Lists With Chris name changes like Hulk Hogan 7-31-25

Lists With Chris name changes like Hulk Hogan 7-31-25

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Who are the five greatest athletes of all time? Who's
the worst player to ever deliver an iconic sports moment,
Who's the least athletic looking athlete in history. It's time
to rank the best and the worst that sports has
to offer. Let's dive in to lists with Chris.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Here we go, my good friends Chris Beckham and Craig Stevenson.
Listen with Chris. We do it every week and proud
those guys are with us. We try to make it
timely every week. This week, unfortunately, it's timely because we
are talking about the death of one Hulk Hogan also
known as Terry Balaya was his real name, but eventually
became Hulk Hogan as a stage name. He changed it

(00:50):
and became super super famous in the wrestling world. You
guys know that wrestling plays in the list with Chris
fairly often, and so it's going to again this time
in honor of Folk Kogan. We're going to do athletes
who famously changed their names and as you know, wrestling,
as I said, pretty prominent on listener, Chris. Chris Beckham,

(01:11):
wrestling very prominent in your life, including getting off to
a pretty disturbing start in your life, right.

Speaker 3 (01:18):
Yeah, this is the kind of painful memory I'll start
off with. But after some therapy, I'm able to tell
the stories. So it does involve a wrestler who was
born Herbert Alan Gerwig, but I didn't know him by that.
When I was I knew him as Killer Caralcox. And

(01:39):
so the story goes. So when I was a kid,
probably like many kids, but I will go grocery shop
of my mother and I will go straight to the
magazine racks, and back in this day and time, I
wouldn't suggest you do this now in the society which
we lived in, unfortunately, but my mother would just leave
me there and out of her way while grocery shops

(02:00):
and I would read wrestling magazines. And I was doing so,
and there was a story about, uh uh, this psychiatrist,
which I'm sure was legit was giving an interview saying that,
in his professional opinion, Killer caral Cox was indeed insane.
And as I read through this professional psychologist opinion, at

(02:24):
the very end of the story, it said editor's note,
which you didn't find a lot in wrestling magazines back
in the day. Editor's note. Doctor whatever his name is,
has not been seen the last two months. Well, oh no,
I thought, I this is killer Carl Cox is doing
y'all want Jesus and yeah, and said I know exactly.

(02:51):
I'm like, how did they not figuring this out? I
was seven year old and stumped and uh and I've
screamed to my mother, my mom, killer co Cox killed us. Yeah, yeah, honey,
that's good, that's good. And I couldn't believe nobody took
it seriously, and I was just I was perplexed after that,
but I didn't want to say anything because I didn't
want to be Killer called Cox's next victim, so I
just kind of kept my mouth shut. And uh, I

(03:14):
don't know what happened to the doctor Beyonce with you,
and this bothered me ever since.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
Unfortunately, I think I know what happened to him. Killer
Cox got him.

Speaker 3 (03:21):
Yeah you said that, not mean.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
That's terrible anyway. All right, so that's a good one.
I didn't realize you had a name change associated with
that one, Chris.

Speaker 3 (03:31):
Well, yeah, yeah, ironically and surprised me he was not
born Killer call Cox.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
All right, Chris, will that counts your first one? I
that was that was a beautiful story, and I know
it was traumatic, hard for you to beautiful, hard for
you to live through that. But safe to say all
three of us have a long, at least for me,
complicated relationship with wrestling, right Greg.

Speaker 3 (03:59):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. And as I as I
have often said on the I think I've said it
on this program that I live in the shadow the
Bullet Bob Arstrong Memorial Arena just down Highway ninety from
where I live.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
So now you're bragging. Yeah, now you're breaking Yeah, yes,
that's like, Oh, I live right across the street from
the met It's the same thing, you know, only by
the louver, by the Bullet Bob Barns. I mean it's
the same.

Speaker 3 (04:24):
Thing, right, Yeah, just a matter of scale, Yeah, exactly,
all right. My first entry is not a wrestler. It
is a Heisman Trophy winner. Does the name Eric Marone
mean anything to either of you?

Speaker 2 (04:43):
I would, I guess would be Eric b Enemy. I
don't know.

Speaker 3 (04:46):
It is not He did not win the Heisman, and
it is not him. It is the current name of
one Ricky Williams. About that, Oh, I like Williams. Ricky
Williams born Eric Lynn Williams Junior picked up the nickname
Ricky somewhere. I couldn't ascertain that. But as we all know,

(05:12):
Ricky's a little bit of a different guy. And when
he got married, he took his wife's last name, and
he is now Eric Corone. His wife is LINEA Corone.
You have it? How you feel about that? That's controversial.

