Fan Nickname / Sports

Let's face it: sports, whether professional or "amateur", don't have a lot of meaning if not for the fans who watch them. And those fan bases can get rather creative when it comes to naming stuff. Not to mention the sportswriters, radio/TV commentators, and other analysts, many of whom are essentially professional sports fans. Then there are the occasional cases where the players themselves give one another nicknames which fans then latch onto. So it's only appropriate that the world of sports has a wide and colorful list of nicknames.

American Football

Individual players

• Marion the Barbarian - Marion Barber, a running back known during his tenure with the Dallas Cowboys for his wild dreadlocks and bruising running style that made him very hard to tackle. This can be seen in plays like this.
• Former Pittsburgh Steelers running back Jerome Bettis is nicknamed The Bus because the 250+-pounder dragged would-be tacklers behind him like bus passengers as he ran.
• Tom Brady was often called TFB by fans of the New England Patriots, where he played the first 20 years of his NFL career. (His full name is Thomas Edward Patrick Brady Jr.) There's also "TB12" (12 being Brady's jersey number). He has also been called "Tom Terrific".
• New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees has been referred to as "Breesus" due to being heralded as a savior for the city of New Orleans by bringing home the Saints' first Super Bowl victory while the city was still reeling from the effects of Hurricane Katrina. His poise in the huddle and high-level play has also earned him such monikers as "Cool Brees" and "Hurricane Drew".
• During his first season as the Cincinnati Bengals' starter, current New Orleans Saints quarterback Andy Dalton endeared himself to the fans with his surprisingly effective play (he would lead Cincinnati to the Wild Card Round of the playoffs in what most people believed was a rebuilding year) and by about midseason had earned the nickname "The Red Rifle" for his playing prowess and bright ginger hair. "The Ginger Ninja" and "The Ginger Hammer" are popular as well.
  • The connection between him and renowned wide receiver AJ Green (drafted the same year) was called "The Christmas Connection" because red and green are colors associated with Christmas.
• Blake Bortles, current backup QB for the Los Angeles Rams (and former Jacksonville Jaguars starter), has been called "WarBortles" due to his name rhyming with popular Pokémon Wartortle.
• The Miami Dolphins, for a good 30 years, had good to great QBs that got their own well-deserved nicknames. First was Earl Morrall, The Patron Saint of Backup Quarterbacks, who in the course of his 21-year career was the starter for 6 of them, with two of those six years ending in a Super Bowl appearance and another two as the primary backup. Then there was WoodStrock, so named because of starter David Woodley and backup Don Strock. Woodley would start, and was average at best, before Strock would come in and jump-start the offense. This lasted 3 years before Miami drafted Dan "The Man" Marino, who would go on to replace Woodley his rookie year, and then rewrite the record book for passing and become the face of the franchise.
• Former Philadelphia Eagles safety end Brian Dawkins got nicknamed "Weapon X".
• "Big Dick Nick" - for Indianapolis Colts backup QB Nick Foles, who was Super Bowl LII MVP for his first team, the Philadelphia Eagles.
  • "St. Nick", in light of how Foles had stepped in as QB around Christmastime in both 2017 and 2018, as well as studying to become a minister and being an all-around Nice Guy.
• Maurice Jones-Drew, recently retired from the Jacksonville Jaguars, wore the nickname "Pocket Hercules" for his rushing prowess despite a lack of height at only about 5'7".
  • Similarly, recently drafted Tampa Bay Bucs running back Doug Martin has been called the "Muscle Hamster" in some circles.
  • Darren Sproles, now in the Philadelphia Eagles' front office after great success as a running back and return specialist for the Chargers, Saints, and Eagles, has been nicknamed "Tiny Pocket Darren" for the same reason.
• Former Patriots and Bengals running back BenJarvus Green-Ellis is called "the Law Firm" because of his several names.
• Charles Edward Greene, better known as "Mean Joe" Greene. Defensive Tackle and the cornerstone of the "Steel Curtain" defense that helped establish the Pittsburgh Steelers' dynasty of the 70's. Not to mention the star of one of the most iconic commercials of the '70s.^note While some accounts claim that his alma mater of North Texas changed its nickname to "Mean Green" to honor him, that claim doesn't hold up to any kind of scrutiny.
• "Sexy Rexy" for NFL quarterback Rex Grossman. Started out as a nickname given to him by his former coach Steve Spurrier when both were at the University of Florida.
  • Fans know Grossman better as "Rax Grissman", a simple corruption of his name based on some surprisingly difficult-to-explain Memetic Mutation.
  • When Grossman was with the Redskins, they drafted Robert Griffin III, aka RG3, at QB in 2012 — which, because Grossman's real name is Rex Grossman III, means they then had two RG3s at the same position.
    • Naturally, Washington fans occasionally referred to Rex as "the other RG3".
  • The nickname would also be applied to former New England Patriots running back Rex Burkhead as well.
• Bo "Tecmo-Super-Bowl-Version-So-OP" Jackson's real name is Vincent Edward. He was constantly getting in trouble at a young age and his family called him a "wild boar hog", which got shortened to "Bo".
• Former Detroit Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson was given the handle "Megatron" by teammates. The name caught on in a big way with fans and the media.
• Former Tennessee Titans running back Chris Johnson earned the nickname "CJ2K" after his stellar 2009 performance where he rushed for over 2,000 yards. Of course, he hasn't come close to repeating that performance since.
• Now-retired cornerback Adam Jones was known as "Pac-Man" due to his ability to make tight turns quickly. As The Atoner, he stopped using the nickname due to its association with his troubled past. That didn't stop sports media, however.
• David "Deacon" Jones, defensive end for the Los Angeles Rams during the 60's and early 70's, also known as the Greatest Defensive End of Modern Football, and made famous by his "Head Slap" maneuver, was nicknamed by the fans of the Rams the "Secretary of Defense".
• Jack Lambert, another member of the Steel Curtain, was occasionally referred to as Count Dracula in Cleats, due to him missing the front four teeth on his upper jaw, leaving him with only the canines on either side.
• Jared Lorenzen, quarterback for the University of Kentucky who attracted a ton of nicknames when he was drafted by the New York Giants. It was really an unholy combination of the NY media's love of nicknaming things, and the fact that he was about 80 pounds heavier than the average quarterback of his height.^note At 6'4", the majority of quarterbacks weigh in somewhere between 220-235 pounds. Lorenzen tipped the scales at over three hundred, roughly equivalent to your average interior defensive lineman. Sadly, he died prematurely in 2019 at age 38 after struggling with weight issues in his post-football life, weighing as much as 560 pounds in his last years. The best of the lot? J-Load, The Battleship Lorenzen, He 8 (Ate) Me, The Round Mound of Touchdown, The Pillsbury Throwboy and The Hefty Lefty.
  • And, of course, the Round Mound is a derivative of The Round Mound of Rebound, one of many nicknames for Charles Barkley.
  • He 8 Me, meanwhile, is a reference to Rod Smart, one of the most visible stars of the short-lived first XFL, whose jersey famously read "He Hate Me".
• Running back Marshawn Lynch, most famous for his time with the Seattle Seahawks, is known as "Beast Mode", stemming from his once remarking that he'd go into "beast mode" during games. He later gained a second nickname, "Skittles", after his habit of eating the eponymous candy during games went viral.
• Peyton Manning, a quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts and Denver Broncos, got the nickname "The Sheriff" for his tendency to "shoot straight" by making long accurate passes, and by being a good leader to his locker rooms.
• "Johnny Football" – Johnny Manziel, Texas A&M Heisman Trophy winner and Cleveland Browns, CFL, and AAF bust... who got the nickname in high school.
• The legendary Joe Montana gained a handful of nicknames:
  • "Joe Cool" for his ability to stay calm and perform in big games.
  • "The Comeback Kid" for his ability to lead his team to victories after falling behind.
  • "Bird Legs" due to his skinny legs.
  • "Golden Joe" or "The Golden Great" due to his most famous exploits happening when he was playing for San Francisco (a city in the "Golden State" of California).
• Former Miami Dolphins running back Eugene "Mercury" Morris. So named due to his lightning quick speed, at the time of his retirement he was 3rd in all-time yards per carry, and is currently 6th.
  • His teammates in the backfield, Larry Csonka and Jim Kiick, were known as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
• Denver Broncos (and former University of Georgia) running back Knowshon Moreno is referred to by detractors as "No-Show Moreno", for being both overrated and injury-prone.
• Randy Moss, in his younger years, was known as "Super Freak" for his... well, freakish athleticism as well as an uncanny ability to make seemingly impossible catches look easy.
• New York Jets QB "Broadway Joe" Namath, so-called because of his jet-setter lifestyle which was highly irregular among professional athletes at the time (sixties to seventies).
• Carolina Panthers and former New England Patriots quarterback Cam Newton accrued a startling amount of nicknames in his first year with the Panthers. Among all his monikers, two really stand out, "SuperCam" (known in his rookie year for occasional superhuman plays. Also, his touchdown celebration references Superman.) and "Ace Boogie".
• Former Detroit Lions quarterback Dan Orlovsky is often called "Safety Dan" (a play upon the Men Without Hats song "Safety Dance") because of how during the Lions' infamous 0-16 season in 2008, he mistakenly ran out of the end zone during a game against the Minnesota Vikings, giving them a safety. For extra fail, those 2 points ended up making the margin of victory the Vikings needed.
• Former journeyman quarterback Kyle Orton was once known more for the unfortunate facial hair he sported while with Chicago than any of his on-field accomplishments, leading to the nickname "Dread Pirate Neckbeard".
• Chicago Bears running back Walter Payton was referred to as "Sweetness" since he was such a Nice Guy.
• William Perry, a.k.a. "The Fridge" or "The Refrigerator" for his large size. He is a former lineman for the dominant Chicago Bears defense of the eighties and early nineties.
• Longtime Vikings running back Adrian Peterson was known as "AD" (All Day) in college. This quickly reverted to the more sensible "AP" when he reached the pros — but a lot of people inside and outside the Vikings' fanbase also referred to him as "Purple Jesus".
• Former San Diego/Los Angeles Chargers QB Philip Rivers was often referred to as "Marmalard" by sports writer Drew Magary, due to his passing resemblance to Greg Marmalard from Animal House.
  • Magary also calls former Jets QB Sam Darnold and current Bengals QB Joe Burrow "My son" because both look a LOT like Magary. After Burrow's rise to prominence and Darnold being considered a bust, Magary started to call Darnold "My former son".
• Pittsburgh Steelers QB "Big Ben" Roethlisberger.
  • Or "Captain Fat Fuck, Leader of Men" by YouTuber UrinatingTree during UT's Days of Our Steelers segments. This was due to Roethlisberger spending most of the 2018 season throwing his teammates under the bus and blaming them for his mistakes during key games. Similarly, UT also gave Antonio Brown the name "The Diva".
• Poor Tony Romo (starting QB for the Dallas Cowboys before being overtaken by rookie Dak Prescott while injured in 2016, and then retiring to the broadcast booth) is known to haters as "Tony Homo". It's also hard to imagine he didn't hear that one as a schoolyard taunt when he was a boy.
  • And his fans were known as the "Romosexuals".
  • After retiring and becoming a beloved color analyst, Romo's ability to predict plays before they happen gave him the name "Romostradamus"
• Matt Ryan, quarterback of the Indianapolis Colts, got the nickname "Matty Ice" from his Boston College days for his cool and collected play under pressure. Critics can twist the nickname and use it to allude to how he frequently freezes up in the NFL playoffs.
• Deion Sanders was known as "Neon Deion" and "Prime Time", both referring to his flamboyant personality and his love of fame and acclaim.
• "The Kansas Comet", Gale Sayers, running back for the Chicago Bears from 1965 to 1971, nicknamed for his speed on the field and his Kansas origins (born in Wichita, though he grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and played college ball at the University of Kansas).
• O. J. Simpson, back in his running back days with the Bills in the 70's, was "The Juice". 'Cause, you know, orange juice...
  • Which in turn led Bills fans to call the offensive line "The Electric Company"... because they turned on The Juice.
• Tim Tebow was a spiritual predecessor (in more ways than one) to Jeremy Lin during the 2011–12 sports year, and became known for his uncanny ability to lead improbable game-winning drives and comebacks (mainly with the Denver Broncos) despite utilizing a playing style considered unorthodox and largely ineffective in the NFL.
  • His nation-sweeping popularity became known as "Tebowmania", which may have been a nod to Hulk Hogan's "Hulkamania". (Not to mention that Tebow has a very All-American Face-like air about him.)
  • "Tebow Time" referred to the fourth quarter and overtime, where Tebow at times inexplicably turned into an unstoppable force despite the fact that his performances through the first three quarters were often mediocre to lackluster.
• Longtime New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts kicker Adam Vinatieri wore the nickname "Iceman" for a while because of his ability to consistently come through with field goals in high-pressure situations — the most famous being his performance in 2001 against the Oakland Raiders, where he kicked a game-tying 45-yarder in a ''blizzard'' to send the game into overtime, then made a second field goal to send the Patriots to the next round of the playoffs. The Pats would go on to win that year's Super Bowl - on a game-winning kick by Vinatieri as time expired.
• Former Houston Texans (and Arizona Cardinals) defensive end J.J. Watt is J.J. Swat(t) due to his swatted passes total.
• The late Reggie White, a Hall of Fame defensive end with the Green Bay Packers and Philadelphia Eagles, was known during his tenure in the league as "The Minister of Defense" — in no small part because he was actually an ordained Evangelical minister.
• "Rowdy" Roddy White of the Atlanta Falcons, inspired by famous pro wrestler "Rowdy" Roddy Piper.
• Denver Broncos and ex-Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson goes by "DangeRuss" for his aggressive and unpredictable playmaking.
• The three key players of the '90s-era Dallas Cowboys team are collectively known as "The Triplets": Troy Aikman (QB), Michael Irvin (WR), and Emmitt Smith (RB). They also won three Super Bowls as well.
• The Packers are notable for having had players such as Johnny "Blood" McNally, "Mad Dog" Douglass, and Frankie "Bag O'Donuts" Winters, amongst others.
• "Gronknandez", or “the Boston TE party” — Used to refer to the tight end duo of Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez that broke out during the 2011 season, and completely changed the dynamic of the New England Patriots offense.
• Tight end George Kittle of the San Francisco 49ers is a massive fan of professional wrestling, leading to him gaining multiple nicknames that reference the biggest names in the industry. These include "Stone Cold Kittle" and "The People's Tight End", the latter of which is notable for being endorsed by The Rock himself.
• Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs, due to his status as the heir apparent to Tom Brady as the face of the NFL as far as quarterbacks are concerned, has been given the nickname "Baby GOAT", in addition to "Kermit".
• Former Denver Broncos QB Drew Lock was called "Horse Cock Lock" by YouTuber Brandon Perna.
  • His fellow Clickbait Sports cohost UrinatingTree similarly calls 49ers QB Brock Purdy "Big Cock Brock".

Other individuals

• New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick is known as "The Hoodie" due to him wearing hooded sweatshirts during games, and sometimes "Darth Hoodie" or "Emperor Belichick" due to his resemblance to Emperor Palpatine. Rival fans call him "Bill Beli-cheat" due to his involvement in the 2007 Spygate scandal, despite him constantly apologizing for it. His previous, and far less successful stint as coach of Cleveland left him with the moniker "Beli-choke" (a name Browns fans hang on to).
• Chris Berman — "Boomer"
  • Berman is the champion of this trope. So much so that fans are pretty much tired of his shtick.
• Cris Collinsworth — "Collinsworthless" according to some people who don't like him.
• Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones put up over a billion dollars to construct a new Cowboys Stadium (since corporately renamed as AT&T Stadium), which he seems to treat as a favorite child. This has lead the fans and local media to refer to it as: The Boss Hog Bowl, Jerry World, "Jerry Jones' Penis", and the like.
• Les Miles, the now-disgraced former head coach at LSU and Kansas,^*In early 2021, it came out that while at LSU, he had a track record of inappropriate behavior toward female students, and allegedly helped cover up a string of sexual assaults by players is "The Mad Hatter" for his wearing a hat and doing some rather unorthodox things like tasting the grass on the field before a game.
• Legendary coach Bill Parcells got the nickname "The Big Tuna" back in his days as linebackers coach for the New England Patriots.
• During his first coaching stint with the Raiders, Jon Gruden acquired the nickname "Chucky" because of his uncanny appearance to the murderous doll from Child's Play, and it stuck.
• Ron Rivera got dubbed "Riverboat Ron" during his tenure as the Carolina Panthers' head coach because of his aggressive play-calling, e.g. an increased tendency to "go for it" on fourth downs.
• Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin is often referred to as "Omar" because of his uncanny resemblance to Omar Epps.

