Sport Names: Air Jordan, Rawalpinid Express,Cy, Shoeless Joe Jackson, Thrilla in Manilla
Nicknames are everywhere in sports, from shortened version of athlete's names to nicknames for entire teams. They go from the sublime to the ridiculous and it is very interesting to think about how these teams got their names or why athletes are use them. Most nicknames describe an attribute in an athlete or in a team and it is by these names that fans remember their favourite players and teams.
A nickname is defined as a familiar name for a person or a descriptive name for a place or thing. It could be that the names of people are too long to remember in the first place or there is a characteristic of the person or place that resonates with people. A nickname is also a way to become or feel closer to someone and by calling someone a special nickname the bond between two people grows and becomes stronger.
Athlete's are given all sorts of nicknames for all sorts of reasons. A reason for this nicknaming phenomenon could be the fact that fans give nicknames to those athletes that are their favourites and nicknames are usually only given to those athletes that really stand out or are really talented. It is the really talented and skilled athletes that garner most of the fans' attention and as the talented athletes become more famous people give them nicknames in order to remember them and acknowledge them for their skills.
So many examples of nicknames abound that years could be spent studying them all. One of the first nicknames to be given was to baseball's first great pitcher. He was named Denton True Young and people started calling him Cyclone which was then shortened to Cy. People couldn't even say Cyclone so they made it even easier for themselves and called him Cy.
Staying with baseball another great nickname story is the one which is about the moniker given to Joe Jackson, the famous baseball player. He was called Shoeless Joe Jackson. The story goes that before going to bat in a game his shoes were giving him intense blisters and so he took them off and went to bat. A fan saw this and shouted out that he had no shoes on and the name Shoeless Joe Jackson stuck from that day forth.
Other athletes from other sports have equally interesting nicknames. The paceman on the Pakistani cricket team Shoaib Akhter is called the Rawalpindi Express. His home town is Rawalpindi and they say he is as fast as the train that passes through the town also called the Rawalpindi Express.
In basketball, the greatest player to ever grace the court was Michael Jordan. His nickname was Air Jordan because of the amount of time he spent flying through the air. He was a basketball player who had the uncanny ability to soar in the air with the ball and score points. His nickname was also used to market a very successful line of basketball shoes, clothes and accessories which sell even today years after he has retired.
It isn't only players that get great nicknames. Teams have also accumulated some fantastic names over the years and so have certain great sporting events. Some of the odder team names that we can find are in American football. The Minnesota Vikings team is called the Purple People Eaters. This is because of the fact that the colour of their team uniform is purple and they have a very strong defensive line that seems to eat members of the opposite team. That is one of the best nicknames for a team that has ever been heard.
One of the greatest fights of Muhammad Ali's career took place on October 1st 1975 in Manila Philippines. The fight was labelled Thrilla in Manila in the marketing build up to the fight and it was one of the best fights between Ali and his arch rival Joe Frazer. Ali won the fight but only barely and this contest will always be remembered for being exactly that; a Thrilla of a boxing match.
Nicknames are not only fun but they are also something that people can be proud of. Athletes are given nicknames by their fans that adore them and want to show their appreciation. The most creative nicknames have the ability to last forever and help to cement a place for an athlete in the history books.
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