Speaker 2 (05:28):
He took his wife's name.

Speaker 3 (05:29):
I mean, we don't he took his wife's name. Yeah,
very very I mean I guess you could say progressive. Yeah,
it's one word for it.

Speaker 2 (05:37):
But I think he was smoking some of the time.

Speaker 3 (05:40):
Yeah. Well, the the second line after that says that
Williams co founded an herbal wellness company called Real Yeah. Yeah,
I don't know the Yeah, I don't know the herbal.
Uh you know you can. You can put the math
together on that. There you go, I think, yeah, exactly, Yeah,

(06:02):
not the spidery. Uh. He professionally still Goods by Ricky Williams,
but he has legally changed his name to Eric I
have it.

Speaker 2 (06:14):
Speaking of which, completely off topic, did you know that
like the official like Twitter account of KFC Kentucky Fried Chicken,
they follow exactly eleven accounts and all of them are
named like John Paprika. I mean it's like they follow
eleven herbs and spices.

Speaker 3 (06:31):
It's not it's the girls I think for some of them.

Speaker 2 (06:35):
Oh, spice girls is one.

Speaker 3 (06:36):
Yeah, I learned this. I learned this just the other day. Yeah.
And then and it's people like Herb Yeah, Herbert Jones,
Herb Albert, Yeah, Herb Alfert, the jazz musicians, people like that. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:54):
Yeah, that's they follow exactly eleven, which.

Speaker 3 (06:56):
Is just eleven herbs and spices.

Speaker 2 (06:59):
Yeah. So the crazy thing is, Craig, you come up
with one great idea, you know, like that if you're
the social media account director for KFC. But then you're like, well,
I'm done, y'all. Just keep paying me eighty thousand dollars
a year because if I add somebody else, that ruined
the whole thing. So you know, I've done my work
as a career.

Speaker 3 (07:19):
Right, Yeah, you're changed to a love You could you
could delete one and add another one, but you could
not add a twelve one. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:25):
Yeah, all right. We're doing athletes who change their names,
is what we're going with. It's in honor of Hulk Cogan,
that one in his name. I'm gonna start off. I'm
gonna go with the son of Billy and Betty Beefcake.
That's Bruce Beefcake.

Speaker 4 (07:40):
No.

Speaker 2 (07:43):
I didn't even look up his real name. I just
assumed that his parents were not Beefcake. But no, probably not.
Probably not. No, I didn't because I wasn't gonna use
that as an official one. But then I thought we
were off to a rough start here, so I just
thought jecked out a little bit. So that's gonna be
my officih lancer though. All right, Chris, what you got,

(08:05):
I hope you're over your trauma. Give me what you
got of an athlete with a name change.

Speaker 3 (08:09):
By the way, Edward Leslie is the real name of
Bruce Beefca.

Speaker 2 (08:13):
Oh okay, thank you got it on the record.

Speaker 3 (08:18):
Yeah, I will. I've been bothering you. I will go
non wrestling, and uh, and this is boy, what a
strange story, and what a strange guy. Born Brian Williams.
But then he gets to the NBA and changes his
name to Bison Delay, which he was paying homage to
his Native American and African descent, and so uh he

(08:42):
changed That's what he changed his name to. But then,
of course he had a real strange story. And I
don't know if it's a thirty for thirty or ESDN whatever.
But anyway about kind of his life. He's a very
good NBA player, more of a rebounder than a score.
But then he retired all of a sudden at age
thirty and then disappeared in the South Pacific. And now

(09:04):
it's presumed he was murdered by his brother, and there
was a whole story about it, and I do think
that's what happened, but you never found his body. Just
a really strange he suffered from depression, just really kind
of a sad, strange life. But it did include a
strange name change to Bison Day.

Speaker 2 (09:21):
Yep, that is correct. Yep, I had that one correct.

Speaker 3 (09:26):
This guy is a wrestler. But there is also a
football element to his story because in two thousand and
two he was the Pensacola News Journal Defensive Player of
the Year at a Scanbia High school won Joseph Annoy
better known today as anybody knows, Yeh's correct, many you know,

(09:54):
one of the more popular current WWA Russels. He was.
He played football Georgia Tech. Yeah, and also, like I said,
was the Prince co and News Journal defensive Player of
the Year. Is a senior in high school.