Teams and other Groups

• Rabid Cleveland Browns fans have "The Dawg Pound".
• Green Bay Packers fans are often called "Cheeseheads". Including wearing big blocks of cheese on their heads. It's a Wisconsin thing; they make a lot of cheese there.
• The most outlandish and extravagantly dressed Raiders fans, especially during the team's two stints in Oakland, all like to congregate to become "The Black Hole".
• "Who Dat Nation" for New Orleans Saints fans, coming to prominence during the team's Super Bowl run in the 2009 season. The name comes from the chant "Who Dat? Who Dat? Who Dat say gonna beat dem Saints?"
  • Cincinnati Bengals fans have a very similar "Who Dey" chant. The two fanbases argue over who copied whom, as both emerged around the same time in the early 1980s.
• Both the Texas A&M Aggies and the Seattle Seahawks use the term "12th Man" to describe the boisterous support the players get from fans (there are eleven players on the field for each team at any time). The two actually got into a legal battle over the term (Texas A&M had the term first); they settled on the Seahawks acknowledging the phrase originating with Texas A&M while the university allows the Seahawks to use the term for themselves.
• Arguments erupt between fans of the Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys over who has better claim to be "America's Team" (the Cowboys used it first). Sometimes Pittsburgh Steelers fans will jump in as well.
  • And then back in the Nineties, when a disproportionate number of Cowboys were busted for possessing/using nose candy, they were known as "South America's Team".
  • Based on the shifting demographics of Texas and growing hatred of the Cowboys everywhere else, they're coming to be known as "Mexico's Team".
• Often times a segment of a football team will earn a nickname due to dominating performances. Some of the more well-known ones (check here for further reference):
  • The Monsters of the Midway: the Chicago Bears defense, originally those of the 1940s and later revived for the 1980s. The original Monsters of the Midway were the University of Chicago Maroons, back when they played major-college football, long before the NCAA split into divisions.
  • The Doomsday Defense: the Dallas Cowboys of the late 1960's and early 1970's.
  • The No-Name Defense: the defense of the early 70's Miami Dolphins, because Dallas Cowboys coach Tom Landry couldn't name anyone on it.
  • The Purple People Eaters: The defensive line of the Minnesota Vikings during the 1970s.
  • The Steel Curtain: The Pittsburgh Steelers' defensive line, also during the 1970s.
  • The Fearsome Foursome: the front four defensive linemen of the 70's Los Angeles Rams.
  • The Electric Company (or The Power Company): The offensive line of the 1970's Buffalo Bills, because they "turned on The Juice (O. J. Simpson)".
  • The Grits Blitz: The defense of the 1977 Atlanta Falcons, who allowed the fewest points (129) in a 14-game season.
  • The Kardiac Kids: The 1980 Cleveland Browns, because of how they had several games decided by last-minute plays.
  • The Orange Crush: The front seven of the Denver Broncos defense in the late 70's. Was revived during the 2015 Broncos season where they had the number one defense, culminating in a Super Bowl victory.
    • That same 2015 defense had another nickname for their defensive backs, The No Fly Zone.
  • The New York Sack Exchange: The early-1980s defensive line of the New York Jets.
  • The Big Blue Wrecking Crew: The mid-to-late-1980s New York Giants defense.
  • The Hogs: The highly effective, road-grading offensive linemen of the Redskins' Glory Days in the late 80s and early 90s, during which time the team won three Super Bowls.
    • These in turn spurred "The Hogettes", a group of (male) fans who for many years dressed up like old ladies and wore plastic pig snouts on their faces.
  • The Fun Bunch: The wide receivers and tight ends of the 1980s Redskins, named so because of their choreographed celebrations when they got into the end zone (which was fairly often). They were actually the primary contributors to the original rules against touchdown celebrations.
    • Within the 'Fun Bunch' there was a smaller sub-group known as the Smurfs - a trio of wide receivers measuring from 5'10" at the tallest to 5'7" at the shortest.
  • The Dome Patrol: The four starting linebackers for the New Orleans Saints^note "Dome" refers to the Superdome, home to the Saints since 1975 in the late 80s and early 90s. (The team used a 3–4 defensive set at the time.)
  • The Greatest Show on Turf: The St. Louis Rams and their high-flying offense of the late '90s and early '00s.
  • The Houston Texans call their revamped defense (and later the team as a whole) "Bulls on Parade."
  • The Legion of Boom: The hard-hitting Seattle Seahawks secondary of the early-to-mid 2010s.
  • Sacksonville: The 2017 Jacksonville Jaguars defensive line.
• Before the Houston Astros, the Killer B's were the Miami Dolphins defense in the 80's, as many as 9 of the 11 starters had a first and/or last name that began with the letter B, with a handful of their backups also having names that began with B, and two of those players had their own nickname, Glenn and Lyle Blackwood, the Bruise Brothers.
• Other times, teams in the midst of really bad stretches of play get less flattering nicknames. The most well-known is the first dozen or so years of the New Orleans Saints; they were so bad year in and year out fans started wearing paper bags over their heads and they became known to history as "the Ain'ts". Others include the Cincinnati "Bungles" (90's and early 2000's), the New England "Patsies" (pretty much the times before and since Tom Brady), the Tampa Bay "Yucs/Yuccaneers" or the slightly more vulgar "Sucks/Suckaneers" (from their inception when they lost their first 26 games ever through to the mid-90's when double-digit loss seasons were common), and the Atlanta "Falcan'ts/Failcons".
• The New York Jets have occasionally been referred to derisively as the New York Jest ever since some Jets fans were seen at a game holding up cards spelling out the team's name... incorrectly. It caught on quite easily because the Jets are generally regarded as a joke. The New York Mets are sometimes known as the "Mest" in reference to this. This has sparked a whole wave of similar derisive nicknames — one of the most popular is the Atlanta Barves.
• A few fans and sports writers have taken to calling the Carolina Panthers "The Cardiac Cats", thanks to their habit of unexpectedly coming back at the last minute, or (on sadder occasions) unexpectedly bungling their lead and losing at the last minute. For better or for worse, a Panthers fan very often has no idea if they will win or lose until the very end of the game.
• College football also sees this:
  • The Ur-Example of the Four Horsemen in sports wasn't the pro wrestling stable, but rather Notre Dame's backfield of the early 1920s. In 1924, famed sportswriter Grantland Rice coined the nickname after seeing Notre Dame upset Army (then a major football power), and a student publicity aide to Fighting Irish coach Knute Rockne made sure it caught on.

    Rice: Outlined against a blue-gray October sky, the Four Horsemen rode again. In dramatic lore their names are Death, Destruction, Pestilence, and Famine. But those are aliases. Their real names are: [Harry] Stuhldreher, [Jim] Crowley, [Don] Miller and [Elmer] Layden. They formed the crest of the South Bend cyclone before which another fighting Army team was swept over the precipice at the Polo Grounds this afternoon as 55,000 spectators peered down upon the bewildering panorama spread out upon the green plain below.

  • The Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team are also known as The Golden Domers, because their golden helmets looks just like the campus's main administration building, which has a golden dome on its entrance. Note that this only refers to the football team, even though the hockey and lacrosse teams also wear golden helmets.
  • In the 1930s, Fordham, a small Catholic school in The Bronx that was then a football powerhouse, had a legendary offensive and defensive line^*in that day, substitution was very limited, so players regularly saw action on both sides of the ball that became known as the Seven Blocks of Granite. One of the Blocks, Vince Lombardi, became even more famous as the iconic coach of the 1960s Green Bay Packers.
  • Speaking of Army, their legendary duo of running backs of the mid-40s, Felix "Doc" Blanchard and Glenn Davis, entered football lore as (respectively) "Mr. Inside" and "Mr. Outside".
  • LSU had its own group of nicknamed players in the last half of the 50s. For background, while substitution rules were a little more liberal than in previous decades, players still had to play both offense and defense. Tigers head coach Paul Dietzel split his roster into three units—the starting White Team, the second-string offensive specialist Go Team, and the second-string defensive specialist Chinese Bandits. Dietzel named the Bandits after characters from the comic strip Terry and the Pirates described as "the most vicious people in the world". The Bandits lived up to that description—while they saw about a fourth of the total playing time, they had a knack for making big defensive plays at critical points, and were a key to LSU's 1958 national championship. They were also the subject of a famous 1959 photo in LIFE in which they dressed in their LSU uniforms, wearing masks resembling aged Chinese men. The Bandits remain a part of LSU lore today, though thankfully without the Chinese stereotypes.
  • In the last part of the 2010s, which saw normal SEC football doormat Kentucky have some of its best seasons in the modern era, Big Blue Nation began calling the Wildcats' offensive line the Big Blue Wall.

Other

• In recent years, the National Football League has become very protective of the trademarked name of its championship game ^note a Super game, usually played in a large Bowl-like stadium. As a result, the name has become practically unmentionable on the radio or TV except in official NFL-sponsored ads or programs. Instead, the event is usually referred to as "The Big Game" (which can cause confusion if you're talking to a fan of the California Golden Bears or Stanford Cardinal, as their annual game is known as "The Big Game").
• The NFL under current commissioner Roger Goodell is known as the "No Fun League" due to an increase in fines, limitations on celebration, etc. It's been used by current players, analysts, etc.
  • During the lockout in 2011, he was called Roger the Dodger due to what players thought as him being less than honest with them about how negotiations were going.
  • Also the "National Felon League" due to its players having more brushes with the law than any other major sport.
• Not even stadiums are immune to nicknaming by fans and media:
  • "The Jungle" - Paycor Stadium, Cincinnati Bengals.
  • "The Frozen Tundra" - Lambeau Field, Green Bay Packers. Thank the 1967 "Ice Bowl" (the NFL Championship Game held at Lambeau between the Packers and visiting Dallas Cowboys) when the game time temperature was −15°F with a wind chill of around −48 °F, as well as NFL Films voiceover Bill Woodson.
    • The Lambeau Leap - The post-touchdown jump into the stands that had its origins in Lambeau Field.
  • As listed above, "JerryWorld" - AT&T Stadium, Dallas Cowboys.
    • Since the stadium picked up AT&T's name, it has also been called the "Death Star", referencing the company's current logo.
  • "The Linc" - Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia Eagles.
    • Before the Linc, there was "The Vet" for the Eagles' old home of Veterans Stadium. The old 700 Level (the highest and therefore cheapest seats) was notorious for really rowdy behavior^note The Vet had its own judicial court and jail cells built in the basement just to deal with them and is most responsible for the reputation of Philly fans in general of being very rowdy.
  • "The 'Stick" - Candlestick Park, former and now-demolished home of the San Francisco 49ers.
  • "The Clink" - Formerly used for Lumen Field, home to the Seattle Seahawks, when it was known as CenturyLink Field. This came about after a stadium name change brought about by Qwest getting bought by CenturyLink (which eventually changed its name to Lumen Technologies).
  • "The Factory of Sadness" - Cleveland Browns Stadium, current home of the team of that name. Coined by a Browns fan after another lifeless loss against the Houston Texans in 2011. In 2018, after rookie QB Baker Mayfield led the Browns to their first win since Christmas 2016, many fans began referring to the stadium as "The Bakery".
  • "The Blast Furnace" - Three Rivers Stadium, former and now-demolished home of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
  • "The House of Pain" - The Astrodome, former home of the Houston Oilers (now Tennessee Titans), earned this name due to the Oilers' hard-hitting style and the ear-piercing decibels of the crowd.
• Several stadiums in college football have nicknames, usually (though not always) due to their schools' long histories of success in the sport:
  • "The Big House" - Michigan Stadium, Ann Arbor (Michigan)
  • "Death Valley" - Tiger Stadium, Baton Rouge (LSU) or Memorial Stadium, Clemson.
  • "Happy Valley" - Penn State. This is a case where it applies to the entire town and surrounding region (State College, PA).
  • "The House that Rockne Built" - Notre Dame Stadium, South Bend, Indiana. So named because it was head coach Knute Rockne's idea to build the stadium.
  • "The Horseshoe" - Ohio Stadium, Columbus (Ohio State).
  • "The Swamp", best known as the nickname for Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, home of the Florida Gators in Gainesville. The nickname actually originated in 1991 with Florida's then-head coach, Steve Spurrier, but the fans quickly bought into it.
    • However, the ur-example was decades earlier at what was then the Southwestern Louisiana Industrial Institute, today known institutionally as the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and athletically as the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns. The school's first football field was next to a small swamp-like lake and got the nickname "The Swamp" from it. The football team would later move to another on-campus facility that was never called "The Swamp", but the nickname came back when the current football stadium, Cajun Field, was built in the early 1970s on university-owned land off the main campus. The nickname fit, as the stadium is in a natural bowl, with the playing surface below sea level. The university started officially acknowledging the nickname in 1988, before Spurrier thought of calling Florida's stadium by that name.
  • "The Blue" – Albertsons Stadium (Bronco Stadium behind the corporate naming rights), Boise State University. So named because of its distinctive blue playing surface.
  • "The Loud House" (no, not that one) – JMA Wireless Dome (historically the Carrier Dome), Syracuse. One of the few domed stadiums in major college football, it got the nickname immediately after it opened due to its high noise levels. (The Dome is also home to Cuse's men's and women's basketball and men's lacrosse teams.)
  • "The Bounce House" – Nickname for UCF's stadium, originally known as Bright House Networks Stadium and later as Spectrum Stadium. It got the name when it was found that the stadium noticeably shook when the crowd jumped in unison. When the naming rights deal expired in 2020 and UCF couldn't find a new sponsor, the school made it an Ascended Meme, officially renaming the stadium Bounce House. They found a new sponsor in 2022 and the official name is now FBC Mortgage Stadium.
• The NFC North Division (and before it, the NFC Central) is sometimes called the "Norris Division" (you can thank Chris Berman for this one, too). This is a reference to the old Norris Division of the National Hockey League, which shared three metro areas (Chicago, Detroit, and Minneapolis–St. Paul) with the football division. In addition, since the 2002 realignment that sent Tampa Bay to a different division, all of the football division's remaining teams (the three aforementioned teams plus Green Bay) play in cities that get very cold during the football season^note although Detroit and Minnesota play their games in indoor stadiums where weather is largely irrelevant.
• The NFC East division was so bad in 2020 (the four teams finished 7-9, 6-10, 6-10, and 4-11-1) that fans began referring to it as the "NFC Least".
• Similar to the previous example, any time an NFL division appears to be really weak, fans will say that the top lowly division leader is the "King of Trash Mountain." This is usually heard for the AFC South and NFC South, which have been two of the weaker NFL divisions throughout the 2020s.
• "The Curse of Phillip Fulmer" or "Fulmer's Revenge" for the period beginning with Fulmer's departure from the University of Tennessee as head coach following the 2008 season and ending with his return to UT as athletic director following the 2017 season (and arguably continuing through his retirement as AD in January 2021), an era known for very few highs and very many lows.
• "Ol' Crimson" is the flag that Washington State Cougars fans have waved at every telecast of College GameDay, ESPN's pregame show for its Saturday game coverage, since 2003.^note Technically not every telecast, but neither ESPN nor Wazzu consider the network's GameDay shows that air in the preseason or at the site of the national title game as part of the flag's ongoing streak of appearances. That said, Ol' Crimson has often shown up at those as well. During the 2020 season, heavily impacted by COVID-19, GameDay only featured the hosts with no fans... but ESPN kept the streak going, featuring a weekly segment in which they cut to a live remote feed of Ol' Crimson being flown, usually near the location of the featured game.

Auto Racing

Formula One

• The Italian driver Vitorio Brambrilla was nicknamed "The Monza Gorilla" for his furious, overdrivng, car-breaking style.
• Rough, tough dark-haired Aussie Jack Brabham was "Black Jack".
• Niki Lauda was "The Rat" for his pointy nose and prominent teeth. He later became "King Rat".
• Argentine Carlos Reutemann was "Lole", his compatriot José Froilan González was earlier known as "The Pampas Bull" for his ... muscular driving style.
• Fellow Argentine Juan Manuel Fangio is known as "El Maestro", because he was (and still is) considered to be one of the greatest Formula One drivers of all time.
• Alain Prost was known as "The Professor" (or sometimes "Le Professeur") for his precise, clinical driving style.
• Nigel Mansell was known as "Il Leone" (The Lion) during his tenure at Ferrari, thanks to a series of balls-out passing moves.
• Perennial Belgian backmarker Eric van der Poele was affectionately "Eric far from Pole".
• Michael Schumacher, during his Ferrari years, was sometimes known as "The Red Baron". More popularly, he is known as "Schumi".
  • After the 2000 Belgian GP, his closest rival Mika Häkkinen referred to him in one interview as "the Michael", to which was also inevitably adopted by fans.
• Sebastian Vettel is often considered as "Baby Schumi" or "Next Schumacher", especially when he absolutely dominated Formula One as one of the drivers for Red Bull Racing. Those two nicknames were eventually carried over to Michael's son Mick upon his debut in 2021.
  • Another famed nickname of his is "Inspector Seb", due to his occasional habit of inspecting parked F1 cars, whether it be those of his competitors, or his own when something goes wrong with it.
  • Unflatteringly, he also earned the nicknames "Spinbastian" and "Sbinnala", for his occasional tendencies to spin his car.
• Underachiever Jos Verstappen was ironically named "Jos the Boss". The rise of his son Max led him to be nicknamed "Medium Verstappen" in irony.
  • Speaking of Max, some nicknamed him as "Mad Max", due to his ballsy driving style. "Teen" was also a quite popular nickname until he turned 20... in the last half of his third full F1 season. Alternatively, "Super Max", care of this Filk Song. Later on in his career (and after a few wins and podiums,) he was gradually bestowed with the "Flying Dutchman" moniker, which definitely became more prominent after his first World Drivers' Title in 2021.
• Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo slowly garnered the nickname "Honey Badger", partly for his equally fearless driving style, and partially for his very upbeat personality off-track.
  • Funnily enough, he has also been called "Avocado" after a few young F1 fans have pretty much called him that way (probably because his surname was quite tricky to pronounce).
• Nico Rosberg, a baby-faced driver with long, blond hair, is often referred to as "Britney". The name originated from Mark Webber during the 2006 Brazilian GP. While being the son of Keke Rosberg, Nico actually competed under the German flag (his mother's homeland) instead of the Finnish one (hence he was never reported to have adopted the "Flying Finn" moniker below).
• Lewis Hamilton is sometimes referred to as Sir Lewis (owing to his knighthood), the GOAT (for holding many all-time Formula One records — up to and including most race wins, most pole positions and most Drivers' Championship titles tied with Michael Schumacher), and Lulu (as an abbreviation of his name).
• Fernando Alonso spent a while as "Teflonso" after emerging unscathed from two major scandals in 2007-08.
• It has been customary for Finnish F1 drivers (and sometimes drivers from other racing series such as Rally Racing) to gain the nickname "The Flying Finn", with 1982 World Champion Keke Rosberg becoming the first Finn in the sport to adopt the same. Though there have been certain exceptions:
  • The taciturn Kimi Räikkönen eagerly adopted the "Iceman" moniker, on account of his lack of expressiveness.
  • Fellow F1 driver Valtteri Bottas initially earned the nickname "Robottas" due to his quiet nature and occasional awkward moments (which have caused fans to joke that he's actually a robot disguised as a human.) After his win at the 2019 Australian Grand Prix, he was then called the "Porridge Boss"^ExplanationBottas was jokingly asked on the podium at the time by former driver Mark Webber what he had for breakfast which gave him his speed. Bottas genuinely answered porridge, causing fans to claim that porridge is the source of his performance..
• "The Twitch Quartet" – a collective nickname for drivers Alexander Albon (Red Bull Racing, up to 2020), Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), Lando Norris (McLaren), and George Russell (Williams), after having showcased their prowess and candidness via Twitch, particularly in online racing games, during the Pandemic-induced 2020 pre-season break.
  • Out of them, Leclerc and Albon also got their own nicknames, respectively Sharl Legrerg (a memetic pronunciation of Leclerc's name) and Albono (which refers to Albon's Steam nickname).
• Two Japanese drivers with Drives Like Crazy tendencies earned nicknames invoking this, as Ukyo Katayama was nicknamed Kamikaze, while Kamui Kobayashi has been called Cowboyashi, and Kowasabi.
• Drivers with reputations for crashing often get nicknames that reference this. For example...
  • Hunt the Shunt (James Hunt)
  • Andrea de Crasheris (Andrea de Cesaris)
  • Irv the Swerve/Swervin' Irvine (Eddie Irvine)
  • Crashtor Maldonado/Maldozer (Pastor Maldonado)
  • The Torpedo (Danil Kvyat; though the said nickname was coined by Sebastian Vettel after the 2016 Chinese Grand Prix)
  • MazeSpin (Nikita Mazepin)

