Greatest athletes without a nickname
 

Did Bill Russell have one, not that I know of? Jim Brown?

Did Jim Thorpe have a nickname? I don't consider "world's greatest athlete" to really be a nickname, but I suppose some folks do.

Jose Valdivielso

Johnny Dickshot...I mean, why bother

greatest athletes without a nickname
 

I've seen Bill Russell as "Russ"; Jim Brown as "First Down" Jim Brown, and for the nit pickers, "Technically Jim is James Nathaniel Brown's "nickname."

Looks like there's a nickname website for everything under the sun, including "Sports."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_nicknames

Danny Napoleon

Did Barry Bonds have a nickname?

Barry Sanders

Cheater or Doper.

I was waiting for that.

What about Koufax or Clemente, neither of them really had a nickname that I can think of.... certainly not in the context of how I'm thinking of it.... like Georgia Peach, Mr October... etc.... maybe there were terms loosely used like "lefty" for Koufax, etc... but not a truly recognized nickname.

I think Chris Berman used to say- Barry "US" Bonds when doing ESPN highlights, but that wasn't so official.

Spahn?

Barry "The Human Bobble Head" Bonds

I've seen Koufax referred to as the Left Arm of God.

Why are there so many pitchers nicknamed "lefty" but not a single one called "righty"?

Because the overwhelming number of people are right-handed. Designating someone as "lefty" highlights the uniqueness of being left-handed.

George Brett? Don't recall a nickname.

Good call on Clemente and Koufax, Brian.

Although it didn't really exist during his playing years, Clemente did have the childhood nickname of "Momen".

Just when you thought every sports related question had been asked here, Peter comes up with a good one.

Carew? Bench? Winfield?

Peter, baseball-almanac.com has a hofer list w/ nicknames. Clemens is "Rocket" or "The Rocket". Spahn was "Hooks", according to wikipedia, but I have never heard that nickname for him. Everyone that plays baseball has a nickname, but "Bill" is not as good as "The Duke of Tralee". Some nicknames are better than others.

Good question Peter.

Frank the first player that came to mind for me was Jose Valdivielso too Frank, so odd. :)

I once heard that players give their teammates nicknames. It's kinda a right of passage. Now weather those nicknames make it to the general public, is another thing. Like Magic Johnson was called Buck by his teammates (cuz he helped them make bucks), but to the public, he was Magic.

On Koufax, i did recently see an old NY Post newspaper headline call him Koo. Any older NYers or LAers remember that?

Berman would have called him Jose “Can You Say” Valdivielso :D

I don't know about sports athletes but way back in the day when I was selling technology Intel Corp. had my name as Lron Luvkry. There was a another sales rep who used to always call me Lron because of that. :)

and to the original subject, it is surprising Sandy Koufax didn't have a nickname.

I wonder, who was the first baseball player EVER to be given a sobriquet?

Good question. I chose to look up an early name, Jim Mutrie, and according to Wikki he had a nickname circa 1880...

Mutrie, nicknamed "Smilin' Jeems" and "Truthful Jim", was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts, and grew up playing cricket, first playing baseball at age 16. He played in the minor leagues from 1877 to 1879.[1] In 1880 he moved from New England to New York, where he obtained financial backing from August Belmont and John B. Day to start the independent New York Metropolitans. At the end of the 1882 season, Day and Mutrie accepted offers from both the American Association and the National League to enter a New York team; they met their double commitment by entering the Mets in the American Association, and acquiring most of the players from the Troy Trojans to form the New York Gothams for the National League.

Great information Peter.
I've always loved the surviving Troy tickets in the hobby.
What an important genesis item for the Gothams.

Death to Flying Things
 

Bob Ferguson was playing professionally by the early 1870s. His nickname “Death to Flying Things” is at least in the discussion for greatest nickname in baseball history.

For me, as many amazing nicknames as there are, for baseball The Yankee Clipper is at the top of the list.

Jim Thorpe
 

Don't know if this is a nickname or a tribal name but I had heard him referred to in the past as "Chief Brightpath"......