Speaker 2 (10:08):
Here's one that everybody knows. You guys probably have it
on the list, but former great wide receiver for the
Cincinnati Bengals, Chad Johnson officially changed his name to Chad
Ocho Cinco. And he did it. He officially changed it
so he could have that on the jersey. Of course,
he thought that meant eighty five, which it really kind
of doesn't. But eight five. Yeah, it's not exact. This

(10:32):
was back in two thousand and six, but it was
to honor his Hispanic heritage. It was Hispanic Heritage Month,
and so he wanted to put that on his jersey
and they wouldn't let him, so he officially changed his name.
But here's the great thing. When it was a you remember,
it was a controversy. It didn't need to be, but
it was. And somebody reached out to him on social
media and said, hey, you don't have anything better to

(10:52):
do than change your name to Ocho Cinco. And he
wrote back and said, no, I live in Cincinnati. I
thought that was funny because the guy complained and probably
also lived in Cincinnati, So I thought that was great.
That's all he had to do was change his name.
Nothing better to do. So there you go, all right,
Doug Chris athletes who changed their name, like unfortunately Hulk

(11:13):
Covid who just passed away at the age of seventy one.

Speaker 3 (11:17):
Yeah, so this one was a double name change, so
of course we all knew that. It started off as
basketball star Ron our Test and then changed his name.
Of course he was involved in the Mouse of the
Palace brawl and all that. But then he changed his
name to Meta World Peace. You know, the Meta is
the Buddhist name and playing you know, loving kindness, which

(11:42):
after that he didn't elbowed James Harden in the head,
so how of loving kind that was?

Speaker 2 (11:46):
But trying.

Speaker 3 (11:48):
But then he changed his name again kind of in
the vein of Ricky Williams. When he got married, he
combined his current wife's name and his last name together
and his original name to be known as now Meta
Santaford Artest. So it's just a dis Yeah, that's rough. Yeah,

(12:10):
I think it's for a long time to write that
on a check.

Speaker 2 (12:14):
But he's still out on Ron right, Ron is not
still not yet.

Speaker 3 (12:18):
Ron still didn't make it back.

Speaker 2 (12:19):
No, just our tears, man, that one's rough. That is rough,
but you know, teach his own right. That's what this
is all about. If you want to change your name,
change your name, Hi, Craig, what you got?

Speaker 3 (12:30):
Well, we know a lot of several African American athletes
during the Civil Rights era changed their name, converted to Islam,
and changed their name because of that. One of these, Uh,
he's probably he's the subject of one of my favorites.
You know. Seemed like a great idea at the time,
but not so much now. Photos. When he got married

(12:51):
in nineteen eighty five, U the best man was O J.
Simpson and walking the bride down the aisle was Bill
Cosby and of course Bobby Moore aka Amad Rashad, great
NFL receiver for a time with Minnesota Vikings and probably
more famous as a broadcaster h for NBC. Very much

(13:12):
involved with the heyday of Michael Jordan. Yes in the NBA,
but yes, that that photo is something else you see it?

Speaker 2 (13:19):
Yeah, also known as Michael Jordan Lackey is basically what
his job was.

Speaker 3 (13:23):
I wouldn't get that. I wouldn't go there.

Speaker 2 (13:25):
Yes, that photo though, that's rough.

Speaker 3 (13:28):
That's rough again. O J was his best man, so
you know you can question his judgment I suppose yeah.

Speaker 2 (13:36):
Uh, Craig, I think you will agree with me on this.
If I named the top five basketball players in the
history of the Southeastern Conference, I will not be dissuaded
from this opinion that one of those five is Chris Jackson,
also known as Mark Mood abdul Rahof, one of the
all time great players. He was so great that Shack

(14:00):
was just part of the supporting cast. It was Chris Jackson,
one of the all time greats. And then of course
a what a history he had and uh really I
think a nice guy, but uh, a lot of issues
in his house burnt down in Mississippi, and a lot
of different things post career. But my goodness, I think
both of you guys saw when he played at LSU

(14:21):
There's never been anybody better to do it ever, ever
than Chris Jackson.

Speaker 3 (14:25):
I still think he's the greatest high school player in
the history of Mississippi. He's from golf Port and the
legendary figure in that area. Unbelieved my mood, I'd a
rose now and one of the greatest fleet throw shooters ever.

Speaker 2 (14:37):
See mm hm yep. He was also that same class.
Chris with the material green was in that same class
and was a great point guard, and we just thought
both of them were awesome.

Speaker 3 (14:50):
They were in the same region. Lateral Green was mom
point man and Chris Jackson was a Gulf port Isn't
that something?

Speaker 2 (14:59):
Isn't that something? Then one one went to LSU, one
went to Georgia. Green was great, but he wasn't in
the same class with Chris Jackson. Mark Mood Abdul Road. Yep,
there you go. That's who I got, Chris who you got?
Famously athlete changed their name.