NASCAR

• "The King" – Not Elvis Presley, but rather legendary NASCAR driver Richard Petty.
• "The Fox", later "The Silver Fox" – Petty's great rival David Pearson.
• "The Intimidator" – Dale Earnhardt Sr. His nickname was so famous, the Minor League Baseball team he partially bought was called the Kannapolis Intimidators until 2020 (after Earnhardt's family had sold its stake in the team; the team is now the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers).
  • Dale was also frequently called The Man in Black, referring to the GM Goodwrench paint scheme typically used on his #3 car.
  • His son Dale Jr. simply became "Junior".
  • You'd frequently get "Big E" and "Little E" to refer to Dale and Dale Jr. respectively.
• "Awesome Bill from Dawsonville" – Bill Elliott.
  • Also known as "Million Dollar Bill", for being the first driver to claim the million dollar bonus after winning three of the four crown jewels in a single season (1985) after winning the Daytona 500, Winston 500 and Southern 500.
• "Wonder Boy" – Jeff Gordon, bestowed upon him by Dale Sr.
• "Rowdy" – Kyle Busch.
  • Others include "Wild Thing", "The Candyman" (for his longtime sponsorship by M&M's and other Mars candy brands), and "Shrub" (because he's the younger Busch brother). "Kyle Kush" also got popular after he moved to RCR in 2023 and gained sponsorship from cannabis retailer 3CHI.
  • His brother Kurt earned the nickname "Radio Sweetheart" for his mouth.
• "Fireball" – Edward Glenn Roberts, which became Harsher in Hindsight when he suffered what proved to be fatal burns after his car burst into flames.^note Interestingly, his nickname dated to his teens, and initially had nothing to do with his driving—it came from his fastball, as he was a promising pitcher in baseball before deciding to make racing his full-time career.
• "Sliced Bread" – Joey Logano, bestowed by NASCAR driver Randy LaJoie when he saw the then-15-year-old Logano racing.
• Harry Gant had a few nicknames stick with him throughout his career:
  • "Handsome Harry" Gant due to his Hollywood good looks.
  • "The Bandit" due to his longtime sponsorship by the Skoal Bandit smokeless tobacco brand.
  • "Mr. September" after winning four consecutive Cup Series races and two Busch Series races in September 1991.
  • "High Groove" Harry because he usually ran the high line in a corner.
• "Texas Terry" – Terry Labonte, because his hometown was Corpus Christi. "Iceman" was another one, for his Nerves of Steel.
• "The Closer" – Kevin Harvick, due to his ability to win races that he wasn't a threat to even win. Fuel mileage is Kevin's usual partner-in-crime when this ability kicks in.
  Larry MacReynolds: WHERE DID HE COME FROM?!
  • His Hair-Trigger Temper and predilection for fights, especially early on, earned him the nickname "Happy Harvick".
• "The Mayor" – Jeff Burton.
• "Mr. Excitement" – Jimmy Spencer, from his aggressive driving in his modified days.
• "Rocketman" – Ryan Newman, for setting a record six poles in his rookie season and for his engineering degree from Purdue, a university famous for NASA alumni.
• "That Jones Boy" – Erik Jones, after commentator Ken Squier kept calling him that during the 2017 Southern 500.
• "Superman" – Jimmie Johnson, one of the winningest drivers in NASCAR's modern era and tied with Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt for most Cup Series championships. Him passing Earnhardt on the all-time win list while driving a Superman paint scheme^note Specifically to promote Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice; teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. ran a Batman paint scheme that same race. is what sealed the deal.
  • His consecutive championships led to the nickname "[Number]-Time", with the number increasing with each Cup he took home, even after his consecutive streak ended in 2011. It finally settled on "Seven-Time" after he retired in 2020 with seven championships to his name. (Johnson would eventually return on a part-time basis in 2023.)
• "The Cuban Missile" – Aric Almirola, a nickname from his college days.
• "The Rooster" – Ricky Rudd.
• "Jaws" – Darrell Waltrip, coined by Cale Yarborough for his mouthy attitude in the early 80's.
• "DiBurrito" – a memetic mangling of Matt DiBenedetto's last name.
  • Similarly, "Fast Pasta" for Anthony Alfredo, punning on his last name.
    • And "Cold Custard" for Cole Custer.
• "Front-Row" Joe Nemechek, whose excellent qualifying efforts didn't exactly translate to success on the race track.
• "The Cat in the Hat" – Team owner Jack Roush, rarely seen without his trademark Panama hat.
• "Hollywood" Tim Richmond, for his good looks and playboy lifestyle that were at odds with NASCAR's "Good Ol' Southern Boy" image at the time.
• "Watermelon Man" – Ross Chastain, who grew up on a watermelon farm in Florida and celebrates victories by smashing them. His ballsy wall-riding move to get a 4th-place finish at the 2022 fall race at Martinsville to earn a spot in the championship finale was immediately dubbed the "Hail Melon" by the fans and media.
  • On the other hand, his habit of running into other drivers on the track and earning their ire led to him being dubbed "The Human Wrecking Ball".
• "The Biff" – Greg Biffle.
• Iconic liveries/sponsorships sometimes attract reverent nicknames, and even extend to their respective pit crews:
  • As mentioned above, Dale Earnhardt's primarily black GM Goodwrench livery led to his "Man in Black" nickname.
  • "Rainbow Warrior" – Jeff Gordon's rainbow-clad #24 DuPont Chevrolet from 1992 to 2000.
  • "Silver Bullet" – the #40 Coors Light Dodge fielded by Chip Ganassi Racing from 2001 to 2007, driven at various points by Sterling Marlin, Jamie McMurray, and David Stremme.
  • "Killer Bees" – any team sponsored by DeWalt Power Tools, chief among them the #17 Roush (Fenway) Racing Ford driven by Matt Kenseth from 2000 to 2009, and the #20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota since 2015.
• Like in F1, competitors who Drive Like Crazy and/or cause enough wrecks get appropriate monikers:
  • "Swervin'" Ernie Irvan.
  • "Wrecky Spinhouse Jr." – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
  • "John Wrecks Weekly" – John Wes Townley.
• The mobile command trailer where the upper NASCAR brass is stationed during races and displicinary action is handed out is known as "The Oval Office".^note For the oval logos of the top-three series that adorned the trailer during the 2000s and 2010s. The name stuck even after all the series logos became rectangular. Before that, it was known as "The Big Red/Blue Truck".^note Red for the Winston Cup and Craftsman Truck Series logos, and blue for the Busch Series.

IndyCar drivers

• Al Unser Sr. and Jr. became "Big Al" and "Little Al".
• Spider-Man – Hélio Castroneves, from his standard victory celebration of climbing the catch fence.

MotoGP riders

• The Doctor – Valentino Rossi. He used to have other nicknames like "Rossifumi" (during his 125cc stint; named after now-late Japanese rider Norifumi Abe) and "Valentinik" (during his 250cc stint; named after Paperinik); but once he stepped up to 500cc/MotoGP, he became "The Doctor".
• The Baby Alien or the Ant of Cervera – Marc Márquez.
• Super Sic – Marco Simoncelli.
• King Kenny – Not Kenny Dalglish, but Kenny Roberts Sr.
• Ago – Giacomo Agostini.
• The Kentucky Kid – Nicky Hayden.

Rally Drivers

• Much like Finnish F1 drivers, a lot of rally drivers from Finland have been given the "Flying Finn" moniker. Which comes as no surprise since rally cars tend to get airborne a lot.
• "Genie auf Rädern" (German for "Genius on Wheels"), "The Human Computer" – Walter Röhrl, 1982 WRC champion
• "El Matador" – Carlos Sainz Sr., two-time WRC Champion and all-around Rally Legend, having also raced (and won) in the Dakar Rally.
  • His son Carlos Jr. (who, in stark contrast, races in F1) earned the nickname "Smooth Operator", after his singing antics in the 2019 British GP.
• "Superwoman" – Michele Mouton, first Female Rally Driver to compete in WRC (and finished second overall in the 1982 season, losing barely to the abovementioned Röhrl). The description came personally from F1 legend Niki Lauda.

Courses and tracks

• The Nürburgring's infamous Nordschleife (North Loop) is nicknamed as the "Green Hell" (coined by Formula One legend Sir Jackie Stewart) due to its difficulty and many forested sections. It is also jokingly called the "Burgerking", a corruption of its real name.
  • In relation to the above, the late Sabine Schmitz is unanimously hailed as the "Queen of the 'Ring", for having gone round the said circuit more than 20,000 times, a feat that no other driver has ever surpassed to this day.
• The Autodromo Internazionale di Monza is sometimes called the "Temple of Speed" by Formula One fans, thanks to it being the track with the highest average speeds in the calendar.
• "F1's Crown Jewel" for the Monte Carlo circuit in Monaco, due to its historical importance to the sport as a whole, and to the vast number of the rich and famous who visit there every race weekend.
• The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is "The Brickyard". When opened in 1909, it was essentially a slightly smoother version of a gravel road, but safety concerns led the owners to pave it with bricks shortly after its opening, hence the nickname. The original brick pavement has been covered over by asphalt for decades, except for a symbolic strip of bricks exactly 1 yard (91.44 cm) wide marking the start/finish line.
• Darlington Raceway in South Carolina, one of NASCAR's most iconic tracks, has a couple of nicknames:
  • "The Lady in Black" – An apocryphal story claims that in the '50s, the maintenance crew would cover the track in fresh asphalt sealant the night before a race, making the surface black.
  • "The Track Too Tough to Tame" – From its deserved reputation as one of the most difficult tracks for NASCAR drivers. It's an oval with two dramatically different ends, making it difficult for crews to set up cars' handling to be effective at both ends. It's not uncommon for a driver to circle the track for many laps with no trouble, only to scrape the wall on the next one.
• Dover International Speedway, a NASCAR track in Delaware, is "The Monster Mile".
• Pocono Raceway, a track in Pennsylvania, has the "Tricky Triangle" moniker due to its straightaways all being different lengths and all three corners being different.
• Martinsville Speedway in Virginia is "The Paperclip" for its long, narrow shape.

Baseball

Players and other individuals

New York Yankees

Due to their long history of success, many Yankees players have earned nicknames.

• George Herman Ruth is better known as "The Babe".
  • "The Curse of the Bambino" has been used to refer to the Boston Red Sox' inability to win a World Series after trading Babe Ruth (the "Bambino" in question) to the aforementioned Yankees - during that time the Yankees won 26 World Series and the Red Sox none. They finally ended it in 2004.
  • Babe Ruth's list of nicknames is incredibly long, actually. The Great Bambino, the Sultan of Swat, the King of Crash, and literally dozens more in that fashion.
• Longtime Yank great Lou Gehrig was known not just for his stellar play, but his unbelievable durability, garnering the nickname "The Iron Horse".
  • In a sad twist of fate, the degenerative nervous disease that eventually claimed his life became known colloquially in North America as "Lou Gehrig's Disease".^note Its technical name is amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
• Another legendary player, Joe DiMaggio, was called "Joltin' Joe" and "The Yankee Clipper".
• Mickey Mantle was appreciatively called "The Mick" by many of the fans who followed his long career.
• Amongst Red Sox fans, Russell Early "Bucky" Fucking Dent and Aaron Bleeping Boone. Both seemingly came out of nowhere to hit critical homers against the Red Sox:
  • Dent hit just 40 homers in his 12-year career, but one of them was a 3-run shot in the 7th inning over the Green Monster in the 1978 AL East one-game playoff, a game the Yankees won 5–4.
  • Boone had been with the Yankees less than three months, having been traded from the Cincinnati Reds. He entered the deciding Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS against the Red Sox as a pinch-runner and hit an 11th inning walk-off homer to win the game for the Yankees 6–5 and get them to the World Series. 15 years later, he assumed the post of team manager.
• Mariano Rivera, who in all likelihood will go down as the best closer in history, is known as simply "Mo".
• Alex Rodriguez, former third baseman for the Yankees, has been dubbed "A-Rod".
  • This extends to other players whose last name is Rodriguez, like Francisco (K-Rod, since he's a pitcher and strikes are represented by the letter K) and Iván (I-Rod, though "Pudge" is more common).
    • Not just people named Rodriguez, but anyone whose last name starts with "Rod". Both longtime Green Bay Packers (now New York Jets) quarterback Aaron Rodgers and tennis pro Andy Roddick are also known as A-Rod (and sometimes "A-Rodg", in the case of the former). There was actually a Sports Center commercial where Roddick was upset that "A-Rod" wasn't catching on as a nickname for him in light of Rodriguez.
  • A-Rod became A-Roid after he was revealed to be on list of players who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs. A list that was supposed to be confidential.
    • He was also widely known as A-Fraud to Yankee fans (and even his teammates, according to former Yankees manager Joe Torre), due to his tendency to underperform in the postseason. Now that he's finally won a World Series with the Yankees, that nickname fell into disuse (until the steroids thing reared its head again).
    • After leaving Seattle for $252 million from the Rangers, "Pay-Rod" was frequently used in Seattle.
• "The Boss" to late owner George Steinbrenner, who was very hands-on and notoriously temperamental when it came to the day-to-day operations of the team during his tenure as owner. His win-at-any-cost mentality was pretty literal, whether that cost is monetary or otherwise - he was even banned from baseball in 1990 by Commissioner Fay Vincent for paying a private investigator to "dig up dirt" on Dave Winfield, who was with the Yankees at the time (he was reinstated three years later).
• Derek Jeter got a couple of nicknames from his postseason prowess—"Captain Clutch" and "Mr. November". The latter, a play off Reggie Jackson's "Mr. October" nickname, was first used in the wake of Jeter's walk-off homer shortly after midnight on November 1 to end Game 4 of the 2001 World Series. This was the first Major League Baseball game ever to occur in that month. (The Series wasn't originally scheduled to end in November, but was pushed back because of 9/11.)
• Hideki Matsui's nickname "Godzilla" was originally a jab by Japanese media for his skin problems, but soon came to refer to his hitting prowess. The nickname stuck when Matsui signed with the Yankees in 2003.
• Clint Frazier has been occasionally nicknamed "Red Thunder", although he officially dropped the nickname before the 2019 season.

