Famous Sporting Nicknames

The death occurred in November last year of Eamonn D’Arcy, who was known to many League of Ireland fans in the fifties and sixties as ‘Sheila.’ Eamonn started with Johnville and later played for Dundalk, Drumcondra, Shamrock Rovers and Shelbourne and also spent two seasons with Oldham Athletic in England.

In Seán Ryan’s obituary on Eamonn in the Sunday Independent he said that in his family nobody knew exactly where the nickname came from.

But a Dubliner, now living in New York, told me that he thought the nickname may have come from a Hollywood movie star called Sheila Darcy.

Sheila was born in 1914 and often played the part of the heroine in ‘B’ movies and Westerns. But like Eamonn, Sheila was not her real name. The actress was born Rebecca Benedict Heffener in 1914. Her best known roles were as the female lead in cliff-hangers, such as the 1939 film Zorro’s Fighting Legion.

Dubliners know their stuff about movies and I reckon some of those movie buffs also attended League of Ireland games and may have begun comparing Eamonn’s goalkeeping feats with the famous American actress. Coincidentally the real Sheila Darcy died at the age of 89 in 2004; Eamonn was also 89 when he died in November.

There were several nicknames used in the League of Ireland down through the years like: Jimmy ‘Timber’ Cummins, who played for the Saints, William ‘Sacky’ Glynn, who won seven FAI Cup medals with Rovers and one with Shels, Benny ‘Rosie’ Henderson, Jimmy ‘Maxie’ McCann and Liam ‘Rasher’ Tuohy.

I remember the late Jimmy Magee suggesting that it possibly could have been Irish nuns in Brazil who gave Edson Arantes do Nascimento his nickname of Pele. Jimmy thought that the nuns might have called him ‘Peil,’ which of course is the Irish for football. Not a bad theory, but like many nicknames Edson apparently got his in school and not from the nuns.

Another Brazilian star was known as Carlos Caetano Bledorn Verri to his parents, but Dunga to the football world. Dunga is the

Portuguese name for Dopey of Snow White fame. He was given the nickname by an uncle who was convinced he would never be very tall, and would look like a dwarf.

In England some of us remember Ron ‘Chopper’ Harris and George Graham, who was known as ‘Stroller.’ Anybody who saw Harris tackling knows why he was called ‘Chopper,’ while Graham also got his nickname while playing for Chelsea where he played as an attacking midfielder behind former St Pat’s manager Barry Bridges and Peter Osgood.

Irish Rugby also has some good nicknames. One of best one I think is for former Leinster and Ireland winger Shane Horgan, who was known as ‘Shaggy.’ I used to think it was because of his long hair, but have a look at the Shaggy character in Scooby-Doo and I think you will agree that whoever gave Horgan that name, got it right.

The late Rugby player Anthony Foley was known as ‘Axel.’ The name came from the film Beverly Hills Cops, where Eddie Murphy played the part of Detective Axel Foley. Another Munster Rugby star Peter Clohessy was known as ‘The Claw.’

Another great nickname was ‘Yankee Clipper,’ given to US Baseball star Joe DiMaggio. Joe got his name from Yankee’s stadium announcer Arch McDonald when he likened DiMaggio’s speed and range in the outfield to the then-new Pan American airliner.

Eamon Coghlan was known as ‘Chairman of the Boards’ after his great performances on the indoor circuit in the US and boxer Barry McGuigan earned the title of ‘Clones Cyclone.’ MMA star Conor McGregor is unusual in that it was probably himself or someone from his management team that gave him the ‘Notorious’ name.

In Tennis John McEnroe was ‘Superbrat’ and no surprise that Ilie Nastase was known as ‘Nasty.’ Alex Higgins was called ‘Hurricane,’ which best described the way he wasted no time clearing the snooker table.

In GAA we had Colm ‘Gooch’ Cooper in Kerry, Mickey ‘Rattler’ Byrne, a Dub, who played for Tipperary and Michael ‘Brick’ Walsh from Waterford. I mentioned nuns earlier and a nun called Sister Fursey, who taught in National School in Tuam was the person who gave former Galway footballers Seán Purcell and Frankie Stockwell their nickname of the ‘Terrible Twins.’

I read a good explanation recently by Tipperary hurler John ‘Bubbles’ O’Dwyer as to how he got his nickname. John said ‘‘I was born with a massive head of hair, hair arms, hairy legs. My mother was just after popping me out and she said, Jaysus, he looks like Michael Jackson’s monkey, who was called ‘Bubbles.’ It has stuck since then.’’

Remember Big Daddy from those Saturday afternoon wrestling programmes on ITV many years ago? Of course it wasn’t his real name and if you were a wrestler and your real name was Shirley Crabtree you would probably change it also!