Speaker 3 (15:13):
So I will go to the strange story of Charmin Shah.
That was his name when he was born, and but
then he was given the name by his mom as
Kareem Abdul Jabbar, which is of course familiar, uh and
maybe come up later on this list anyway. So, but

(15:33):
he was playing football UCLA. That sounds familiar, and his
number was thirty three, also sounding familiar, and so he
legally changed his name. But then the other Kareem, the
more famous Kareem Abdul Jabbar, sued him, which I think
is crazy. I mean, people have the same name, yeah, yeah,

(15:55):
but he did. He sued him, and so then he
was forced to change his name again. To Abdul Kareem
al Jabbar, which is but I mean, I'm not seeing
the names ridiculous and that, you know whatever. But it's
ridiculous that somebody seems to makers have the same name.
I mean, come on.

Speaker 2 (16:11):
What makes it more ridiculous is that he changed his
name because of you know, I assume because of his
his faith that he shares with Lou alcind you know
what I mean. So like respect that even more.

Speaker 3 (16:24):
Yeah, how about you know you can't use my name. Uh,
here's a reminder, Lou, that ain't your real name either.
And I think the story I remember at the time
is that his uh at mom's spiritual advisor in Islam.
I told him he, you know, chose the name crew
I Builtjabar for him and he's like, you know, I

(16:44):
played the U c l a right also led the school.
He set the school record for rushing in back to
back seasons with two different names.

Speaker 2 (16:58):
That gets confusing. Yeah, yeah, that makes it tough. Cogie
officially up.

Speaker 3 (17:04):
I am. We know that in Major League Baseball there
have been a number of Latino players who were using
assumed identities in order to get into the country. One
of the more famous was Fusto Carmona, who was an
All star pitcher with the Cleveland Indians in the mid

(17:25):
two thousands, really really good player, and then all of
a sudden there was a scandal. They found out he
had been using an assumed identity and his name was
actually Roberto Hernandez, which there was another Roberto Hernandez. He
was a pretty good pitcher too, but you know, the

(17:47):
scandal part of it was that he was he ended
up being far older than he was listed as, which
is you know why he wanted to have a different
identity he had been once they found that out. So like,
you know, this guy that we thought that was a
really good twenty four year old pitcher is actually a
twenty six year old pitcher, and he's not such a

(18:08):
great story anymore.

Speaker 2 (18:10):
That's good stuff. That's that's really good. Here may be
my favorite one. This is the name that people are
familiar with because it just stands out. The former basketball
player in the Big East. God sham God. You know
his real name is it is God God. Sham God
is his real name, but he didn't like it, and

(18:31):
so in high school he was sham God Wells. But
he didn't have enough money to legally change it. So
by the time he got to college, he's like, just
forget it. I'll just go back to God, sham God.
So God sham God is his real name, but sham
God Wells is the name he changed it to until
he just, you know, kind of gave up the ghost
and said, forget it. I'll just go want mom name.

Speaker 3 (18:51):
Is I always wondered about that. Is that like a
is it sacriligious? Are we saying that it's a god
or a sham God?

Speaker 2 (18:59):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (19:00):
Yeah, I always wondered about it.

Speaker 2 (19:02):
I don't know the answer. I don't know the answer.
But his fake name was sham God Wells, but then
he went back to his real name, which is obviously
a noteworthy god, sham God. So there you go. All right,
this is in honor of Hulk Cogan, not his real name.
We're doing famous athletes who changed their name. Chris, so
you got well.

Speaker 3 (19:24):
I believe this guy was on I know he was
on a previous list with Christopher and entirely a reason
we did the list of I think it's famous people
who went to high school together, and this guy went
to high school with well Ernest T. Bass. I can't
remember what his real name was anyway. Yeah, So this
guy's real name was Walker Smith Jr. And of course

(19:47):
he became Sugarray Robinson. And then the reason he became
Sugar Ray Robinson. He was trying out for his first
au bout but he was only fourteen years old and
the minimum major requirement was sixteen. So it's his man.
So he barred a license from his buddy or an
id may be not a license away from his buddy,
Ray Robinson, and he said here I am and they said, hey,
Ray Robinson, and they you go next thing. You know,

(20:09):
he's a world champion and a legend named Ray Robinson.
That was even the name, but that right did what
he had to do at fourteen years old and got
him in the tournament. So Walker Smith Junior became Ray
Robinson and then later on became Sugar Ray.

Speaker 2 (20:23):
Really good, really good.