Other Teams

• The St. Louis Cardinals have had quite a few in first half of the 20th century, including: Enos "Country" Slaughter, "Dizzy" Dean, "Red" Schoendienst, and (most famously) Stan "The Man" Musial.
  • Invoked by the press on Dizzy's younger brother, Paul Dean, who was simply Paul. The press called him "Daffy" to complement his brother's nickname.
  • Vince Coleman's speedy baserunning led to him being called "Vincent van Go".
  • Ozzie Smith was sometimes known as "The Wizard".
  • At his peak, Mark McGwire was known as Big Mac.
  • In the last few years of his first stint in St. Louis, Albert Pujols was called "El Hombre", but he asked people to stop using it because he claims that only Stan Musial is "The Man". The St. Louis faithful eventually settled on "The Machine", a reference to his at-times superhuman offensive production as well as his ability to uphold said production for long periods of time.
    • After he announced at the end of 2011 that he was signing with the Los Angeles Angels, he was simply known in St. Louis as "Benedict Albert" for several years. However, this died down greatly over time,^note especially since he and his family still live in the St. Louis area in the offseason and remain heavily involved in the community and Cardinals fans gave him standing ovations when the Angels visited St. Louis in 2019. Pujols would return to St. Louis for his final season in 2022.
• Ty Cobb was known as The Georgia Peach, because of his stellar play and Georgia roots. The peach is also Georgia's official state fruit.
• Ted Williams, Hall of Fame left fielder for the Boston Red Sox, was also called Teddy Ballgame, The Kid, Thumper, and The Splendid Splinter (due to his slim frame and amazing hitting prowess) and after he retired, The Greatest Hitter Who Ever Lived. ^note Williams hit 521 home runs despite missing over 700 games due to wartime service in WWII and Korea, and was also the last MLB player to have a .400 batting average in a full season.
• Jimmie Foxx was known as Double X and The Beast. He was also called The Right-Handed Babe Ruth, due to being the second batter after Ruth to hit 500 home runs.
• The most famous of the 1919 "Black Sox" team was "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, who got his nickname from a minor league game where an equipment mix-up forced him to play barefoot.
• "The Say Hey Kid", Willie Mays. No one's sure how he got that nickname.
  • His long-time partner with the Giants in the 1960s was Willie McCovey, also known as "Stretch" or "Big Mac" due to his height.
• "Hammerin'" Hank Aaron, who held the career record with 755 homers for 33 years and still holds several others related to his bat.
• Ernie Banks is most well-known as "Mr. Cub". His positive demeanor in his daily life also granted him the name "Mr. Sunshine".
• Reggie Jackson earned the moniker "Mr. October" for his clutch hitting performances in the postseason with the Oakland A's and New York Yankees.
• Pitcher Dwight Gooden got nicknamed "Dr. K" (often shortened to just "Doc") when he was starting out with the New York Mets in 1984, partly as a follow-up on basketball's Julius Erving ("Dr. J").
• Boston Red Sox outfielders Fred Lynn and Jim Rice were known as the Gold Dust Twins, as they both came up at the same time and were a big reason for the Red Sox making the World Series in 1975, as Lynn won Rookie of the Year and the MVP (the first player ever to win both awards in the same season) with Rice coming in 2nd and 3rd respectively, before winning his own MVP and going on to a Hall of Fame career.
• As mentioned in the football section, Bo Jackson's real given names are Vincent Edward - "Bo" is a shortened version of "wild boar hog".
• Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco earned the collective nickname "the Bash Brothers" in 1988, after the celebratory forearm bash they used to congratulate each other after either of them scored a run.
• Several decades after Gehrig, the Baltimore Orioles' Cal Ripken Jr. (no slouch of a player himself and one of the few indisputable bright spots in the Orioles' otherwise checkered baseball history) took Lou Gehrig's consecutive games streak (of 2,130 games), broke it, and then pushed his own streak to Serial Escalation levels (read: 2,632 games.). He was saddled with the rather uncreative name of Iron Man... presumably because "Iron Horse" was already taken. He's also referred to as the "Iron Bird", obviously playing off his team name.
• During the late 90's, the Houston Astros duo of Hall of Famers Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell, along with Derrick Bell, Sean Berry, Lance Berkman, and for a short while, Carlos Beltrán, gained the named "Killer B's" for their prolific offense. It's also pulled out whenever the 'Stros have two or more people with "B" names.
  • Bagwell's weird batting stance gained the name "Invisible Stool".
• Hall of Fame pitcher Randy Johnson was known as "The Big Unit". No, it's not that. Simply put, Randy himself was a big guy - he stood 6'10" and for a long time was the tallest known pitcher in league history. ^note The 'record' has since been broken by the appearance of reliever Jon Rauch, who towers at 6'11".
• David Ortiz, who was DH with the Boston Red Sox for most of his career, was best known as "Big Papi".
  • Curiously enough, José Valverde, a long-tenured reliever, has been known for the majority of his career as "Papa Grande". Both of these nickname more or less translate into the same thing.
• Former Red Sox corner infielder Kevin Youkilis was known as the Greek God of Walks, for his incredible patience at the plate that led to a lot of base on balls, twice having streaks of 45+ games of reaching base safely while in the minors.^note Ironically, even though Youkilis is a Greek name, he has no known Greek ancestry. His father's side of the family is Romanian Jewish, and he was raised in Judaism.
• Late Toronto Blue Jays and Philadelphia Phillies pitching ace Roy Halladay was given the nickname "Doc Halladay" by the late Blue Jays announcer Tom Cheek (after the famous Old West gunslinger Doc Holliday).
• Daisuke "Dice-K" Matsuzaka; "Dice-K" is more or less how his first name is supposed to be pronounced.
• Tim Lincecum, a pitcher who last played for the Los Angeles Angels but is better known for his years with the San Francisco Giants, is nicknamed "The Freak", partly because of his unconventional pitching motion.
• Similarly to A-Rod, Colorado Rockies outfielder and 2010 batting title winner Carlos Gonzalez is often referred to as "Cargo".
• Colorado Rockies Hall of Famer Todd Helton, who spent his entire career in Colorado, is also known as “The ToddFather.”
• Pablo Sandoval got the nickname Kung Fu Panda after he leaped over a catcher's tag at home plate, showing amazing agility for a man of his size (and shape). He's also sometimes known as "Fat Ichiro", due to his batting prowess being comparable to prime Ichiro Suzuki.
• The Nationals have acquired quite a handful in their short time as a team (they moved to Washington from Montreal in 2005):
  • 'Mad Max' Scherzer, for the way he growls and snarls when he pitches.
  • Wilson 'the Buffalo' Ramos, for his size Adam 'Spanky' Eaton, a.k.a Mighty Mouse, also for size.
  • Trea 'Turner the Burner' Turner, for his blazing speed.
  • The 7-8-9 bullpen combo of Brandon Kintzler, Ryan 'Mad Dog' Madson, and Sean Doolittle are collectively known as the Law Firm, because 'Kintzler, Madson, and Doolittle' sounds like a law firm.
    • Doolittle also has a handful of nicknames, mostly playing off his name's similarity to Dr Dolittle or his physical similarity to Seth Rogen.
• Journeyman pitcher A.J. Burnett picked up the nickname of "Batman", which was especially prominent during his stints with the Pirates.
• Noah Syndergaard, who made his name with the Mets but is now with the Dodgers, is nicknamed "Thor" (after the Norse god and Marvel Comics superhero) due to his height (6-6), long blond hair, and the similarity between his last name and the fictional location Asgard, where the superhero is from. It began in 2014 after he shared a picture of himself on social media dressed as the superhero, and the nickname stuck when he debuted in 2015 for the Mets. When lightning struck the Empire State Building in 2016, Noah tweeted "Wasn't me."
• Brothers Paul and Lloyd Waner were nicknamed "Big Poison" and "Little Poison" respectively.
• Dennis Eckersley is simply known as "Eck".
• Shohei Ohtani, the first MLB player since The Babe himself to both pitch and hit at superstar level, has become "Shotime".
• Even executives can pick up nicknames. Branch Rickey, arguably the most influential executive in MLB history, most notably as general manager of the St. Louis Cardinals^note where he created the modern minor-league system and Brooklyn Dodgers,^note where he signed Jackie Robinson became "The Mahatma".

Teams (whole or part)

• Since both teams have "Sox" in their name, the Boston Red Sox and Chicago White Sox sometimes get abbreviated as "BoSox" and "ChiSox", respectively.
  • The infamous 1919 Chicago White Sox became known as the Black Sox after they threw the World Series in the gambling scandal that nearly destroyed Major League Baseball.
• For decades, the New York Yankees have been called the "Bronx Bombers".
  • Or, for detractors, the "Evil Empire". You can thank the Red Sox for starting this one.
  • The Yankees' batting lineup of the late 1920's was known as "Murderers' Row" because of their batting prowess, especially the first six batters of the 1927 season: Earle Combs, Mark Koenig, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Bob Meusel, and Tony Lazzeri. Combs, Ruth, Gehrig, and Lazzeri are all in the Hall of Fame.
  • The "Bronx Zoo" refers to the Yankees teams of the late 70's and early 80's who had a colorful cast of players that made things... shall we say, lively in the clubhouse. The moniker comes from a book about the 1978 team co-authored by pitcher Sparky Lyle.
  • The "Core Four" refers to four Yankees players who all signed with or were drafted by the team in the early 1990s: Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada, and Mariano Rivera. They were pivotal in the team's most recent run of success, including four World Series championships in five years ('96, '98, '99, '00) and a fifth in 2009 — more remarkable now given the current free agency era where even one player sticking with one team for so many years is rare.
• New York's other team, meanwhile, picked up a couple of their own in their 1969 championship season: the Amazin's and the Miracle Mets. Both refer to the out-of-nowhere campaign of the then-eight-year-old team that to that point had never finished better than second-to-last in the National League. "The Amazin's" is still sometimes used today, while the "Miracle Mets" refer strictly to the 1969 season.
  • Actually, the "Amazin's" nickname dates to the Mets' early Audience-Alienating Era. It was coined by the team's first manager, Casey Stengel, when he told media, "Come out and see my amazin' Mets. I been in this game a hundred years, but I see new ways to lose I never knew existed before." Needless to say, the nickname picked up a whole new meaning in 1969.
• The dominant Cincinnati Reds teams of the early and mid-1970's are known as the "Big Red Machine".
• In Chicago, it's common to refer to either the "North Siders" (Cubs) or "South Siders" (White Sox). Don't get those two mixed up.
  • The Cubs, meanwhile, are known as the "Lovable Losers", having last won a World Series in 1908 and last won a National League pennant in 1945 before winning both in 2016.
• The St. Louis Cardinals sometimes gets shortened to "Cards" or "Redbirds".
  • The 1934 team was known as the "Gashouse Gang" from their sloven appearance on the field.
• The Minnesota Twins are sometimes conversely lengthened to "Twinkies", particularly during a poor season.
• The Athletics when they have spells of losing seasons have been known as the "Pathetics". During one such span, they posted seven consecutive last place finishes in the American League from 1915–1921, going 37–111 in 1916.
• The Houston Astros' lack of success has led to their nickname the "Lastros".
  • The (in)famous late-1970s red and orange striped jerseys have gained the names "Rainbow Guts" or "Tequila Sunrise". The toned-down version from the eighties are known as the "Racing Stripes".
  • Their 2000s red and black era set was known as the "Old West".
  • After their shocking resurgence and return to postseason play in 2015, followed by their first World Series crown in 2017, the 'Stros had their own versions of "Clutch City" (see Rockets) in "Crush City" (both their newfound offensive firepower and the soda which they share a reference with Dynamo) and "Hustletown" from the city's hip-hop culture.
  • After it became known the the Astros illegally used technology to steal signs to win that year's World Series, detractors began calling them "Trashstros". That came about because the Astros were banging on trash cans to signal pitches. Fans who feel they should have their title stripped have also called them "Asterisks".^note Stealing signs by itself is not illegal; teams will often try to do so when they get a runner to second base, giving him a direct view of the catcher. What is illegal is using technology to do so in real time (in the Astros' case, analyzing a live video feed streamed into the clubhouse).
• The Washington Nationals' fanbase has latched onto "Natinals" for their team, after a famous goof in 2009 when the "Nationals" on the teams jerseys were misspelled.
• "The Brew Crew" for the Milwaukee Brewers. The Brewers' 1982 American League pennant winners, managed by Harvey Kuenn and noted for their slugging, became "Harvey's Wallbangers".
• When the Dodgers played in Brooklyn, they were known as "The Bums", or as their loyal fanbase would say, "Dem Bums".
• The 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates squad that won the World Series was known as "The Family" due to both the players' good chemistry with one another and the fact that "We Are Family" by Sister Sledge became the team's unofficial theme song during that year. Team captain Willie Stargell even got the nickname "Pops" to go along with the theme.
  • In general, the Pirates are also referred to as "the Bucs" or the "the Buccos" for short. During their twenty-year playoff drought, the latter nickname was often twisted into the derogatory "Succos".

Other

• The aforementioned World Series has been called the "Fall Classic", because of when it occurs (usually in October... in the fall).
• "(The) WFC" enjoyed a short vogue on message boards for the Philadelphia Phillies shortly after their most recent World Series win - the acronym standing for star second baseman Chase Utley's infamous celebration parade yell of "World Fucking Champions!!"
• The Chicago White Sox had their own curse, the Curse of the Black Sox which dogged them from their last World Series win in 1917 all the way until they finally managed to win it in 2005, the year after the Red Sox broke their curse.
• The Chicago Cubs, meanwhile, had the Curse of the Billy Goat. As the story goes, during Game 4 of the 1945 World Series, a bar owner named Billy Sianis brought his pet goat to Wrigley Field (even buying a separate ticket), but was kicked out because the goat's odor was bothering other fans; Sianis was furious and declared, "Them Cubs, they ain't gonna win no more." The Cubs lost that game, lost the Series, and wouldn't return to the World Series for over 70 years, but when they came back, they came back big time.
• Stadiums of renown:
  • The Astrodome, the Houston Astros' home park until 1999, was called the "8th Wonder of the World" when it first opened in 1965 (it was considered an engineering marvel at the time) and later the "House of Pain" due to it being a very large, windless pitcher's park.
    • Their current stadium Minute Maid Park is known as the "Juice Box". After Enron lost the naming rights, it became known as "The Field Formerly Known as Enron".
  • Fenway Park in Boston is most well-known for the "Green Monster", the 37-foot high left field wall necessitated by the odd shape of the lot the stadium sits on.
  • Wrigley Field in Chicago is known as "The Friendly Confines", a nickname bestowed by "Mr. Cub" Ernie Banks.
  • The original Yankee Stadium, opened in 1923 and closed in 2008, is "The House that Ruth Built", as Babe Ruth's rising power and fame is credited with enabling the Yankees to muster up the funds needed to build a separate home for the team (before that, they shared the Polo Grounds with the then-New York Giants, with whom they've had a contentious relationship).
  • The Polo Grounds, where the Giants played before moving to San Francisco in 1958 and the Mets played before Shea Stadium opened in 1964, was known as "The Bathtub" due to its odd horseshoe-shaped field. Candlestick Park, where the Giants played from 1960-1999, was shortened to "The Stick".
  • Cleveland Stadium was known as "The Mistake by the Lake" due to its proximity to Lake Erie. The lake had caused games to be postponed due to fog, and Cleveland games rarely sold out due to its massive size.
  • "The Vet" for Veterans Stadium, former home of the Philadelphia Phillies.
  • "The House of Thrills" for Forbes Field, home of the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1909–1970.
    • Three Rivers Stadium had the moniker "The House that Clemente Built".
  • The Chicago White Sox opened a new ballpark in 1991, giving it the same name as its predecessor: Comiskey Park. To differentiate, fans called the previous one "Old Comiskey" and the new one "New Comiskey". The ballpark has since undergone a slew of new nicknames after the naming rights were bought out by U.S. Cellular and Guaranteed Rate. Under the former, it was known as "The Cell" and the latter acquired "The Arrow"^note from the prominent presence of an arrow in the company logo and "The G-Spot".
  • "The Ted" for Turner Field, former home of the Atlanta Braves, named for then-owner Ted Turner.
  • "The Jake" when the Cleveland Guardians' current home was originally called Jacobs Field; like Turner Field, it was named after the team's then-owners. Even when Progressive bought the naming rights, some fans still refer to the park by its original nickname.
  • "The Bob" for the Arizona Diamondbacks' ballpark, when it was originally called "Bank One Ballpark".
• The "Bleacher Creatures" are a group of raucous die-hard Yankee fans, known for their roll call of all the Yankees out on the field at the start of the game save for the pitcher and catcher. The term was introduced during the Yankees' winning years in the 1990s, when the group assembled at the bleacher sections of the old Yankee Stadium facing the outfield.
• The "Losers' Series", a seven-game World Series affair between the biggest Memetic Losers of the National and American Leagues: the Chicago Cubs and the Cleveland Indians (since renamed Guardians). The Cubs won.
• Local fans of Cleveland started calling the team's historic win streak in 2017 the "Window(s) Streak" after the fifteenth win, as a local window company, in celebration of their fifteenth anniversary, offered all fans who bought from them in July of that year a refund on their project if Cleveland won at least fifteen straight games.
• The "Cheaters' Series"; the ALCS in 2021 consisting of the Houston Astros (who won the 2017 World Series despite a sign-stealing scandal) and the Boston Red Sox (whose manager, Alex Cora, masterminded said sign-stealing tactics for the Astros the year they won). The Astros won, and they lost to the Atlanta Braves in the World Series.

