The Shadow
When it comes to nicknames of sports figures, perhaps “The Sultan of Swat” stands out as much as any nickname given to any athlete.
George Herman Ruth earned more than “The Sultan of Swat” as a nickname, and he became known as “The Babe,” a nickname that led to a lawsuit against a candy company that produced a Babe Ruth bar that was changed to Baby Ruth to avoid associating the candy bar with the slugger.
In the annals of college basketball, Pete Maravich, who registered more shot attempts in three years than any other college player has managed in four years, earned the moniker, “Pistol” Pete.
Maravich’s single-game scoring record at LSU of 69 points in a 106-104 loss to Alabama on Feb. 7, 1970, stood till Kevin Bradshaw of U.S. International racked up 72 points against Loyola Marymount on Jan. 5, 1991.
On the high school basketball level, Kelly Coleman who set numerous records in the 1950s in Kentucky at Wayland High School before the one-plus-one and the three-point basket were added to the game, earned more than one nickname.
Not only was Coleman selected as Kentucky’s first Mr. Basketball, but he earned the nickname, “King Kelly,” and “Machine Gun Kelly” by the end of his four years as a starter for the Wayland Wasps.
His record of scoring 68 points against Bell County High School in the state tournament has never been equaled, and he continues to hold several state tournament records that he set 66 years ago.
In the PGA, Jack Nicklaus became known as the “Golden Bear,” and his 1986 victory at the Masters gave him his sixth green jacket, one more than Tiger Woods has received for winning the most prestigious golf tournament of them all.
As for the NBA, no greater player than Wilt Chamberlain, who holds the single-game scoring record of 100 points, has received a more fitting nickname, “The Big Dipper.”
In the sport of professional boxing, almost every boxer has a nickname, but none surpass that of heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey, “The Manassa Mauler.”
Some athletes tag themselves with nicknames, and others come by them honestly when sportswriters, fans or teammates label them without their consent.
For example, “King” was given to Kelly Coleman by Gordon Moore, a sportswriter for “The Floyd County Times” in Prestonsburg, Ky. Moore printed Coleman’s four-year stats on leaflets and hired a pilot to fly his airplane to drop the leaflets over the City of Lexington, Ky. during state tournament time in 1956.
A “Lexington Herald Leader” sportswriter then gave Coleman the dubious nickname, “Machine Gun Kelly,” because Coleman took so many shot attempts during his first tournament game at Memorial Coliseum where he set numerous records yet to be broken.
Coleman scored more than 4,000 points during his high school career from 1952-1956.
