
No need to clarify as Darrell Baldock…his simple moniker is enough to identify the subject to all footy lovers.
Like The Don or Newk, it is a heightened level of recognition when a full name becomes irrelevant.
Who else has earned this status?
Crackers Keenan
Plugger Lockett
Mark Waugh: Afganistan – the forgotten war.
Butch Edwards,Tiger Crosswell,Polly Farmer,Presti.
From the Almanackers: Crio,Gigs,Dips,Smokie,Phantom.
Muscles – Ken Rosewell – so named because of his apparent lack of them.
The Buzz
Big Bird
Jezza
EJ
‘Sounda’ Sleep
‘Tubby’ Taylor
‘Beefy Botham’
‘Typhoon’ Tyson
‘Alphabet’ Robert DiPierdomenico
‘Rat’ Platten
‘Cowboy’ Neale
‘Scratcher’ Neale
Terry ‘Wallet’
And….. I went through my B Grade footy career referred to as ‘Fester’ by one of my team mates. (Fester Fumbles of Adventure Island.)
Tangles?
#10. So Phantom, was there a Miser Meany in the team? I imagine there would’ve been a few “Clowns” too.
“Rocket” Rod Laver
The Golden Bear
The Great White Shark.
Hmmm. GWS. Wonder if he’s a supporter of Kevin Sheedy’s team?
Gigs,
when I was on the ground the ‘Miser Meanys’ were my team mates. They refused to share the ball with me.
I used to double up as the ‘Clown’ as well.
Happy now?
Always happy reading your comments and articles, Phantom.
Thanks.
Seve
The Galloping Gasometer
#17,
point of order Herr Bergermaster. Isn’t that his name?
Whale
The Ghost
The Beast
The Dominator
There were three other ‘ors” with Carlton at that time but it is perhaps inappropriate to mention them in a family forum.
The Little Master
And more from Lou Richards: The Flying Dutchman, The Flying Doormat, The Incredible Hulk.
The ‘Little Master’ is the ‘Happy Wanderer’ now Gigs
Australians: Paper Cut Watson (now the Indestructible Paper Cut of Steel), Krab Katich, Our Phil Hughes, Macaulay Paine, Klutzy Haddin, Lemming Clarke the designated nurdler, Studs Johnson.
Poms: Pik Strauss, Joost Van Der Trott, Skinny Finn, which became Filthy Finn after all the filth he bowled, Chinn Swann, Malfoy Broad, Sledge Crazed Jimmy (thanks, Will Swanton).
My personal favourite: Mohammad Yousuf is Bat Stevens.
Got a few for the umpires, too: Bowfinger, Random & Morgan Freeman. (They could all be prefixed with “that clown”.)
Bart
The Big Cat
Superbrat
Whispering Death
#28,
Brilliant examples.
To quote Mike Brady:
Captain Blood
Captain Blood
The infamous Jack Dyer
Yabby.
Darby Munro
Skeeter Coghlan
Tracker Forbes
Plough
The Macedonian Marvel
WoW Jones
Sticks
Fraser “Pocket sized battleship” Murphy
“Pants” Millane
Ray “the toughest man in football” Card
From the 60s
Polly
The Weed
Big Nick
The Chimp
Michael ‘Disco’ Roach…
… also love that Troy Selwood’s nickname is ‘Bunnings’
Duck
A small group of us used to refer to Jonathan Brown as the ‘Toolman’ for a couple of reasons. One was that he always had the ‘bag of tools’ to fix any problem. The other was that when he first arrived in Brisbane as an 18yr old he, ahem, shagged a university colleague of my wife. She was quite impressed with his talents. We told this story to a friend who named him the Toolman (Roy and HG were big at the time). He was telling a girl, (the girl in question), he had just met at our engagement party why we called JB the Toolman. My wife and I watched on in horror and shame as she said “That was me!” My wife’s response; “I never thought you two would ever meet socially” cracked everyone up.
As it turned out our friend was quite proud of the conquest as by that stage he had turned into quite the player.
If you would like to use the Toolman moniker, feel free…
Dick Stuart – 9 season MLB player who hit over 200 hr’s and had a.260+ average. He could hit.
Alas Stuart was quite a poor fielder, his exploits in the field earned him the nickname “Dr Strangeglove”
Unfortunately his career preceeded the Designated Hitter era.