Basketball

Players and other individuals

• Jerry West had many nicknames during his long playing career.
  • First, in college at West Virginia, as well as his early NBA career, he was "Zeke from Cabin Creek", Cabin Creek being his West Virginia hometown.
  • When he came to the NBA, he was also called "Tweety Bird" for his high-pitched voice. That didn't last long.
  • He soon became "Mr. Outside", complementing his Los Angeles Lakers teammate Elgin Baylor, aka "Mr. Inside".
  • That was later replaced by "Mr. Clutch", referencing his knack for making big plays in key situations.
  • His most enduring nickname is "The Logo"—the current NBA logo, adopted during his playing prime in 1969, is based on his silhouette.
• Jesus Shuttlesworth is none other than Ray Allen, best known for his years with the Boston Celtics. In fact, it's a fan nickname in the most literal sense, as in a nickname bestowed by one specific fan. The name is that of a character created by Spike Lee and portrayed by Allen in Lee's 1998 film He Got Game.
• "Pistol Pete" Maravich, who got his nickname from the peculiar position he could shoot the basketball from... obviously, it was still very effective.
• Julius Erving, a.k.a. "Doctor J".
• After 2009's NBA playoffs and the hype surrounding it, LeBronze James (James' team didn't make it to the finals). Also LeBrick James, LeBron Lames, etc. He's probably best known as "King James", though. That, or LBJ. Detractors tend to refer to him as "King Crab" after his infamous "crab dribble" incident. Or "Queen James". His "Chosen One" nick has also caused people to call him "the Chokin' One", though that died down after he led the Heat to two titles and even more so after willing the Cavaliers to the 2016 title.
  • During his four-year interlude in Miami, he was occasionally referred to as "LeFraud Shames", especially in Cleveland. And his second team, the Miami Heat, was also known as the Miami Cheat or Cheats.
• Detroit Pistons announcer John Mason and fans are the champions of this trope. The starting 5 in the 2004 Championship season alone were:
  • Chauncey Billups – "Mr. Big Shot"
  • Richard Hamilton – "Rip" (though that was before his professional career)
  • Tayshaun Prince – "The Prince of the Palace" (they played in The Palace of Auburn Hills when Prince was with the team)
    • Also "The Long Arm of the Law", for his ridiculously awesome blocks and wingspan
    • Also "The Silent Assassin", for his incredible contributions that generally went unhyped
  • Rasheed Wallace – "Sheed", "Guaran-Sheed", etc.
  • Ben Wallace (no relation) – "Big Ben"... hey, he's the center. What do you expect? His gigantic afro probably had something to do with this, too.
  • And from the same team, Mike "The Amityville Scorer" James (so nicknamed because he's from upstate New York).
  • As for a negative, the infamous Pacers–Pistons Brawl (mainly Pacers players and Pistons fans) has become known as "The Malice at the Palace", invoking the arena name (The Palace of Auburn Hills) and famous boxing fight names (Detroit has played host to major boxing fights, and was later home to "Joe Louis Arena", where the Red Wings played for nearly 40 years).
  • The Malice at the Palace II took place in the WNBA 4 years later when a brawl broke out between the Detroit Shock and Los Angeles Sparks.
• Michael "Air" Jordan (also "His Royal Airness", which was actually used in the movie Space Jam.)
  • Jordan's former Bulls teammate, Dennis Rodman, was known as The Worm for the way he'd wriggle his way into position to get rebounds and was one of the best rebounders in league history.^note  Although the nickname actually dates to his teenage years, because of the way he wiggled while playing pinball.
• Karl Malone was known as the Mailman, because he always delivered (except on Sundays). And he used to be an actual mailman.
• Shaquille O'Neal, AKA: "Shaq"
  • aka: "The Diesel", "Shaq-fu", "The Big Aristotle" — he also gave Tim Duncan the nickname "The Big Fundamental" and Paul Pierce the nickname "The (Motherf'n) Truth"
  • Shaq's also known as "The Big [Situationally Appropriate Noun]"; for instance, after signing with the Boston Celtics, "The Big Shamrock".
  • His short tenure as a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers earned him the short-lived nickname of "The (Big) Jester." ^note For his sense of humor and playing alongside LeBron "King" James.
• Shaq's former Laker teammate Kobe Bryant has been known as "the Black Mamba"; it fell into disuse for years before its resurgence toward the end of his career. The nickname had gotten popular enough to inspire snowclones (just look at the amount of Mambas in this section), up to and including Kobe himself giving two of them (to Matt Bonner, whom he christened as the "Red Mamba", and Diana Taurasi, the "White Mamba"). The Taurasi nickname has since become an acknowledged meme, with her being the voice and basis of White Mamba, a member of the Goon Squad in Space Jam: A New Legacy.
  • At one point in the 2011–12 season, Kobe broke his nose and was forced to play in a Rip Hamilton-style mask while it healed. This quickly gave way to him being called "The Masked Mamba".
• Brian Scalabrine, a Boston Celtics and Chicago Bulls Ensemble Dark Horse and perpetual bench-rider who's now a TV analyst for the Celtics, is known as "The Man. The Myth. The Legend" and "The White Mamba", both of which are Ascended Memes as TV announcers have used them. In the case of "White Mamba", it was an Ascended Meme until Taurasi took over that name.
• Allen Iverson earned the nickname "The Answer" during his time with the Philadelphia 76ers.
• Anfernee Hardaway, former NBA star and current college coach, was nicknamed "Penny", either because his number was 1, or because his grandmother mangled the nickname "Pretty". Many NBA fans never realized it was a nickname. His article at The Other Wiki uses Penny, not Anfernee.
• Wikipedia also has an article on John "Hot Rod" Williams, a childhood nickname for making car noises. In turn, a contemporary John Williams earned a nickname playing off him and his big figure, "Hot Plate".
• Gilbert Arenas of the Washington Wizards was well known as "Agent Zero" after his jersey number - which he personally chose to mock the people who predicted that was how many minutes he would play in the NBA. After a suspension following a gun controversy, he changed his number to 9.
  • Related is Antoine Walker's appellation of "Employee Number 8". Similar in construction, but intended as an insult because Walker played like a nameless sweatshop worker.
• Jermaine O'Neal was well-known among fans as Jermaine "The Drain". For two reasons: one, he was a serious ballhog. Two, he was a drain on any team he played for.
• Tyreke "The Freak" Evans, whose NBA career was effectively scuttled by a two-year drug suspension, because he played like a man possessed.
• Jaime Jaquez Jr., a third-generation Mexican American who's showing promise as a rookie with the Miami Heat in 2023–24, is known as "Juan Wick" due to a vague resemblance to the Wick franchise star, Keanu Reeves.
• Perhaps the single most emblematic example in sports history is Earvin "Magic" Johnson, whose nickname is far better known than his real given name.
• Unless it's "Coach K" for now-retired Duke Blue Devils coaching legend Mike Krzyzewski, thanks to his near-unpronounceable last name.
• Another college basketball example is "Coach Cal" for John Calipari when he was with the Kentucky Wildcats. Though he's had other coaching stops, both in college and the NBA, the "Coach Cal" name didn't really catch on until Big Blue Nation^*the UK fanbase got in on the act. Since he skedaddled to Arkansas after the 2023–24 season, it's likely the Razorbacks fanbase will pick up on it.
• Fred Hoiberg, who spent a decade as an NBA journeyman before going on to a much more successful coaching career, was "The Mayor". The nickname dated to his college days at Iowa State, when he actually got write-in votes during a mayoral election in ISU's home of Ames, Iowa (which was also where he grew up).
• Chris "The Birdman" Andersen, who last played with the Cleveland Cavaliers. He sort of propagated this one himself; it's based on a celebratory gesture he does after really good shots, dunks, or blocks. And no, it isn't that bird gesture.
• Lamar Odom, alias the Candyman - on account of his childlike obsession with candy.
  • 1998 first overall pick Michael Olowokandi is the "Kandi Man", but it has nothing to do with candy.
• Blake "Superior" Griffin, a pun on his name and that of Lake Superior. His now-former team, the Los Angeles Clippers, was occasionally called the Los Angeles Blakers, a gag on LA's other NBA team, the Lakers.
  • His former teammate Chris Paul is "CP3"; though "3" is his jersey number, it actually originated within his family — his father and older brother are both named Charles Paul, thus making him the third "CP". Over time, and especially after Paul left LA, fans have instead called him "Point God".
  • After the acquisition of Chris Paul, the Clippers themselves came to be known as "Lob City", because of the large number of alley-oops (a lob pass near the hoop to set up a dunk, usually a flashy crowd pleaser) — most of them from Chris Paul to Blake Griffin. In fact, on The Other Wiki, typing in "Lob City" redirects straight to the Clippers' page (more specifically to a section on the "Lob City" era).
• Yao Ming of the Houston Rockets was occasionally known as Chairman Yao for his dominant presence in the paint (and the fact that he hails from China and has a name that rhymes with "Mao", naturally). In the last years of his career, he was very prone to injury, leading to nicknames like "Yaouch Ming". "Bitch Please" can be considered one, since it is his face that is used on the Bitch Please rage face.
• Jeremy Lin, now playing in the Taiwanese league after years as an NBA journeyman (plus time in the NBA G League and mainland China), managed to amass dozens of nicknames in the wake of his out-of-nowhere star turn with the New York Knicks after he began substituting for an injured Carmelo Anthony. "Linsanity" is the most popular, and many of them follow that pattern ("Linvincible", for instance). A few of the more creative ones are "Mr. Lincredible" and "Android 17" (after his jersey number).
• Chris Bosh is "the Boshtrich" due to his height, skinny frame, and bizarrely avian facial features.
  • Ditto "Boshasaurus" for his resemblance to a velociraptor.
  • His resemblance to a Na'avi from Avatar has not escaped the fans, either.
• Leandro Barbosa is the Brazilian Blur due to his speed.
• Serge Ibaka's prolific blocking has led to the name "Iblocka" being used even by commentators.
• Kenyon Martin's nickname was "K-Mart" — it's based on the same naming scheme as "A-Rod" and Tracy McGrady's "T-Mac" nick, but it's obviously much more amusing.
• George Gervin was "The Iceman" because he hardly ever broke a sweat while playing.
• Hakeem "The Dream" Olajuwon.
• During the 1989–90 and 1990–91 seasons, the Golden State Warriors' trio of Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond, and Chris Mullin were known as "Run TMC" after the hip-hop group. Unfortunately, while they scored lots of points, the team's defense was sadly lacking.
  • And during the 2012–13 season, Warriors guards Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson were dubbed the "Splash Brothers" (a play on the nickname "Bash Brothers") for their 3-point shooting prowess. The following year, Curry and Thompson would set an NBA record for three-point shots made in a season.
    • Curry's ability to put up shots from just about anywhere on the court has led to Chinese fans calling him "skyfucker".
• In another play on "Splash Brothers" and "Bash Brothers", Oklahoma City Thunder centers Enes Kanter^note who became Enes Kanter Freedom upon becoming a US citizen in late 2021, after his original home of Turkey effectively made him stateless and Steven Adams became the "Stache Brothers" in the 2015–16 season, for their quite prominent facial hair.
• Brook Lopez, who turned himself from typical 7-foot inside banger to legitimate 3-point threat in the last part of the 2010s, became "Splash Mountain".
• During his college days at Oklahoma State, Bryant Reeves, who spent a few decent years with the Grizzlies before weight problems and injuries scuttled his career, got the nickname "Big Country" from his teammate Byron Houston, who also went on to the NBA. Reeves was a big guy (7'0", 300 lb/2.13 m, 136 kg) who grew up in an Oklahoma town of less than 400, and Houston gave him the nickname after Reeves' amazement following his first long flight with OK State.
• Jason Williams was given the nickname "White Chocolate" because of his flashy passing style and ball handling.
• Rudy Gobert, a 7-1 center from France who emerged as one of the league's best rim protectors in the middle of the 2010s with the Utah Jazz (now with the Minnesota Timberwolves), is the "Stifle Tower".
• And how could we forget the "Greek Freak", Milwaukee Bucks swingman Giannis Antetokounmpo?^note rough pronunciation: YAH-nis ah-day-toh-KOON-boh, although now YAH-nis is enough
• Or DeMarcus "Boogie" Cousins?
• And James Harden, aka "The Beard".
• Plus Anthony Davis, "The Brow". Also an acknowledged meme thanks to Space Jam: A New Legacy, with Goon Squad member "The Brow" being based on and voiced by Davis.
• Also Kristaps Porziņģis, "The Unicorn", bestowed by Kevin Durant.^note Because his combination of extreme height (7'3"/2.21 m), great athleticism for that size, and legitimate three-point shooting range made him about as rare as the mythical creature.
• Nik Stauskas, now playing in Spain after several years as an NBA journeyman, is "Sauce Castillo". The nickname came about from a closed-captioning error—late in his rookie NBA season of 2014–15 with the Sacramento Kings, he made a three-pointer against the Sixers, and the announcer said "Stauskas hitting the three."^note His last name is pronounced STOUS-kas. The caption showed "Sauce Castillo hit the three." It took about 10 seconds (figuratively speaking) for someone to post the error on Twitter and not much more time after that for it to go viral.
• Canadian players tend to get "Maple" in their nicknames:
  • Nuggets guard Jamal Murray – "Maple Curry"
  • 2014 top pick Andrew Wiggins' athleticism was compared with Michael Jordan, hence the "Maple Jordan" nickname.
  • Knicks swingman RJ Barrett was the "Maple Mamba", at least until he retired it out of respect after Kobe's death in January 2020.
• Damian Lillard, longtime Trail Blazers point guard now with the Bucks, is sometimes referred to by his rapper alias, "Dame D.O.L.L.A" and moments when he has a large scoring streak late in games or hits a game-winning shot are very often called "Dame Time" by both fans and announcers. Dame has also approved of his "Logo Lillard" moniker, given thanks to his propensity to nail shots from the half-court.
• Nuggets center Nikola Jokić has "Big Honey" thanks to his size and lumbering appearance, in addition to being called "Joker".
• Fans have made it a meme to create puns out of Paul George's self-appointed "Playoff P" nickname, with "Pandemic P" and "Wayoff P" (both for his poor performance in some games of the 2020 playoffs, on top of the Clippers' collapse to the Nuggets in the second round) being the most notable. The latter was coined after announcer Mike Breen's description of his three-point attempt that hit the side of the backboard. Otherwise he's known by "PG-13" once he shifted his jersey number to that.
• Danny Green gets called "IcyHot" for his extremely streaky shooting from beyond the arc.
• Bulls guard Alex Caruso is the "Bald Mamba", "Bald Eagle", and "Carushow", all for his highlight-reel plays that belie his unassuming (and steadily-balding) appearance.
• Early in his career, Jason Kidd didn't take jumpers, hence being called "ason Kidd".
  • Similarly, there's a persistent perception of James Harden being a defensive turnstile, so he's "James Haren".
• Celtics fans christened Robert Williams "Time Lord" for being late to a conference call with reporters and for missing his first team practice.
• Corey Maggette's playing style was described (reportedly by Warriors fans) as "bad porn" - "Sure, there’s penetration and scoring, but are you really happy with what you’re seeing?”
• Magic Johnson choking in Game 4 of the 1984 Finals gave rise to the "Tragic Johnson" nickname.
  • "Tragic Bronson", a Running Gag on Shaqtin' a Fool, is a pun of this and is usually used to describe big men who try (and fail) a fast-break attempt.
• Binary Mamba – given by Chinese fans to Kentavious Caldwell-Pope for scoring 0 points in one game and 1 point on the next one.
• Lemon Pepper Lou – given to Lou Williams (and later trademarked by him) after his strip club sojourn where he claimed to have gone there for chicken wings. It helped that Magic City, the strip club in question, named a flavor after him long before the incident.
• Tony Allen's suffocating defense, emblematic of the 2010s "Grit and Grind" Grizzlies, gave him the nickname of "Grindfather".
• David Robinson was known as "The Admiral" for his service in the US Navy prior to playing in the NBA.
• Vince Carter, one of the greatest dunkers in league history, was known as "Vinsanity", "Air Canada", and "Half-Man, Half-Amazing".
• Robert Horry was called "Big Shot Bob" for his consistent history of clutch plays in the playoffs.
• And we have the fitting "AK47" moniker for Andrei Kirilenko, even more so when you learn he was born in the same town (Izhevsk) the iconic assault rifle was first manufactured.
• Deandre Ayton has his own fun nickname of "DominAyton" that he made up for quite some time in his career.
• The Cavs' backcourt duo of Collin Sexton and Darius Garland is better known to fans and teammate Larry Nance Jr. as "Sexland." The team acknowledges its popularity, but according to them, they can't publicly endorse it due to Moral Guardians.
  • On the topic of NSFW nicknames, the Bulls' trio of DeMar DeRozan, Lonzo Ball, and Zach LaVine has been christened DeBallZach.
• Gary Payton got his "The Glove" nickname from his cousin, in reference to his defense against Suns guard Kevin Johnson in the 1993 Western Conference Finals. His son Gary Payton II as a result is sometimes referred to as "The Mitten".
• During the 2023–24 college season, Indiana State's Robbie Avila, who led the Sycamores to their first taste of national relevance since at least the early 2000s and arguably Larry Bird's era at ISU in the late '70s,^note and transferred to Saint Louis after that season, after ISU's head coach was hired away by that school picked up a bunch of nicknames:
  • "Larry Nerd" – From a playing style somewhat reminiscent of Bird's (not to mention being slightly larger—6'10" to Bird's 6'9"), plus the very nerdy-looking goggles he wears on-court. This led to a similar nickname of "Larry Blurred".
  • "College Jokić" – Avila's playing style is even more similar to that of Nikola Jokić.
  • The most popular one came from Matt Jones, the host of a very popular radio show on Kentucky Wildcats sports^note now even better-known as a part-owner of Ohio Valley Wrestling, making him a key character in the Netflix series Wrestlers — "Cream Abdul-Jabbar", seeing that Avila is a white center who wears goggles.
  • Avila's racial/ethnic background and position also led to "Milk Chamberlain".
• Women's basketball has its own nicknames as well:
  • Candace Parker is also known as CP3.
  • As noted above, Diana Taurasi is the "White Mamba", courtesy of Kobe himself.
  • Courtney Vandersloot, now with the New York Liberty after making her WNBA name with the Chicago Sky, has been called "Sloot" at least since her college days at Gonzaga, if not longer.
  • Speaking of Sloot, she and her spouse and now-former backcourt teammate Allie Quigley are known by some fans as "The VanderQuigs".
  • Elena Delle Donne, Sloot's teammate in Chicago until being traded to the Washington Mystics in the 2016–17 offseason, is "EDD".
  • Shoni Schimmel, most recently of the Las Vegas Aces, has a couple of nicknames that started in her college days at Louisville—"Showtime" (also rendered as "Sho-Time") and the "Umatilla Thrilla".^note The latter nickname comes from her being an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, a group of three Native American tribes that share territory in northeast Oregon. She was born on the reservation, and raised there until her family moved to Portland while she was in high school.
  • Breanna Stewart, long of the Seattle Storm before joining Sloot at the Liberty in 2023, is "Stewie".
  • Satou Sabally, of the Dallas Wings, is "Bally".

