25 Questions: Sports Nicknames Multiple Choice Quiz | Sports

Answer: Walter Payton

Payton got the nickname "Sweetness" in college (Jackson State University), although the origin is uncertain. It could have been from his nice-guy personality, his athletic grace, or his deceptive playing style. He was especially renown for his "stutter-step," a high-stepping, irregularly paced run, which might have been described as "sweet." He was a first-round pick in the NFL draft of the Chicago Bears in 1975 and played for Coach Mike Ditka.

In 1993 Payton was elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Answer: Babe Ruth

George Herman Ruth, Jr. (his birth name) got his start in pro baseball in 1914 when he was signed at age 19 by the Baltimore Orioles (then a minor-league team) for the princely sum of $250 a month ($5,500 in 2010 dollar terms). The nickname "Babe" came from his new teammates, who called him "Jack's newest babe" (Jack Dunn was the owner and manager of the Orioles).

He was traded in 1914 to the Boston Red Sox (as a pitcher), and they traded him in 1919 to the NY Yankees for $100,000 ($1,100,000 in 2010 dollars).

The nickname "Bambino" came from the Italian word for "babe." Ruth was also known as the "Sultan of Swat" (by then he was a ferocious slugger).

Answer: Muhammad Ali

Cassius Clay (his birth name) won the gold medal in light-heavyweight boxing at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome and soon afterwards turned pro. He won the world pro heavyweight crown in 1964 by defeating Sonny Liston. In 1964 he joined the Nation of Islam and took the name Muhammad Ali.

He had a huge ego and loved to refer to himself, to reporters in prefight hype, as the greatest boxer that had ever lived. The nickname stuck. The catch phrase "float like a butterfly, sting like a bee" was one of his favorite claims.

He was also called "The Louisville Lip" (his hometown) because of his non-stop prefight bragging and hype.

Answer: Jack Nicklaus

There are two possible sources of the "Golden Bear" nickname. After Nicklaus turned pro in 1961 (his first match was the PGA Tour in 1962), his future agent, Mark McCormack, was interviewed by Melbourne Age writer, Don Lawrence. When McCormack described Nicklaus as "large, strong, and blond," Lawrence referred to him as the "Golden Bear." However, another possible origin of the name derives from the high school that Nicklaus attended in Upper Arlington, Ohio, which uses the mascot the Golden Bears for its sports teams. Later in his career, Jack lost a lot of weight and "bear" was no longer such an appropriate animal!

Answer: Stan Musial

Musial got the nickname "The Man" during the 1946 baseball season. During a June 23 game against the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field, sportswriter Bob Broeg of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch heard Dodger fans chanting "Here comes the man!" whenever Musial came to bat. Broeg reported this in his Post-Dispatch column, and the nickname stuck.

Answer: Joe DiMaggio

DiMaggio got the nickname the "Yankee Clipper" during the 1939 baseball season from NY Yankee's stadium announcer Arch McDonald, who compared DiMaggio's speed and range in playing the outfield to the then-new Pan American World Airways Boeing 314 airliner (called Clippers). The term "clipper" was first used to refer the very-fast sailing ships of the 19th century used primarily for trans-Atlantic trade. DiMaggio was an extremely private man and at first was very upset with the lines "Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?" and "Joltin' Joe has left and gone away" (from the song "Mrs. Robinson" by Simon and Garfunkel). He became the second husband of film star Marilyn Monroe (1954 elopement, married only nine months).

After she died in 1962, DiMaggio had flowers delivered to Marilyn's grave twice a week for two decades. Although he never acknowledged doing this, she had requested while they were married, that if she died before him, would he promise to place flowers at her grave every week? He promised he would. In 2006, a baseball signed by both DiMaggio and Monroe sold for $191,200.

Answer: Greg Norman

Greg Norman is an Australian professional golfer who got his nickname the "Great White Shark" from his shock of white (or blonde) hair, his size and his aggressive playing style. In 1995 Norman was named the PGA (Professional Golfers' Association) Player of the Year.

Answer: Pete Rose

Rose was given the nickname "Charlie Hustle" by New York Yankees pitcher Whitey Ford, but there are two versions on how this came about. In one version, Rose ran to first base in a 1963 spring training game after four pitched balls (a walk), prompting Ford's comment.

The version told by slugger Mickey Mantle is that Rose, then playing as an outfielder in left field, made an effort to climb the fence to try to catch a Mantle home run that everyone could see was headed over.

Answer: Wayne Gretzky

Canadian Wayne Gretzky has been called "the greatest ice hockey player ever" by many sportswriters, players, and even the NHL (National Hockey League) itself. The nickname "The Great One" has been used to describe superstars in other fields, including baseball player Roberto Clemente and American comedian, actor and musician Jackie Gleason.