MCR
Mopsy Fraser
Paddles Hadlee
Murray ‘The Enforcer’ Weidemann
Charlie Manson
Pistol Pete Sampras
Got a picture of Mopsey Fraser in the early 60’s when he was picking apples at our orchard just out of Launceston.
I don’t think anyone’s mentioned “Lethal”.
I’ve always loved the appropriatness of “Swan” McKay.
Our host JTH has reminded us of “the Pearl”.
Does R.S. “and I don’t mean Raymond Shane” count for a prominent jockey of the “80s/90s?
While on racing, “Pumper”.
Has “the Shark” been mentioned?
At the club, he was called “Duck” but he had another nick in the wider community.
Has “Hungry” got a guernsey?
“Toad” will probably only identify Alan Aylett to readers of senior years.
Froggy Thompson, Victorian cricketer and VFL ump.
The real test is the one word recognition.
If I said my sports hero was “Tiger” – it isn’t – Eldrick Woods is the only answer.
For all the thousands of Thommos, only old slingshot doesn’t need a joiner in a pub chat.
“Scobie” was a given for several generations also.
“Flea”
“Marvelous”
“Weary”
Here’s a whole team of them. Don’t know which club specifically but we’ve all heard of them somewhere.
WHY WE GOT BEAT
Acky ad an ankle
Gazza ad a groin
Clarrie ad a corky
Herbie ad a hernia.
Harry ad a hangover
Pete ad piles
Dezzy ad a dose
Morrie ad a migraine
Charlie ad a crucial.
Trev ad the tom tits
Albie ad a achilles
Con ad concussion
Bazza ad a blood nose
Nobby ad a knee
Eddie ad a headache
Stan ad shagger’s back
Ocker ad a shocker
Stevie ad a shoulder
Hammy ad a ammy
Andy ad a AC
Freddie ad the flu
Iad a go, but the umpy adit inferme
“Cowboy”
“Polly”
“The Fridge”
Wally.
Crio, do the Brazilian names like Pele and Ronaldinho count?
For sure Ian. Tom and I were expecting them.
I love the Spanish and Potuguese nicknames that sound so wonderful to our ears…artists, politicians, criminals, sportsmen (interchangeable?).
El Nino
Pele
From Motorsport (with the Daytona 500 this weekend)
Dale Earnhardt Sr (who died 10 years ago almost to the day): The Intimidator
Tony Stewart: Smoke
Kyle Busch: Shrub
Darrell Waltrip (now a commentator): DW
From Cricket
Andrew Flintoff: Freddie
Mike Hussey: Mr Cricket
Chris Martin (NZ Paceman and hopeless batsman): Coldplay (I always use that one for him, may not be official)
Tim Paine: T-Pain
James Hopes: Catfish
Andrew Symonds: Roy (or Simmo….)
Harbhajan Singh: The Turbanator
From The NBA
Hakeem Olajuwon: The Dream
Clyde Drexler: The Glide
Charles Barkley: Sir Charles (little easier than The Round Mound of Rebound)
Karl Malone: The Mailman
Gary Payton: The Glove
David Robinson: The Admiral
Julius Erving: Dr J
Robert Parish: Chief
Anfernee Hardaway: Penny
Mike Fratello (Commentator/former coach): The Tzar (of the telestrator)
From AFL
Chris McDermott: Bone
Steve MacPherson: Supa
Robert Groenewegen: Captain (think back to an infamous end of year trip)
Michael McLean: Magic or Mago
From NRL
Allan Langer: Alfie
Andrew Johns: Joey
Phil Gould: Gus
Paul Vautin: Fatty
Steve Roach: Blocker
Gorden Tallis: The Rampaging Bull
Glenn Lazarus: The Brick With Eyes
Trevor Gillmeister: The Axe
Greg Alexander: Brandy
Brad Fittler: Freddie
Hazem El Masri: El Magic
Daryll Halligan: The Rock
Dan Stains: Undies
More from the racecourse:
Hand-brake,
The Accurate One.
There was a bloke who played for Kalgoorlie City in the Goldfields Football league in the 1960s names Jack Neil. He was tough (dirty) and seemingly impossible to hurt. His nickname was Cement Head.. in the spoken form it came out as Smen Ed.