Teams (whole or part)

• Ever since being bought by Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, and temporarily ducking out of the Carmelo Anthony trade market, the New Jersey Nets have occasionally been referred to as the New Jersey Nyets. This has been almost too fitting considering their abysmal performance in recent seasons.
  • Now they're the Brooklyn Nyets. Let's see if the change of venue changes their fortunes.
  • They're the Nyets no more. Joseph Tsai, a Taiwanese–Canadian entrepreneur, had bought 49% of the Nets at the same time Prokhorov bought the rest, and exercised an option to buy Prokhorov's share in 2019... shortly after the team got Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving in free agency.
• The 2011–12 Bulls' reserve players, Ronnie Brewer, Kyle Korver, C.J. Watson, Taj Gibson, Ömer Aşık and Brian Scalabrine, were popularly known among fans as the "Bench Mob".
  • Bulls starters or sixth men from around the same era also received individual nicknames. Derrick Rose is simply D-Rose, Luol Deng is Luol Dangerous, Jimmy Butler became Jimmy Buckets, and so on.
  • After joining Chicago from Utah, and not living up to his then-earned All-Star reputation, Carlos Boozer was prone to receiving "Boos", from home fans. Once his play improved back to its old standard, he began to earn more positive "Booz" (no "Boo-Urns", as well as the nickname for his dunks or other impressive plays, "the Booz Cruise".
• The Houston Rockets championship teams from '94-'95 were known as "Clutch City" (a response to the nickname "Choke City" coined after the Rockets blew leads their first two '94 Finals games as well as the rest of Houston's then-extremely hapless sports teams with situations like Buffalo's "Comeback", "The Dunk" that ended UH's NCAA title hopes and the Astros playoff woes), a name iconic enough that its applied to any Houston team making a playoff run.
• During LeBron James' stint with the Miami Heat, NBA fans who also followed Professional Wrestling took to calling the team the nWo.
  • In 2016, the nWo nickname started being applied to the Golden State Warriors after they picked up Kevin Durant in free agency.
• The Portland Trail Blazers can be called the Fail Blazers. An aura of Fail seems to permeate the franchise, from not drafting Jordan to having frequently injured top draft picks.
  • That last one has also spawned the Frail Blazers nickname.
  • During a time the players were controversial and frequently arrested, Jail Blazers.
• The bench of the 2013–14 San Antonio Spurs was known as the "Foreign Legion" due to its diverse national origins. The rundown: Aron Baynes (New Zealand-born Aussie), Marco Belinelli (Italian), Matt Bonner (American who also holds a Canadian passport), Boris Diaw (French), Manu Ginóbili (Argentine), Cory Joseph (Canadian), Patty^note  Patrick Mills (Aussie—and indigenous to boot).^note  The starting lineup also had a distinct international flavor: Tim Duncan was born in the US Virgin Islands, Tony Parker was born in Belgium and raised in France, and Tiago Splitter is Brazilian.
• The Washington Wizards, one of the most consistently awful teams in the NBA for over a decade, are sometimes known as the Washington Generals — after the team that used to play the Harlem Globetrotters (until they were effectively fired in 2015) and lost pitifully every time.
• The 2011-17 "Lob City" era of the Los Angeles Clippers got the name thanks to Blake Griffin's comments on Chris Paul's arrival to the team in 2011.
• LeBronto was coined by an announcer for how LeBron James thoroughly dismantled the Toronto Raptors in the 2018 playoffs.
• Speaking of LeBron, the 2018-19 (and to a lesser degree, the 2019-20) incarnation of the Los Angeles Lakers have been called the "meme team" due to those teams being composed of meme fodder.
• The late 80s/early 90s "Enver Nuggets" dropped the D because they barely played any defense.
  • In a similar vein, the "Allas Mavericks" moniker has been thrown around at various periods of their existence.
• Pocket Rockets — the nickname given to the 2019–20 Houston Rockets for fully embracing small ball (their starting center was 6'5" PJ Tucker and they had no one taller than 6'8" (Jeff Green) in the regular rotation) after trading 6'10" center Clint Capela late into the season.
• The early 2010s Memphis Grizzlies was known for its "grit and grind" ethos - a playing style characterized by crippling on-ball defense and aggressive paint scoring.
• The 2006-07 "We Believe" Warriors, an eighth seed which pulled off an epic upset against the previous year's finalist and first seed Dallas Mavericks.
• "Bad Boys" was a reference to the highly physical play and tenacious defense of the late 80s Detroit Pistons.
• College basketball has a LOT of these...
  • The Florida Gulf Coast Eagles became known as "Dunk City" during their 2013 NCAA Tournament run, when they became the lowest seed at the time (#15 out of 16) to advance to the tournament's Sweet Sixteen.^note Since surpassed by another 15-seed, the 2022 Saint Peter's Peacocks, which made it one round farther before running into a buzzsaw in the form of North Carolina. The nickname came from their high-flying dunks, with perhaps the most ridiculous coming in their upset of Georgetown in the first game, when point guard Brett Comer threw an underhand, over-the-shoulder alley-oop to a streaking Chase Fieler, who threw it down one-handed.
  • From 1982 to 1984, the Houston Cougars were known as Phi Slama Jama, due to their tendency to throw down hard, flashy dunks.
  • The 1983 NCAA Champion NC State Wolfpack, which won 7 of 9 win-or-go-home games by 2 or fewer points, and trailed in the final minute of 8 of the 9 games, was the Cardiac Pack - fans were having virtual heart attacks before the last-moment score.
  • The 1987–88 Kansas Jayhawks, which made an unexpected run to an NCAA title behind superstar Danny Manning, became "Danny and the Miracles".
  • Kentucky Wildcats fans have quite a few:
    • The starters on the 1947–48 NCAA champions, who were also the core of the 1948 Olympic gold medalists, became the "Fabulous Five".
    • The 1957–58 team, which also won an NCAA crown, were the "Fiddlin' Five", from their perceived tendency to "fiddle around" before winning.
    • The 1965–66 team, which lost in the NCAA final to Texas Western (now known as UTEP), were "Rupp's Runts" (Rupp being head coach Adolph Rupp). The "Runts" came from the team's unusually small size even for that era—no player on the team was taller than 6'5"/1.96 m.
    • "The Unforgettables" were the four seniors from the 1991–92 team—Richie Farmer^note now more notable for his epically corrupt tenure as Kentucky's agriculture commissioner, which earned him a couple of years in federal prison, Deron Feldhaus, John Pelphrey, and Sean Woods. They arrived as freshmen while UK was recovering from a pay-for-play scandal that nearly destroyed the program. Their senior season saw them make an unexpected run to the regional final before losing an epic overtime matchup to Duke, in a game cited by many as the greatest college game ever.
    • The 1995–96 team, also NCAA champions and featuring nine future NBA players, became "The Invincibles".
    • The Cats' next championship team, in 1997–98, became the "Comeback Cats", having overcome double-digit halftime deficits in their regional final^note in a measure of revenge for 1992, against Duke, national semifinal, and championship game.
  • The Michigan Wolverines' recruiting class that entered in 1991–92 and proceeded to lead the Wolverines to two straight appearances in the title game (both losses) will forever be remembered as the "Fab Five" (not to be confused with Kentucky's "Fabulous Five", or with the Fab Four).
  • "The Posse" was the second unit of the 1991–92 Tulane Green Wave team, the school's first-ever NCAA tournament team. This was the same Tulane program that had been shut down in 1985 amid NCAA violations and alleged point shaving, only returning in 1989.
  • The core players from the 1976–77 UNLV team which made a Final Four run that brought the school on the national radar for the first time were known as the "Hardway Eight".
  • In the first half of the 2010s, West Virginia was known as "Press Virginia" thanks to the frenzied full-court pressure defense used during that time by current head coach Bob Huggins.
  • "The Flying Tigers" or "The High-Flying Tigers" of Auburn University during any stint in which they are title contenders, most recently in the 1999 season. Seemed to regain the mantle with Bruce Pearl guiding them to a Final Four appearance in 2019 and their continued presence since.
  • Four of the core players of Michigan State's run of three straight Final Fours at the turn of the millennium, capped off by a national championship in 2000—Charlie Bell, Mateen Cleaves, Antonio Smith (who missed out on the national title, having graduated the year before), and Morris Peterson—were known as the "Flintstones". All were from Flint, Michigan, and three had played together since elementary school.
  • The top-ranked 2019 recruiting class for South Carolina women's basketball—Laeticia Amihere, Brea Beal, Aliyah Boston, Zia Cooke, and Olivia Thompson—created a group chat they called "The Freshies", which quickly got picked up by Gamecocks fans. During their four years in Columbia, they made all three Final Fours that were played (no NCAA tournament was held in 2020 thanks to COVID), as well as the natty in 2022. Boston was the consensus national player of the year in 2022 and the WNBA's first draft pick in 2023, while Amihere and Cooke went in the first round of that draft. Their college careers did end on a down note in 2023 thanks to...
  • ..."The Law Firm". Or, in full, "The Law Firm of Clark and Czinano".^note pronounced si-NON-oh In 2020, Caitlin Clark arrived at Iowa as a highly touted freshman guard. She joined junior center Monika Czinano, a lightly recruited player who emerged as a starter the previous season. The nickname was coined by a Big Ten Network analyst but quickly picked up by Hawkeyes fans. In 2021, Iowa won the Big Ten tournament, with both being named All-Big Ten and Clark sharing national freshman of the year honors with UConn's Paige Bueckers.^note pronounced "beckers" The next year, the Hawkeyes won both the Big Ten regular season and tournament tirles; Clark became the first woman ever to lead Division I in scoring and assists in the same season; and Czinano led the nation in field goal percentage. The Law Firm stayed together for a third season, with Czinano taking advantage of a fifth year of eligibility granted to all NCAA basketball players active in the COVID-disrupted 2020–21 season. The Hawkeyes again won the Big Ten tournament and made their first Final Four in 30 years. Clark torched South Carolina for 41 points in the semifinals, but the Hawkeyes couldn't seal the deal against LSU in the final. Clark won all national player of the year awards that season.
• National teams also have nicknames:
  • Australia: Boomers (men), Opals (women).^note "Boomer" is the standard term for a male kangaroo. The opal is the national gemstone of Australia, which produces almost all of the world's supply.
  • New Zealand: Tall Blacks (men), Black Ferns (women).^note  Both nicknames are based on those of the country's national rugby union teams—the men's All Blacks and women's Silver Ferns. The national sporting colors are black and silver, and a fern is one of several national symbols.
  • Nigeria: D'Tigers (men), D'Tigresses (women).
  • Spain men: Now that Spanish players have become common in the NBA, the nickname is La ÑBA.^note  The traditional nickname was La Roja ("The Reds", from their standard jerseys), the same as the national football team.
  • Turkey men: Oniki Dev Adam (12 Giant Men).^note In international basketball, rosters are limited to 12.
  • The 1992 USA team; The Dream Team. So named because of the 12 players on the team, 11 are in the basketball Hall of Fame. They also had 3 Hall of Fame coaches. Not to mention the first Olympic team made of NBA players.

Other

• Arenas also pick up nicknames:
  • "The Can": The venue originally known as Pepsi Center, home to the Denver Nuggets (and also the NHL's Colorado Avalanche); obviously derived from beverage cans. In 2020, Pepsi's naming rights contract expired, and the venue was renamed Ball Arena... after a corporation based in the Denver area that makes (among other things) the very same beverage cans that gave the arena its nickname in the first place.
  • "Dean Dome": Dean Smith Center, home to the North Carolina Tar Heels men.^note The Carolina women play their home games at Carmichael Arena, which was also home to the men's team before the Dean Dome opened.
  • "Double-A": The Arena-Auditorium, home of the Wyoming Cowboys and Cowgirls.
  • "The Garden": Either Madison Square Garden in New York (Knicks) or TD Garden in Boston (Celtics). Depends on whom you're talking to.
  • "Gator Alley" (or "Alligator Alley"): Florida Gymnasium, former home of the Florida Gators.
  • "The Hump": Humphrey Coliseum, home of the Mississippi State Bulldogs.
  • "The Kennel": Two different homes of the Gonzaga Bulldogs—the first being a venue originally called John F. Kennedy Pavilion and later Charlotte Y. Martin Centre, and the second being the Zags' current basketball home of McCarthey Athletic Center.
  • "The Loud House": As noted in the "American Football" folder, JMA Wireless Dome, home of the Syracuse Orange.
  • "Mac Court": McArthur Court, former home of the Oregon Ducks. Its replacement, Matthew Knight Arena, inevitably became "Matt Court" or "Matt Arena".
  • "The Octagon of Doom": Bramlage Coliseum, home to the Kansas State Wildcats. So named because of its octagonal shape and intimidating home crowds.
  • "O-Dome": The O'Connell Center, which replaced Gator Alley as Florida's home arena. It was originally an air-supported dome, but now has a fixed roof.
  • "The Pit": Home to the New Mexico Lobos since 1966; although it was officially called University Arena for its first 40-plus years, everyone called it "The Pit" because of its then-unique subterranean design—the arena was literally dug out of the ground, with the floor sitting nearly 40 feet below street level and covered by a simple steel-framed roof. "The Pit" became its official name in 2009, but it's since picked up a couple of corporate names.^note First "WisePies Arena (aka The Pit)" in 2014, and in May 2017 "Dreamstyle Arena".
  • "The Thrillerdome": McCamish Pavilion (originally Alexander Memorial Coliseum), home of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.
  • "The Trapezoid of Terror": Jersey Mike's Arena, more often called the RAC,^note pronounced as "rack" and stands for Rutgers Athletic Center home to the Rutgers Scarlet Knights. The building has an unusual trapezoidal shape, and punches far above its capacity weight class (about 8,000) when it comes to crowd noise.
  • The best-known nickname of the Pete Maravich Assembly Center at LSU, the "Deaf Dome", was coined by one of the "professional fans" alluded to in the page intro, ESPN announcing legend Dick Vitale. The nickname coined by rank-and-file LSU fans is the far more bland "PMAC".
• The public square at the Maple Leaf Square multi-use complex in downtown Toronto, located next to the Raptors' (and Maple Leafs') home of Scotiabank Arena, is often used for pregame events, as well as outdoor viewings of important games. Raptors fans began calling the square "Jurassic Park", and the square's owners (one of which is the Raptors' and Leafs' parent company) ran with it.
• The sport itself was once nicknamed "the cage game", and basketball players were commonly known as "cagers", due to many pro teams (especially in the northeastern U.S.) playing their games inside literal cages prior to the 1930s. The usages stuck around for decades after the cages were eliminated. Not to mention that one Division I school, UMass, played in Curry Hicks Cage^note officially the Curry Hicks Physical Education Building; it opened in 1931, and if it ever had an actual cage, it was eliminated not long after opening until opening its current home of the Mullins Center in 1993. (The Cage is still very much in use, but not for basketball.)

Golf

• Sam Snead – "Slammin' Sammy" (or Sam), from the great power he generated from a very fluid swing.
• Ben Hogan – "The Hawk", from his intimidating skills and course demeanor; "Bantam Ben", from his small but powerful build; and "(Wee) Ice Mon", given to him by Scottish fans for both of the aforementioned attributes.
• Christy O'Connor Snr^note not to be confused with his nephew Christy O'Connor Jnr, a prominent golfer in his own right, Irish star from the 40s through the 70s, became known in his home country simply as "Himself".
• JoAnne Carner – "The Great Gundy" in her amateur days, from her maiden name of Gunderson. After marrying, turning pro, and becoming one of the top women's players ever, "Big Mama".
• Lee Trevino – Initially "Merry Mex"; a Mexican-American who typically wisecracked during rounds, sometimes in the middle of his own swing. Later evolved into "Supermex" as he became a regular contender in major championships.
• Jack Nicklaus – "The Golden Bear", from his blond hair and hefty build in his early days as a pro. He slimmed down considerably by the end of the '60s, but the name stuck. So much so that it's become a Red Baron; on The Other Wiki, "The Golden Bear" redirects to his page.
• Arnold Palmer – "The King".
  • His fanbase had a fan nickname themselves, "Arnie's Army".
• Masashi Ozaki – A Japanese star who had his best years in the 1990s, he was known as "Jumbo" due to his large frame (especially in relation to most Japanese of his generation) and power off the tee.
  • His brothers Tateo and Naomichi, also prominent golfers, became known respectively as "Jet" and "Joe", especially outside Japan.
• Gil Morgan – "Doc". Moderately successful on the PGA Tour and immensely successful on the 50-and-over Champions Tour, he was also a fully qualified optometrist.
• Craig Stadler – "The Walrus", from his very prominent mustache and hefty build.
  • Which led some fans to call his son Kevin, similar in appearance except for his lack of facial hair, "The Smallrus" when he made it to the PGA Tour.
• Greg Norman – "The Great White Shark", or just "the Shark".
• Loren Roberts – "The Boss of the Moss", earned by being one of the top putters of his era (prime in the '90s).
• Fred Couples – "Boom Boom", from his prodigious power off the tee.
• Vijay Singh – "The Big Fijian". Born and raised in Fiji, though of Indian origin.
• Miguel Ángel Jiménez – "The Mechanic". He's well-known for tinkering with high-performance cars (including a Ferrari he owns), and in fact briefly worked as an auto mechanic before becoming a professional golfer.
  • Also occasionally called "The Most Interesting Man in Golf" or similar names, from his alleged resemblance to the famous advertising character.
• Ernie Els – "The Big Easy", from his size (6'3"/1.90 m) and his relaxed swing.
  • This spawned "The Big Wiesy" for Michelle Wie West,^note if you're thinking she's any relation to Jerry West... she's his daughter-in-law similar in swing tempo and almost as tall (6'1"/1.85 m).
• Phil Mickelson – "Lefty". He's probably the most accomplished left-handed player in history (though he does everything else right-handed).^note Phil learned the sport as a child by imitating his father's swing as the two faced one another. His father played right-handed.
• Sergio García – El Niño. The Spaniard first reached international prominence as a teenager, with a swashbuckling style somewhat reminiscent of the weather phenomenon of the same name.
• "The Pink Panther" has been independently applied to two golfers.
  • First, Jesper Parnevik, a Swede whose best years were in the '90s and early '00s. The nickname came from his... um, idiosyncratic fashion sense, which sometimes saw him in various shades of pink.
  • However, if you mention "Pink Panther" to a golf fan today, he or she would probably think of Paula Creamer, current LPGA star. Pink is her favorite color, and she carries the theme everywhere—she uses pink balls, uses a pink golf bag, has pink grips on her clubs, and regularly dresses in pink, especially in final rounds.
• Eldrick Woods. Never heard of him? You probably know him by his nickname, "Tiger".

Hockey

Individual Players

• Hockey nicknames:
  • Maurice "Rocket" Richard.
  • Wayne Gretzky is known as the Great One.
  • Dan "Carbomb" Carcillo.
  • Denis "Savoir Faire" Savard.
  • Sidney "Sid the Kid" Crosby.
  • Miroslav "Satan" Šatan^note it's pronounced "Shah-tahn". Journalists were also fond of associating him with the Devil or with the number 666 for this reason.
  • Bobby "the Golden Jet" Hull, which sometimes led to his son Brett being referred to as "the Golden Brett".
  • James "Optimus Reim" Reimer.
  • Roberto Luongo is nicknamed "LOLuongo" by detractors for his unfortunate habit of choking in high-pressure situations. "Luongoal" is in a similar spirit, because during these chokes he gives up ridiculous amounts of goals. Also, referencing another (former) choker, "LeBrongo\LuBrongo".
  • Mark Messier has two: "The Moose" for his aggressive style and sheer strength, and (especially in New York) "The Messiah" for his leadership during the Rangers' 1994 Stanley Cup victory that ended a 54-year drought.
  • Teemu "The Finnish Flash" Selänne
  • Bobby "The Golden Jet" Hull and his son Brett "The Golden Brett" Hull.
  • Alexander "The Great 8" Ovechkin. Also known as "Ovi(e)".
• In Detroit, Red Wings fans had given the most hated members of the Colorado Avalanche nicknames that were really fitting during the peak of the two teams' rivalry. A favorite was Claude "Turtle" Lemieux. Plus, it was custom to extend the pronunciation of Patrick Roy's last name to Patrick WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH (not from a Red Wings-Avalanche game, but the point is made).