Answer: Reggie Jackson

Jackson got the nickname "Mr. October" because of his timely hitting in post-regular season baseball play. In the 1977 World Series (N.Y. Yankees vs L.A. Dodgers), Yankee catcher and team captain Thurman Munson was being interviewed, but said to the reporter (thinking Jackson had better answers for the reporter's questions), "Go ask Mister October." The nickname stuck.

Answer: George Anderson

Although boxing promoter Don King's hair looks like he touched a major spark, it is baseball manager George Lee Anderson who has the nickname "Sparky." Anderson earned the nickname for his volatile and explosive confrontations with umpires during his playing days (all but one year were in the minor leagues).

In 1959 he was the starting second baseman for the Philadelphia Phillies in the Major Leagues and hit .218. He then spent 26 years as a manager for the Cincinnati Reds (known as "The Big Red Machine") and the Detroit Tigers.

He became the first manager to win the World Series in both leagues (two in Cincinnati and one in Detroit). During his Cincinnati years, Anderson also got the nickname "Captain Hook" because he would often replace a starting pitcher with a reliever at the first sign of weakness.

Answer: James Augustus Hunter

Hunter got the nickname "Catfish" after he was signed by the Kansas City A's baseball team in 1965. Owner Charlie Finley told the newly-signed pitcher he needed a catchy nickname, and then just made up a story that Hunter had caught a large catfish when he was a boy! The nickname stuck.

The A's were moved from Kansas City to Oakland, California prior to the 1968 season. In 1987 Hunter was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Answer: Jay Hanna Dean

There are two possible sources of Dean's nickname "Dizzy." One was his crazy on-field antics (such as throwing himself in front of a pitched ball to break up a double play and getting hit in the head). Another possibility is from a 1927 incident in his military career. An Army sergeant found young Dean throwing peeled potatoes against garbage can lids and yelled, "You dizzy SOB!" One of the better-known teams Dean pitched for were the 1934 St. Louis Cardinals (known as the "Gashouse Gang"), who got that nickname because of their often unwashed and smelly uniforms.

In those days, gas for lighting and cooking was commonly made from coal in "gas houses," and they were noted for their foul smell. Dean's brother Paul was also a pitcher on the team and the press nicknamed him "Daffy," but that probably was just a marketing creation (for example, brothers Dizzy and Daffy did such-and-such).

Answer: George Halas

George Halas was the founder of the Chicago Bears football team of the National Football League and was the team's leader for more than 50 years. Halas was also the head coach of the Bears for 40 years and won a record 6 NFL World Championships. He was also called "Mr. Everything" because besides coaching the Bears, he also handled ticket sales and the business of running the club.

In his college days (University of Illinois), he played football, baseball and basketball.

Answer: Joe Louis

After the retirement of boxer Jack Dempsey in 1929, American boxing degenerated into a sleazy mixture of poor athletes, fixed fights and control of the sport by organized crime. Louis arguably saved the sport in the 1930s, and the American press began promoting Louis' image with various nicknames (such as the "Detroit Destroyer," the "Mahogany Mauler," and the "Chocolate Chopper"), but they finally settled on the "Brown Bomber".

Louis is perhaps best known for his two fights with German fighter Max Schmeling on the eve of World War II. He lost the first one in 1936 (12th round knockout) but won the 1938 rematch (1st round knockout). The Nazis were quick to jump on Schmeling's "Aryan superiority" after the first fight but were strangely silent after the second. To Schmeling's credit, he resisted the attention from Hitler and the Nazis, and insisted on retaining his Jewish manager. Although Louis was born as Joseph Louis Barrow, he started fighting under the name Joe Louis so his mother wouldn't find out.

Answer: Willie Mays

Baseball outfielder Willie Mays had a habit of addressing his fellow players on the NY Giants team (they moved to San Francisco from New York in 1957) with a high-spirited "say hey" salutation, prompting a New York sportswriter to call him the "Say Hey Kid." Prior to the signing of Jackie Robinson by the Brooklyn Dodgers for the 1946 season, the color barrier in American baseball excluded black players from playing in the all-white major leagues.

After Robinson broke the color barrier, talented players like Mays had a chance.

Answer: Cal Ripken, Jr.

Cal Ripkin, Jr. got the nickname "The Iron Man" for appearing in 2,632 consecutive baseball games (and in the process breaking Lou Gehrig's record). Gehrig got the nickname the "Iron Horse" because of his record of playing in 2,130 consecutive baseball games for the NY Yankees between 1925-1939. That record in was broken in 1998 by Cal Ripkin, Jr. with 2,632 consecutive games played for the Baltimore Orioles between 1982-1998. He voluntarily pulled himself from the lineup in the Orioles final home game of the 1998 season to stop the press hype about his record and to end the streak on his own terms while he still could.