El Tel
The Divine Ponytail
The White Feather
The Bearded Burbler
# 56
Les, that reminds me of Geelong’s Robert “Scratcher” Neal.
The Pod.
Phantom, ..ref #10
I taught – and later worked with – a fella we dubbed Fester…his was the uncanny likeness to Uncle Fester.
Damo,
Love the El Tel call…because it could be no other. London’s “Sun” was masterly with their tags.
#9 – Gigs – your reference to “EJ” got me thinking. Are there any other sports people known just by their initials? In fact is anyone famous simply known by their initials, and no other nickname? I can only think of JFK.
EJ was also Mr Football, and only in Aussie Rules could that nickname carry more weight the ‘God’.
Has Dipper and Pants been cited yet?
Cheers
Dips,
JC?
The program for the V8s in Abu Dhabi last week had a list of nicknames that were mostly initials or extended forms eg. GT – Garth Tander or Brighty – Jason Bright
The only two of note were The Enforcer – Russell Ingall and Frosty – Mark Winterbottom
Shane Van Gisbergen is known as the Cheeseburger amongst his peers, but not in this program…
Gus,
Jason Arnberger was also known as “Cheesy” – there was a time when cheeseburgers were put on the fence to lure him!
Dips #62, ET?
Galaxy Coleman Footscray CHF
“Backdoor” Benny Elias
Dips #62,
JFK played bonking at the highest level if I remember correctly.
(Happy birthday Mr President)
Dips #62 In the horse racing fraternity, a very famous trainer (now deceased but with a Group 1 race named after him), was universally known as TJ, when his given name wasn’t used.
BT is a possible example, but I’m not sure how much that’s imprinted on my brain by his media employers popularising the initials.
Perhaps SOS is worth a mention; Sugar (the lesser Healy); Twinkletoes (Laurie Dwyer – because as well as demonstrating great footwork on the field, he was a ballroom dancer of note); Crazy Horse (Cowton); “Dutchy” Holland, NSW spinner – a common appelation for anyone originating from the Netherlands but in Bob’s case just a reflection of his family name.
Yeah, BT shows the imaginative MMM approach. He was Barge at Prahran.
Great win this morning for a classic nickname…
“Dresses” Baddeley (badds.com)
#65…..Ingall’s team owner and 2nd tier series driver Paul Morris is known as “The Dude” or by many as “The Dirty Dangerous Dude” (because of his driving style and the fact he’s hit just about every driver in the field), and drove a car that was literally “The Love Machine”!
There is only one original “Bluey” (Shelton).
And everyone knew who we were talking about whenever we mentioned “Carl” or “Royce”.
That’s right Mark…and young ‘uns, its not Karl Langdon and Royce Vardy!
There was a bookie in Adelaide known as the “White Ant”…a terminal pest, it was even used in his (unfortunate) presence!
#77 reminds me of team mate of Karl Langdon who was known as “Jobby”
Great call Chalk. Could only refer to one player.
Two of the classics from suburban footy. The Pope, shortened to Pope over time, because he’d never pass the pill, and Tickets.
Great call that Pope one Pal.
We had a bloke at Old Scotch (in Launceston) they called ‘The Moth”. He was never out on the training track on dark, cold winter nights. He was always on the trainer’s table under the lamp.
heard a good one on a sports radio staion last week…”The Ant” because he was always picking up things 4 times his size [in the nightclub sense not the gym]
Leigh Brown is “Anvil” – when he played for Freo anyway.
Not sure that it qualifies as immediately recognisable but I can’t think of a more apt nickname for a footballer.
Justin Longmuirs smaller brother was known as ‘Shortmuir’
No matter what the context, whenever I hear the word ‘Demon’ used I immediately that great picture of Fred Spofforth, in cap with moustache twiddling a ball in his fingers.
Crackers, Knuckles and we had a bloke running around at Braybrook in the eighties called Autumn Leaves I think it was because he was always laying on the ground
As a kid in adelaide, Dad always told me about the jumps jockey known as Autumn Leaves. His wife would pack his hospital bag for him before he left for the races. His record was impeccable.
His name is Les Boots. Bayden Findlay did a doco on him. He had 38 rides and fell off 39 times.
Yeah. He’s Autumn Leaves. Hilarious.