Other Individuals

• Former Hockey Night In Canada personality Don Cherry is known as "Grapes" or "Sour Grapes" when he's not "that guy in the crazy suit".
• During his stint as the NHL's head disciplinarian, former NHL player Brendan Shanahan earned the nickname "Shanaban" due to his frequent suspensions of players for disciplinary infractions. More frequently, the suspensions themselves were referred to as "Shanabans", and the term was even used in media discussions of the suspensions.
• The "blue-seaters" are the rowdiest New York Rangers fans who usually use the, well, blue-colored seats located up on the 400-level of Madison Square Garden. Generally working- or middle-class diehards, they're the ones who come up with notorious chants like "Potvin Sucks!", and will often heckle^note the fact that "blue language" refers to profanity is a coincidence, but probably adds to their notoriety anyway not just the opposing team and their fans but also the more well-to-do corporate- and business-type attendees down in the "red seats" on the lower levels. They're roughly analogous to the Bleacher Creatures at Yankee Stadium.
• Steve Glynn, a Toronto Maple Leafs fan and SportsNet media personality who does a lot of online work, is better known by his online handle, "Steve Dangle".

Lines and Teams

• Detroit Red Wings - The "Dead Wings"/"Dead Things", during their long stretch of terrible play from 1967-1983, when they only made the playoffs twice (remarkable for a time where as many as 16 out of 21 teams made the playoffs each year).
  • The Russian Five/Red Army - Igor Larionov, Viacheslav "Slava" Fetisov, Sergei Fedorov, Vyacheslav Kozlov, and Vladimir Konstantinov. These five were all players on the Soviet national hockey team in the 1980s and were put together after the fall of the Soviet Union in Detroit by Scotty Bowman. They were dominant in the Red Wings' Cup run in 1997 and were crucial in the team's repeat the next year (in Konstantinov's case, as a rallying cry - just days after the Wings won the Cup in '97 he was involved in a limousine accident that ended his career).
• Montreal Canadiens - "Les Habitants" or "The Habs". "Habitants" were settlers of French origin who lived along the shores of the St. Lawrence River in present-day Quebec.
• Philadelphia Flyers - The Broad Street Bullies, referring to the team in the 1970's who were known for their rough and physical play. The nickname also refers to the team's specific location—the address of the Flyers' home arena at the time, the Spectrum, was 3601 South Broad Street.
  • The Legion of Doom - Mid-90's line of Eric Lindros, John LeClair, and Mikael Renberg.
• The Mighty Ducks - Formerly their actual name, but now a relic of a bygone era for the Anaheim Ducks, mostly used by fans who fondly remember those days, or by those who can't quite let them forget their time being owned by Disney.
• Soviet Union national team - The Red Army, due to the fact that many of its players were active duty servicemen of the Soviet Armed Forces and were military athletes of its attached CSKA (Armed Forces Central Sports Club) sports organization.
  • The Green Unit/"Original" Russian Five - Defencemen Viacheslav Fetisov and Alexei Kasatonov, and the forward K-L-M line (Vladimir Krutov, Igor Larionov, Sergei Makarov). Won four World Championships and two Olympic gold medals from 1982 to 1989. Fetisov and Larionov would later be part of Detroit's "Russian Five" in the mid-1990s.
• Sweden men's national team – Tre Kronor (Three Crowns). One of Sweden's national symbols is three gold crowns, arranged with two on top and one below on a blue background. The national team normally wears a color-inverted version (three blue crowns on a yellow jersey), changing to the traditional scheme in case of a color clash.
• Carolina Hurricanes - "Bunch of Jerks" after Don Cherry's February 2019 comment on Hockey Night In Canada on the team's unique "Storm Surge" postgame home victory celebrations in the PNC Arena, which began in the 2018-2019 season. His criticism of the team, through, would be adopted by both the team and its fans as a nickname, and the celebrations have become part of the team culture.

Other

• As noted in the "Basketball" folder, "The Can" for Ball Arena, home to the Colorado Avalanche.
• "The Coliseum": Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, full-time home of the New York Islanders from 1972–2015, part-time home from 2018–2020, and full-time home again from 2020 until their current UBS Arena opened in 2021. During the early 1980s when the Islanders won the Cup four straight seasons, it also acquired "Fort Neverlose".
  • Speaking of which, UBS Arena got a nickname two years before its planned opening—"The Stable". It's located next door to Belmont Park, an iconic horse racing track.
• "The Garden": Either Madison Square Garden in New York (Rangers) or TD Garden in Boston (Bruins). Depends on whom you're talking to.
• "Hockeytown": Joe Louis Arena, former home of the Detroit Red Wings. While the Wings' current home, Little Caesars Arena, didn't directly inherit the nickname, the team heavily uses it in its marketing—enough so that it's registered "Hockeytown" as a trademark (though only in conjunction with the team logo).
• "The Igloo": Civic Arena/Mellon Arena, the old Pittsburgh Penguins home before it was demolished. The building itself did resemble an igloo.
• "The Madhouse on Madison (Street)": Chicago Stadium, home of the Chicago Blackhawks through 1994. The building was quite cozy inside and held the world's largest pipe organ, so cheers from fans reverberated and echoed quite loudly within. The nickname has since passed on to its successor, the United Center.
• "The Pond": Honda Center, home of the Anaheim Ducks. Before Honda bought naming rights, the arena was known as Arrowhead Pond - both, of course, play off ducks. The nickname "Ponda Center" has also seen some use.
• "The Rock": Prudential Center, home of the New Jersey Devils. The building name's sponsor is an insurance company that uses the Rock of Gibraltar as its logo; both the building and the company's headquarters are in Newark.
• "The Shark Tank": SAP Center at San Jose, home of the San Jose Sharks.
• "The Red Mile": the several-block stretch of 17th Avenue (International Avenue) S.W. in Calgary that was filled with tens of thousands of red-clad Calgary Flames fans during the team's bid for the Stanley Cup in 2004.
• "The Garage": General Motors Place, now known as Rogers Arena, home of the Vancouver Canucks.
• "The Fortress": T-Mobile Arena, home of the Vegas Golden Knights.
• "Buffaslug": The Buffalo Sabres' short-lived primary logo in use from 2006-07 until 2009-10, which resembles a buffalo-slug hybrid.
• "Mooterus": The Dallas Stars' short-lived third jersey logo in use from 2003-04 until 2005-06. It was supposed to be a constellation of a bull's head; however, it more closely resembled a uterus due to the shape of the logo.

Soccer / Association Football

• Duncan Disorderly, Drunken Ferguson - Scottish soccer player Duncan Ferguson.
• "The Irons": West Ham United FC.
  • Also known as "The Academy of Football", partly because many well-known players start off at West Ham (which has a good coaching regime) and then go elsewhere. An official nickname now.
• Chelsea and Spanish soccer player Cesc Fàbregas is often known as "Sex" Fàbregas. It is a pun on his first name where its pronunciation is very close to pronunciation of "sex" and the fact that many people found him fairly attractive.
• Recent Nigerian soccer players in Europe tend to be known more by name rearrangements:
  • John Michael Obi's name got mangled by his Norwegean club to "Jon Mikel Obi", and now at Chelsea he is "Jon Obi Mikel", with "Mikel" on his jersey, and the name by which commentators and fans refer to him.
  • Yakubu Aiyegbeni is "Yakubu" on his Everton shirt. Also "The Yak", which inspired the meme, 'feed the Yak and he will score'.
  • Obinna Nsofor is "Obinna" at West Ham.
  • Other Nigerian soccer nicknames:
    • Austin Okocha: "Jay Jay Okocha", or just "Jay Jay".
    • Nwankwo Kanu: "Papillo". At one point when in bad form at Arsenal, "Wanker Kanu".
    • Goalie Vincent Enyeama: "Enyeamagnet"
    • Daniel Amokachi: "The Bull".
    • Stephen Keshi: "Big Boss".
    • Mutiu Adepoju: "The Headmaster", for his tendency to score via headers.
• Another soccer example is the Brazilian Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima. In Brazil, his most common nickname is "Phenomenon", and at first "Ronaldinho" ("Little Ronaldo"), which was reduced to just Ronaldo due to both him getting older and the appearance of another Ronaldinho (Ronaldo Assis Moreira, also known in Brazil as "Ronaldinho Gaúcho"^note Ronaldinho from the state of Rio Grande do Sul to put the difference further). And due to both weight gain and the appearance of another famous Ronaldo (Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo), he got the name "Fat Ronaldo". He's also known as "Original Ronaldo" or "Brazilian Ronaldo" to avoid confusion with Cristiano Ronaldo.
  • All also earned nicknames based on their jersey numbers: R9 for Ronaldo (the name of his company as well), R10 for Ronaldinho (in 2012, as the 9 in his new team was taken he went by another number and alias, R49), CR7 for Cristiano Ronaldo. Others followed suit, such as K9 (Keirrison), and LF9 (Luis Fabiano).
• Brazilian soccer player Marcio Assunção is known as "Kid Bengala" among some of Palmeiras' supporters, due to his resemblance◊ of this popular Brazilian porn star.◊
  • Likewise, Rafael Moura's hair◊ earned him the moniker He-Man.
• This is VERY common with the Football/Soccer World with teams, cups and players all usually having some sort of nickname. A few examples include:
  • Manchester United - The Red Devils
  • Arsenal - The Gunners or "The Arse" (sometimes by fans, hence "Up the Arse!")
  • Newcastle - The Magpies/The Toon Army
  • Everton - The Toffees / The School of Science (after Steve Bloomer called Everton's style of play 'scientific')
  • UEFA Cup which is now known as the Europa League - Mickey Mouse Cup
  • Paul Gascoigne - Gazza
  • Noberto Solano - Nobby
  • Kenny Dalglish - King Kenny
  • During the time when Chelsea was owned by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, it was often derisively referred to as "Chelski". Liverpool fans refer to Everton as 'Neverton' or 'the People-Less Club' (a response to David Moyes calling Everton 'the people's club').
    • Almost every EPL club has a similarly derisive nickname; after "Chelski", the least profane one is probably "Liverpoo" for Liverpool.
  • In Brazil, many are known by their mascot (Atlético-MG is "rooster", Santos is "fish" - although the mascot is a whale), and a few by its color (Internacional is "Colorado", "red" in Spanish^note [[The Capital of Brazil Is Buenos Aires not the country's official language, mind you). Corinthians is "Timão" (ship's wheel) after a wheel in its logo.
  • Italian side Lazio is sometimes referred to as "Nazio", which is a reference to a sizable chunk of their fanbase that is known to have fascist affiliations.
• Speaking of Lazio, most Italian teams tend to have nicknames based on their kit colors, but some have also gained other nicknames based on their history and symbolism:
  • Juventus are oftentimes called "La Vecchia Signora" (The Old Lady) for being one of the oldest and most successful clubs in Italy. They're also derogatively nicknamed "Rubentus" due to their involvement in the 2006 Calciopoli scandal.
  • AC Milan are called "Il Diavolo" (the Devil) after a quote from their founder wishing for the team to become The Dreaded of Italian football, with their signature red and black jersey also being reminiscent of hellfire.
  • Inter Milan are sometimes called "Il Biscione" (the Big Grass Snake): not only is the Biscione their mascot, but it is also an official symbol of the city of Milan. Their fans sometimes call the team "Pazza Inter" (Crazy Inter) for their usually fluctuating performances for being a highly prestigious club.
  • AS Roma are nicknamed "La Lupa Capitolina" (the Capital She-Wolf), owing to Rome's famed symbol of the she-wolf being suckled on by Romulus and Remus appearing in its crest.
  • SS Lazio are sometimes called "L'Aquila" (the Eagle), thanks to one appearing on their club logo. Not only was the eagle a historic symbol of Ancient Rome, they also have an actual bald eagle as a mascot flying around the stadium before their home games.
  • Napoli are sometimes called "Partenopei" (the Parthenopeans), as a nod to the city's Ancient Greek name.
  • Genoa CFC are either called "Il Grifone" (the Griffin) due to their crest, or "Il Vecchio Balordo" (The Old Fool) as they are the oldest still-running football club in Italy. Crosstown rivals Sampdoria is often called by their fanbase "Il Baciccia" - a historic symbol of the city of Genoa which also appears in their crest.
  • The now-defunct AC ChievoVerona became Mussi Volante (dialect for "Flying Donkeys"). During the era in which Chievo was stuck in Italy's lower tiers, fans of the city's historic main club, Hellas Verona, insulted Chievo fans with a chant that roughly translates to "donkeys will fly before Chievo makes it to Serie A." After Chievo made it to the top flight for the first time, its fans immediately made "Flying Donkeys" an appropriated appellation.
• After the Luis Suárez racism row, Anfield, Liverpool's home ground, got the unfortunate nickname of 'Klanfield'.
  • Everton and Manchester United fans also call it 'Analfield'.
• Watford has "One Size" Fitz Hall.
• The Houston Dynamo have been nicknamed the "Orange Crush" and their stadium the "(Dutch) Oven" due to it not being one of the most comfortable during Houston summer afternoons. After the stadium sponsor changed to Shell Energy in 2023, a winning streak gave it a more badass one: "Hell in the Shell".
• Fernando Torres is infamous for his scoreless streak, leading to the nickname "Fernandon't Scorres"
• Manuel Neuer is affectionately known as "Manu".
• Similarly, Zlatan Ibrahimović is often called "Ibra"... when he's not simply being called by his first name.
• 'Robin van Pussy' for the injury-prone Robin van Persie.
• Former US national team star Landon Donovan, now coaching at the US second level after retiring twice from the LA Galaxy and then briefly playing in Mexico and in US indoor soccer, has been derisively referred to as "Landycakes" for alleged softness on and off the field.
• Liverpool supporters' nickname for Chelsea fans is 'plazzy flag wavers', due to the plastic flags left on seats for Chelsea supporters to wave (as opposed to homemade banners brought to matches).
  • To Manchester United supporters, Liverpool supporters are 'bin dippers' ('dippers' for short). To Everton supporters, they're 'kopites' or, more derisively, 'red shite'.
• Iker Casillas, the Spanish national team's main goalkeeper for much of the first two decades of the 21st century, was nicknamed "El Santo" (The Saint) after he stopped two penalty kicks in the round-of-16 match against Ireland in the 2002 FIFA World Cup.
• Kiki Musampa^note Kiki is a nickname deriving from Kizito, his birth name was affectionately known by fans as Chris during his time at Manchester City.^note as in 'Christmas Hamper'
• Many national teams have a nickname.
  • The Spanish national team is called "La Roja" (The Red, after the shirt's color), "La Furia Española" (The Spanish Fury, created during the 1920 Olympic Games) or a combination of the two.
  • The German national team is called "Die Mannschaft" (The Team) by the non-German fans.^note Heh heh, "Mannschaft".
  • The Belgian men's national team is called "the Red Devils" by their fans.^note De Rode Duivels in Dutch; Les Diables Rouges in French; Die Roten Teufel in German The country's women's team is the "Red Flames".^note De Rode Vlammen in Dutch; Les Flammes Rouges in French; Die Rote Flammen in German
  • Iceland national team: Strákamir okkar (men) and Stelpurnar okkar (women).^note "Our Boys/Girls"
  • The United States men's and women's national teams are very commonly referred to by the acronyms USMNT and USWNT, respectively, as the US is one of the few countries where the women's team gets anywhere close to similar levels of publicity as the men's team. USMNT is also often backronymed to "US Mutant Ninja Turtles" due to some confusion about the "USMNT" abbreviation.
  • Nigeria national team: "Super Eagles" (men), "Super Falcons" (women).^note Based on the presence of a bird of prey on the crest of the national federation.
  • Jamaica national team: "Reggae Boyz" and "Reggae Girlz".
  • Australia national team: "Socceroos"^note as you might guess, an unholy pairing of soccer and kangaroos (men) and "Matildas"^note from iconic Australian song "Waltzing Matilda" (women).
  • South Africa national team: Bafana Bafana (men) and Banyana Banyana (women).^note From Zulu; commonly translated as "The Boys/Girls" or "Go Boys/Girls! Go Boys/Girls!"
  • Japan national team: "Samurai Blue" (men) and "Nadeshiko Japan" (women).
  • While the Czech national team doesn't have a particular nickname, their Under-21 national team is commonly dubbed "The Lioncubs" (for the lion being part of the Czech national emblem) by both Czech journalists and fans.
  • Ireland men's national team: "The Boys in Green".
  • The Netherlands men's team is known as "The Clockwork Orange". This nickname was coined during their golden generations spanning from 1996 to 2014. The women's team is the Oranje Leeuwinnen ("Orange Lionesses").^note The "Orange" refers to the men's team, the orange kit worn by both teams, and the country's reigning royal family, the House of Orange. The "Lionesses" part refers to the lion on the crest of the country's national federation.
  • The Cameroon men's team is known as "The Indomitable Lions".
  • The Brazil men's team is known internationally as Seleção (the Portuguese word for "selection", as in a draft of players), and is also called locally as Little Canary, if not Little Yellow, or Green-Yellow.
• Some German examples:
  • 1. FC Nürnberg, who dominated German football in the 1920s, are known as "die Clubberer".
  • The players of Schalke 04 are known as "die Knappen" (an old-fashioned word for "miners") and "die Königsblauen" (the Royal Blues). The squad that dominated German football in the 1930s and 1940s was fondly known as "der Schalker Kreisel" (the Schalke Spinning Top).
  • The players of Hamburger SV have been called "die Rothosen" (the Red Shorts) since they adopted their traditional strip of white jerseys and red shorts in 1919.
  • 1. FC Kaiserslautern are known as "die Roten Teufel vom Betzenberg", the Red Devils of the Betzenberg (the hill on which their stadium is located).
  • FC Bayern München is sometimes jocularly referred to as FC Hollywood because it is the richest German football club and its players and officials are the one who made the most headlines for their private lives.
  • Borussia Mönchengladbach were named "die Fohlen" (the foals or colts) in the 1970s due to their players' low age average and extremely intense, attacking playstyle; the nickname stuck to this day.
  • MSV Duisburg are "die Zebras" (the Zebras, after their jerseys, which are striped horizontally white and blue). This nickname became official and a zebra has been incorporated into their crest.
  • Many individual players are fondly known by their nicknames, for instance Helmut "Boss" Rahn (who scored two goals in the 1954 World Cup final), Uwe "Uns Uwe" (Low German: Our Uwe) Seeler (his father was known as "Old Erwin"), Helmut "der Mann mit der Mütze" (the Man with the Cap) Schön, Willi "World Cup Willi" Schulz, Franz "der Kaiser" Beckenbauer, Lothar "Emma" Emmerich, Reinhard "Stan" (after Stanley Matthews) Libuda, Sepp "die Katze von Anzing" (the Cat of Anzing) Maier, Hans-Jürgen "Dixie" Dörner, Horst-Dieter "Eisenfuß" (Ironfoot) Höttges, Berti "der Terrier" Vogts, Gerd "Bomber der Nation" Müller, Oliver "der Titan" Kahn, Lukas "Poldi" Podolski, Bastian "Schweini" ("Piggy") Schweinsteiger.
• Spanish soccer- ahem, "sports" newspaper Diario As ("ace") is also known as Diario Ass (translation not required) because of their habit of including an interview with a female athlete on the back cover, complete with a centerfold of said athlete in skimpy clothing.
• English footballer Adebayo Akinfenwa is also known as "The Beast" because of his unusually huge body size.
• Danish striker Nicklas Bendtner is ironically nicknamed "Lord", or "Lord Bendtner".
• Kosovo-born Swiss midfielder Xherdan Shaqiri^note rough pronunciation: jehr-DAHN sha-CHEE-ree has been called the "Alpine Messi" and the "Magic Dwarf", from his similarity in both playing style and lack of height to Lionel Messi.^note Messi is all of 5'7"/1.70 m; Shaqiri is a hair shorter.