Gehrig suffered from the disease Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, which is more commonly known as 'Lou Gehrig's Disease.' His story is told in the 1942 movie "The Pride of the Yankees" starring Gary Cooper as Gehrig. The famous line from that movie (and real life) was, "Today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth."

Answer: Wilt Chamberlain

Not surprisingly, Chamberlain got the nickname "The Stilt" because of his height of 7 foot 1 inch (it was coined during his high school basketball days by a Philadelphia sportswriter). This was in an era when most basketball players were regular-sized men.

He disliked nicknames that called excessive attention to his height, preferring the nickname "The Big Dipper" (because he often had to dip his head as he walked through doorways).

Answer: Raghib Ishmail

Raghib Ismail got the nickname "Rocket" from his high school track coach because of his blazing speed (he allegedly ran the 40-yard dash in 4.2 seconds). At Notre Dame, Rocket was used as a wide receiver and kick returner on the football team, and helped the Fighting Irish win the 1988 national U.S. championship.

His brother Qadry has the nickname "The Missile" and brother Sulaiman has the nickname "The Bomb," which resulted in their mother being called "The Launch Pad." In pro ice hockey, Canadian Maurice Richard is known as "The Rocket." Richard was the first player to score 50 goals in one season (the 1944-45 NHL season).

Answer: Dale Earnhardt, Sr.

Dale Earnhardt, Sr. earned the nickname "The Intimidator" because of his aggressive driving style in driving race cars in NASCAR races. He died in 2001 in the final lap of the Daytona 500 at the age of 49. In 2002, he was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America. His son, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., is also a race car driver.

Answer: John Elliott

When he played football during his high school years, Elliot was a typical scrawny kid. But he was recruited to play at the University of Michigan, where he developed into one of the nation's stud linemen. His pro stats list him at 6 foot 7 inches and 308 pounds. Elliott's 15 minutes of fame came in 2000 during a Monday Night Football game against the Miami Dolphins.

He caught his only career touchdown pass late in the fourth quarter (as a tackle eligible) to tie the game 37-37 with 42 seconds left to play (after the Jets were down by 23 points in the fourth quarter). Like all linemen, Elliott's hands were heavily taped that night and he bobbled and juggled the pass before finally catching it-to the HUGE relief of Jets' fans! The Jets would eventually go on to win 40-37 in overtime.

Answer: Carl Yastrzemski

Carl Yastrzemski name is included in the list of "Top 25 Mispronounceable Names in MLB (Major League Baseball) History" (names such as Kent Hrbek, Marc Rzepczynski and Kila Ka'aihue). Understandably, fans and sportswriters felt more comfortable chanting and writing "Yaz"!

Answer: Joe Jackson

According to legend, Jackson got the nickname "Shoeless Joe" during a baseball game in Anderson, South Carolina early in his career, when he was playing on a textile mill team. A new pair of cleats gave Jackson foot blisters, and they hurt so much he took his shoes off before batting. An opposing fan heckled Jackson by calling him "shoeless," and the nickname stuck. (The story is credited to Scoop Latimer, a sports writer for The Greenville News.) Jackson's family was poor, which led to his early textile mill employment as a child.

As a result, he never received a formal education and was allegedly illiterate throughout his life. His wife often signed his signature, so anything actually autographed by Jackson himself brings a premium when sold (for example, an autograph verified by Jackson sold in 1990 for $23,500). Jackson was one of the infamous "Chicago Black Sox" team members who were banned from baseball for life for fixing the 1919 World Series for gamblers (although a Chicago jury later acquitted him and his seven White Sox teammates in 1921 of wrongdoing). He was portrayed in the movie "Field of Dreams" by Ray Liotta.

Answer: William Perry

Perry was a 300+ pound defensive lineman for the Chicago Bears football team, but Coach Mike Ditka also occasionally lined him up in the offensive backfield and used him to carry the ball in short-yardage situations. He scored several touchdowns that way, including one in the 1985 Super Bowl. Perry has stated in an interview that, "Even when I was little, I was big."

Answer: Deion Sanders

Deion Sanders was an unusually versatile player for the NFL in American-style football (he also played pro baseball). He was primarily used as a football cornerback, but also occasionally as a wide receiver, kick returner, and punt returner. Sanders got the nickname "Prime Time" (he was also called "Neon Deion") for his penchant of providing spectacular, attention-grabbing, highlight-reel plays during important games that were broadcast on prime time TV.

He played in eight Pro Bowls, two Super Bowls, and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2011.