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Sports Watch
WATCHING and enjoying Mississippi State beat up on BYU, I'm reminded that it's time for my annual college football name game. Playing the gridiron
name gameThat is, perusing for the unusual that would titillate fellow name junkies.
Why Mississippi State, you might ask?
Well, two of its starters made my all-name team for the 2000 season -- left offensive tackle Pork Chop Womack and defensive back Pig Prather.
The Washington Redskins' "Hogs" have nothing on MSU's porcine pair.
I had to telephone the school's sports information director, Mike Nemeth, to find out more about them.
"You're calling about Pig and Pork Chop aren't you," he said. Obviously, I wasn't the first to inquire about the Bulldogs whose oink is louder than their bark.
"I usually don't like to use nicknames. But nobody calls them anything else but Pig and Pork Chop," he said.
Womack's given name is Floyd; Pig's is Edward. How dull. I'm glad they opted for their nicknames.
Pork Chop, who's 6-feet-3, 336 pounds, comes from Southeastern Mississippi. There was a wrestler in that delta region by the name of Pork Chop Cash.
Womack's folks thought he looked like that wrestler, hence the nickname. As for Prather, he got pegged as Pig in elementary school. Classmates said he "ate like a pig."
Among the more memorable names this season are Carlease Clark Jr. (Wisconsin), Tango McCauley (Texas A&M), Ken-Yon Rambo (Ohio State), Shaka Martin (Navy) and USC's not one but two Sultans -- McCullough and Abdul-Malik.
Rocky is a popular name this season. There are at least six of them -- Bernard (Texas A&M), Boiman (Notre Dame), Calmus (Oklahoma), Harvey (Illinois), Martin (Colorado State) and Perez (San Jose State).
More winning names: Georgia's Boss Bailey, whose brother was Champ, and Toby Champion of Tennessee.
Other great names for football: Bobby Hammer (Boise State), Quentin Jammer (Texas), Carlos Spikes (South Carolina), Tavarreus Pounds (Auburn), Dwayne Levels (Oklahoma State), Rob Sack (Temple), Steve Cutlip (Colorado State) and Manly Kanoa (Hawaii).
ON the other hand, a coach would think twice about starting Fred Weary (Tennessee), Willis Ham (South Carolina), Tyson Meek (TCU), Omar Easy (Penn State) and Lousaka Polite (Pitt).
And I wonder if Florida's Steve Spurrier can handle Erik Strange and Thomas Moody?
You need speed, so I doubt if Ryan Sloth (Iowa State) can keep up with Brant Quick (Kansas State), Rushen Jones (Vanderbilt), Scooter Monroe and Ryan Swift (Maryland).
Making up the show-me-the-money team: Shannon Money (Arkansas), Josh and Abram Booty (LSU), Chris Cash (USC) and Thomas Fortune (Utah).
Duane Missouri plays for Northwestern, Jared Cornell for Oregon State, Cedric Washington for Boston College, Leif Penn for Houston and Troy Danoff for UCLA.
Chess must be big at Texas-El Paso with players named Castle (Curtis), King (Bobby) and Bishop (Ricky).
And wouldn't you know it? Shane Wagers plays for UNLV.
Making my kicking team are punter Ryan Long (Texas) and place-kicker Tim Long (Northwestern).
Team captains? Who else but smart guys Sage Rosenfels (Iowa State) and Joe Wiser (Portland State).
Derek Homer (Kentucky), Wes Ours (West Virginia), Boo Williams (Arkansas) and Carl Fair (Ala.-Birmingham) could make up the officiating crew.
Singing the national anthem? Jordan Caruso (Penn State) and Tommy Dorsey (SMU).
Bill Kwon has been writing about
sports for the Star-Bulletin since 1959.