Other Sports

• The Spanish Davis Cup team is nicknamed The Invincible Armada and The Spanish Armada, the name has caught on so much that the players themselves can be seen wearing caps with the name on them. It's also more widely used to refer to the top tier Spanish Tennis players.
• A list of some nicknames for individual tennis players:
  • Everyone knows Gustavo Kuerten as "Guga" instead of "Gustavo".
  • Roger Federer is sometimes called "FedEx", a reference to his speedy and efficient way of sending his opponents on an express trip out of the match.
  • Novak Djokovic is sometimes called "Djoker", owed in part to his propensity to crack jokes with other players on and off the court. He's also often called "Nole", with his Twitter handle even combining these two most common nicknames (@DjokerNole).
  • Andy Murray is sometimes called "Muzza" or just "Muzz", or occasionally "Andeh" in imitation of his accent.
  • Stan Wawrinka is known as "Stan the Man" or "Stanimal" on his good days when he's hitting opponents off the court instead of himself off the court.
  • Alexander Zverev is known to his fans as "Sascha" (even after he said in an interview that he didn't like that nickname) and "Asparagus" (after he compared his tall, skinny body to an asparagus in one on-court interview).
  • Simona Halep was called "Halepeño" by Darren Cahill because of her Plucky Girl qualities, and the nickname caught on with fans too.
  • Petra Kvitová is called "P3tra" by her fans for her penchant for being taken to 3 sets in matches against players she should be beating much more easily.
  • Karolína Plíšková is called "Pliskobot" for her robotic-like gameplay and (normally) emotionless disposition on court.
  • Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde, whose doubles partnership was the most successful in ATP Tour history until the Bryan Brothers (twins Bob and Mike) came along, were known to one and all as "The Woodies".
• Aussie this page on up with the grand list of AFL nicknames:
  • When he's not having 'you beauty!' attached to the end of his name, Alex Jesaulenko is abbreviated to a fairly standard Jezza.
  • Brendan 'Fev' Fevola
    • During his time at Carlton, 'Fevalenko' also saw some usage (Fev and Jezza both wore number 25 for Carlton).
  • Peter 'Macca' McConville
  • Alex 'Marcel' Marcou
  • Phil 'Shark' Marlin
  • Ken 'Bomber' Sheldon
    • Ken's son Sam has the nickname SOKS, Son of Ken Sheldon.
  • Anthony 'Kouta' Koutoufides
  • Ricky 'Chicken Legs' Nixon
  • Stephen 'SOS' Silvagni
  • Stephen 'Sticks' Kernahan
  • Twin brothers Brad and Chris Scott aka "The Kray Brothers"
  • Mason Cox, an American who switched from basketball after sitting on the end of Oklahoma State University's bench, became "American Pie" (obviously) and "Coxzilla" (he's 6'11", making him one of the three tallest AFL players ever). He's since naturalised in Australia.
    • It would be easier to list the AFL players without some sort of nickname.
• Mixed Martial Arts: Many fighters adopt a nickname that is coined by friends, family, and trainers, but sometimes the fans themselves coin them. Examples include Sean "The Muscle Shark" Sherk, and Kazushi "The Gracie Hunter" Sakuraba. Examples that are not officially adopted are often mocking names or simple abbreviations of the fighter's name. Sometimes a fighter's signature move receives a fan nickname.
  • Brock Lesnar is often called "Cock Chesnar" to mock the extremely phallic tattoo he sports on his chest.
  • "Cup" Chieck Kongo is so called due to the number of times he "cup checked" his opponent Mirko Cro Cop with illegal groin strikes.
  • Kazushi Sakuraba is often called "Saku" by fans who are pressed for time.
  • Georges "Rush" St-Pierre is almost always referred to as GSP rather than by any part of his name or even his original nickname.
  • Mirko Cro Cop's infamous left high kicks are often abbreviated "LHK", which in turn has migrated onto others' use of the same technique.
    • His real name is Mirko Filipović; the name "Cro Cop" comes from his career as a police officer in Croatia.
  • James Thompson's tradition of charging at his opponent at the instant of the first bell is called "Gong and Dash".
  • Yoshihiro Akiyama, known for his modeling and fashionable lifestyle, is called "Sexyama" by fans. Akiyama stated that the name embarrassed him at first, but he now likes it and it has been used during pre-fight UFC introductions.
  • PRIDE English announcer Lenne Hardt was dubbed "PRIDE Crazy Lady" by Japanese fans for her outrageous announcing style.
  • StrikeForce women's bantamweight fighter Miesha "Takedown" Tate gained her nickname from her wrestling-based style. However, her... impressively muscular posterior has led some fans (mostly on the Sherdog message boards) to dub her Miesha "Dat Ass" Tate.
  • Anderson Silva is "Spider" for his fandom of Spider-Man.
  • Chan Sung Jung^note native name order: Jung Chan-sung is the "Korean Zombie" for his apparent ability to keep on the attack despite damage that would drop most fighters.
  • Israel Adesanya is "The Last Stylebender", in part playing off his acknowledged fandom for Avatar: The Last Airbender.
  • UFC President Dana White is also known as "The Baldfather", due to his hard nosed negotiation style, blunt tough-guy persona and of course, his bald head.
• Horse Racing:
  • The Kentucky Derby is "The Run for the Roses", a reference to the winner's blanket of roses, and the Belmont Stakes is "The Test of Champions", since it's a mile and a half, one of the longest thoroughbred races out there.^note At least on dirt; many classic races on turf (grass) tracks are the same distance as the Belmont.
  • Churchill Downs, home to the Kentucky Derby, gets referred to simply as "The Twin Spires", after the track's most distinctive architectural feature.^note Now barely visible from most angles thanks to expansions in recent years.
  • Man O' War and Secretariat, arguably the two greatest American Thoroughbreds, were both nicknamed "Big Red". In both cases, this was their "stable name" (i.e., what their handlers called them), but quickly became standard among racing fans.
  • "The Grey Flash" — Australian sprint legend Chautauqua.
  • While South Africa is something of a racing backwater, it's produced its own version of "The People's Champion" – Kommetdieding, a horse named for a Cape Afrikaans slang phrase meaning "bring it on" and purchased by a Coloured^note South Africa's historic mixed-race community businessman for the equivalent of US$4,000... and went on to win the continent's biggest race in 2021.
• "Cuddles" for Cadel Evans, winner of the world professional road cycling championship in 2009 and Tour de France in 2011.
• Mike Tyson was known as "Kid Dynamite" when he was an up-and-comer, due to his extreme youth (turned pro at 19) and incredible punching power (won most of his fights by first round knockout). By the time he became champion, he was mostly referred to as "Iron Mike" — because of his astonishing perfect record and the fact that he seemed impossible to hurt.
• Boxer Eric "Butterbean" Esch received his nickname after the crash diet he went on to make weight for a local tough man competition — because he couldn't enter if he weighed more than 400 pounds. Despite the fact that he has clearly never dieted again since, he's now mostly known by that name.
• Quinton "Rampage" Jackson. Look at him, you'll figure it out.
• Beach volleyball has three-time Olympic champion team Misty "The Turtle" May-Treanor and her partner Kerri "Six Feet of Sunshine" Walsh Jennings.
• Artistic gymnastics has its fair share:
  • "The Shush" for Elena Shushunova (URS)
  • "The Painted Bird of Odessa" for Tatiana Gutsu (URS)
  • "Awesome Dawesome" for Dominique Dawes (USA)
  • "The Belarussian Swan" and "The Goddess of Gymnastics" for Svetlana Boguinskaia (URS/BLR)
  • "Queen Khorky" for Svetlana Khorkina (RUS)
  • "The Queen" for Ludmilla Tourischeva (URS)
  • "Mama Chuso" for Oksana Chusovitina (URS/UZB/GER)
  • "The Trickster" for Amy Chow (USA)
  • "LilyPod" for Lilia Podkopayeva (UKR)
  • "Mighty Mouse" for Kyla Ross (USA)
  • "Tsarina Aliya" for Aliya Mustafina (RUS)
  • The Chinese affectionate nicknames:
    • "Songsong" for Shang Chunsong (CHN)
    • "Nannan" for Yao Jinnan (CHN)
    • "Dandan" for Huang Huidan (CHN)
  • "K-Rod" for Kristen Maloney (USA)
  • "Pocket Rocket" for Claudia Fragapane (GBR/ENG)
  • "Air Maroney" for McKayla Maroney (USA)^note as in "Air Canada", so named because of the jaw-droppingly unbelievable flight she gets on her favorite event, the vault
  • "The Flying Dutchman" for Epke Zonderland (NED)
  • "Pepsodent" for Amanda Borden (USA)^note because of her beaming smile
  • "Lord of the Rings" for Eleftherios Petrounias (GRE)^note for winning basically every event final he enters on his best event, the still rings, since approximately the dawn of time
  • "United States of Amanar" for Team USA in 2012, because most of its internationally competitive senior elites could throw the incredibly difficult Amanar^note a round-off entry onto the board, followed by a 2.5-twisting layout vault
  • "The Magnificent Seven" for the seven-woman USA team that won gold in Atlanta (Jaycie Phelps, Amanda Borden, Dominique Dawes, Dominique Moceanu, Amy Chow, Kerri Strug, and Shannon Miller)
  • The "Fierce Five" for the USA women's team that won gold in London (Kyla Ross, McKayla Maroney, Jordyn Wieber, Aly Raisman, and Gabby Douglas)
  • The "Final Five" for the USA women's team that won gold in Rio^*because they were the final team to be coached by Márta Károlyi, who had spent 20 years at the head of USA women's gymnastics, and before that was the longtime coaching partner of her husband Béla (Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, Laurie Hernandez, Madison Kocian, and Gabby Douglas)
• Rugby Union also has its share...
  • Argentina:
    • Famed fly-half Juan Martín Hernández was El Mago ("The Magician").
  • Australia:
    • Hall of Fame lock John Eales was "Nobody"... as in "nobody's perfect".
    • Hall of Fame utility back Stephen Larkham was "Bernie" because of his alleged resemblance to the title character in Weekend at Bernie's (more in facial expression than in physical appearance).
    • Recently retired flanker David Pocock became "The Jackal" from his penchant for steals at the breakdown.
  • England:
    • Billy Twelvetrees is sometimes abbreviated to "36" ("twelve threes") in online discussions. In similar vein is "1/2p", "0.5p" and similar for the Welsh back Leigh Halfpenny.
    • Jonny Wilkinson, fly-half considered by many to be the country's greatest player, is "Wilko".
  • France:
    • Utility forward Sébastien Chabal, who played many of his best years of club rugby in England, was called "Caveman" by fans in both countries due to a perceived resemblance to same. See his Google images page.
  • Ireland:
    • Centre Brian O'Driscoll, usually viewed as that country's greatest player, became "BOD".
  • New Zealand:
    • Jonah Lomu, Hall of Fame winger of the '90s and '00s generally considered the sport's first true global superstar, was often called "The Big Fella". He was the prototype of the gigantic wingers often seen today, at 1.96 m/6'5" and close to 120 kg/260 lb—a body type more often seen even today among forwards.
    • Colin Meads, iconic Hall of Fame forward of the 1950s and 1960s, was "Pinetree".
  • Samoa:
    • Brian Lima, whose Hall of Fame career as a wing and a centre spanned the turn of the millennium, was "The Chiropractor", from his penchant for extremely hard tackling.
  • South Africa:
    • Jacobus Petrus du Randt, Hall of Fame prop who was on two World Cup-winning Springboks teams—those of 1995, featured in the film Invictus (though he wasn't mentioned in it), and 2007—was never called by either of his given names, but rather "Os" (Afrikaans for "Ox").
    • Another prop, Tendai Mtawarira, is "Beast".
    • Flanker Joe van Niekerk was "Big Joe".
  • Stadiums get nicknames as well...
    • Twickenham, home to the England national team: "The Cabbage Patch" (the property was used to grow cabbages before the stadium was built), "HQ" (it houses the headquarters of England's national governing body), and "Twickers".
    • Carisbrook, a now-demolished stadium in Dunedin, New Zealand, was "The House of Pain" due to its intimidating atmosphere.
    • Carisbrook's replacement, Forsyth Barr Stadium, is "The Glasshouse"; it's covered by a transparent roof, making it look like a giant greenhouse.
    • Lang Park in Brisbane is "The Cauldron".
    • Thomond Park in Limerick, Ireland is known as "Fortress Thomond" thanks to it being roughly as intimidating as Carisbrook.
• Cricket too...
  • Australian legend Donald Bradman, he of the iconic 99.94 batting average: "The Don".
  • A later Aussie, Michael Hussey, became "Mr. Cricket", partly from an impressive knowledge of the sport's history.
  • Iconic English all-rounder Ian Botham: "Beefy".
  • More recent English all-rounder Andrew Flintoff, now a presenter of Top Gear (UK), became "Freddie" in his school days from the resemblance of his surname to that of Fred Flintstone, and the nickname carried over into his cricket career. In fact, he's now an example of Do Not Call Me "Paul". He told his fellow Top Gear presenter Chris Harris on-air that he strongly prefers Freddie, and the BBC calls him "Freddie Flintoff" in the credits and all publicity material.
  • India's Sachin Tendulkar had a few, among them "Little Master", "Master Blaster", and "Tendiya".
  • His teammate V. V. S. Laxman became "Very Very Special".
  • Another teammate, Rahul Dravid: "The Wall".
  • A slightly younger Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, a Sikh who wore a turban while playing, was often called "The Turbanator".
  • Virat Kohli, India's star batsman of The New '10s, has a bunch—"Cheeku", "King Kohli", "Captain Aggressive", "Captain Fearless", "Chase Master", and more.
  • Sri Lankan spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, who retired as the all-time leading wicket-taker in both Tests and ODIs, was widely called "Murali". "The Smiling Assassin" was occasionally seen as well.
  • Sri Lankan fast bowler Lasith "Slinga" Malinga, from his unique roundarm bowling action.^note Broadly similar to sidearm throwing in baseball. At one time, it was the standard bowling action, but had largely disappeared until he emerged in the 21st century.
  • West Indies batsman Chris Gayle, especially famous for his feats in Twenty20 cricket, picked up "Mr. T20", "World Boss", "Universe Boss", "Gayle Force", and others.
  • His contemporary and teammate Dwayne Bravo: "DJ" or "Johnny".
  • An earlier West Indian great, fast bowler Joel Garner: "Big Bird" or "Big Joel".
  • Another West Indian fast bowling legend, Michael Holding: "Whispering Death", from his quiet approach to the crease.
• Figure skater Yuzuru Hanyu is referred to as "Yuzu", "Zuzu", or "Zu" in general. A popular method of forming situation-specific nicknames is adding "-zuru" to otherwords: Eggzuru refers to his portrayal of Date Shigemura in The Magnificent Nine because the hairstyle makes his head look like an egg, Nyanzuru for when he wears cat ears or is catlike ("Nyan" being how a Japanese cat meows), etc. His programs also have nicknames of their own, usually based on Japanese-style abbreviation: Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso became RonCapu, Hope and Legacy became Hopurega, etc. Some idiosyncratic nicknames do exist: Haru yo, koi is called the pink jellyfish because of the costume's resemblance◊ to one.
• Late Turkish weightlifting great Naim Süleymanoğlu was "Pocket Hercules". He was all of 4'10" (1.47 m), and the heaviest weight class in which he competed was 64 kg (141 lb). Even in 2024, seven years after his passing in 2017, he remains one of only seven men to have lifted three times his body weight in the clean and jerk,^note in which the lifter raises the weight bar to his/her shoulders, and then lifts it overhead and the only one to have snatched^note in which the lifter raises the bar overhead in a single uninterrupted motion 2.5 times his body weight.

General

• "A-Train" is a popular fan nickname in U.S. sports as well, given the level of forces involved when you have 200-300 pounds worth of almost pure muscle running around the field. "Tank" is the British equivalent.
• "Super" Mario West of the NBA's Boston Celtics and "Super" Mario Lemieux formerly of the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins. Really, if there's a guy named Mario, people are going to call him "Super" sooner or later.
  • After Mario Götze scored the winning goal for Germany in the 2014 World Cup Final, Ian Darke, who did the commentary for ESPN's broadcast of the game, was quick to use this terminology.
  • This is also the nickname of soccer player Mario Balotelli. It actually fits well since he's Italian.
• The University of Virginia sports teams are officially known as the Cavaliers. They're unofficially often known as the "Wahoos" or the "Hoos" for short. The name is based on the "Wahoo-wah" chant Virginia "borrowed" from Dartmouth in the 1890s. "Wahoo" is also sometimes jokingly said to come from the wahoo fish that supposedly drinks twice its own body weight every day.
• Similarly, Gonzaga University's sports teams are officially Bulldogs, but often unofficially known as "Zags". Now verging into semi-official territory—the Bulldogs' official website is at "gozags.com", and the men's and women's basketball teams (and probably other teams as well) variously have "Gonzaga", "Bulldogs", and "Zags" on the front of their jerseys.