Speaker 3 (20:25):
Okay uh. This is a guy who's changed his name,
although he didn't really change it because it was his
actual name, but he just went back to using his
first name after he had already become famous. And that
is current New York Yankees slugger John Carlos Stanton. For

(20:46):
his first couple of years in the Major leagues, he
was Mike Stanton, which was confusing because there was a
relief pitcher named Mike Stanton. He pitched the Bridge and
the Yankees and some other teams, but Mike Stanton was
a big prospect with the Marlins. First couple of years
he still Mike. Then all of a sudden he became
gian Carlow and his given name is gian Carlo Cruz
Michael Stanton. So but he was Mike all the way

(21:09):
through UH and amateur in the minor leagues and into
the major leagues, and then he became John Carlos. Stand again.

Speaker 2 (21:14):
Yeah, I had that one, Craig, because it was that
was so unusual because like for a lot of us,
it was like, really, that's that's the same guy. You know,
Mike went. You know, you went from the most common
name in the world to this name. It's like, oh,
that's a cool name, you know where He's just like,
I can't believe that's the same guy. So, yes, I
had that one, all right. Since I went last time
with make Mood abdul Raha previously Chris Jackson, I'll go

(21:37):
back to LSU and I'll go for Albert Bell previously
Joey Bell when he was a star at LSU in
his first couple of years in the bigs. But with
him he got into some trouble off the field, and
he decided, you know what, for a fresh start. After
he went to it through a stint in rehab, He's like,
I'm gonna be uh, I'm gonna be Albert instead of Joey.

(21:59):
So he just became a new guy. Of course, it
didn't change the fact that people still didn't like him
with either name, but still he gave it a shot
to come out with a fresh name of Albert Bell,
not Joey Bell, former LSU legend in baseball. All right, Chris,
what'd you go?

Speaker 3 (22:14):
Well? Want to go back to wrestling, just so we
can honor my favorite wrestler growing up who without question
defeated Killer Call Cocks many many times. And that's of
course the son of a plumber from Austin, Texas born
Virgil Riley Reynolds later on became a course famous as
Dusty Rhodes. And the great thing about this in Dusty Roads,

(22:35):
he gave many interviews you see you know YouTube, you
see a thousand of them. But occasionally, as he was
giving an interview, he would say. He would go on
and on and say, listen to Virgil Baby, and he
would so he would reference his own real name. You
were like, you know, a real wrestling fan, you wouldn't
owe it. See that's hes real names, Virgil. But if

(22:57):
you weren't, you're going to who is Virgil? What's he
talking about? Yep? But if he was telling Ernie Lad
He's gonna beat him up at the of the next
of our Armory imperiod Florida Friday Night, I'm telling listening
to Verge of Baby, and that's kind of confusing. But
the real fans knew who Dusty was talking about.

Speaker 2 (23:13):
You know what That's so good, Chris is because unlike
say Brutus Beefcake, where you're like, you know, I don't
think that's his real name, Dusty Rhodes. You know, his
mama could have named him Dusty Rhads. You know that
could have been his name even though it was it.
It could have been.

Speaker 3 (23:26):
Baseball player, Yeah, from Alabama. Yeah, a walk off bench
at Homer in the World Series.

Speaker 2 (23:32):
Great call, yeah, great call. The other Dusty Roads. So yeah,
just like cream.

Speaker 3 (23:36):
Up, his name was dust His name wasn't Dusty either.

Speaker 2 (23:39):
I don't think, oh, yeah, probably got a uniform dirty
that probably helped where that came from. All right, duck Greig,
you're next.

Speaker 3 (23:47):
Yeah, this is a little unusual because this is somebody
who didn't change that didn't really change their name, didn't
really change the pronunciation of their name, just changes the
spelling of their name. But up until nineteen ninety one,
HOCKEYM you want was akem. Yes, it was a E
E M when he was at Houston and early in
his NBA career, and then all of a sudden, he

(24:08):
decided I wanted to kind of more reflect the actual
origin the you know, he's uh he is my love,
and he wanted it to be the kind of the
Arabic pronunciation, and it changed it to Hakim agent a
k e.

Speaker 2 (24:23):
Yep. There's also some thought that maybe maybe he always
wanted it to be that way, but he was just
too nice to tell people they were getting it wrong.
I don't know if that's true or not, but yeah,
that is that is a good one, that definitely is true.
This is one that still troubles me. This is a
current University of Alabama football player. Shouldn't trouble me, but
it just I don't know the origin of how this

(24:44):
came about. But Alabama signed an offensive lineman from Anniston
High School name Ruquez mceldrie offensive guard Requeiz mceeldrie. And
then in the off season they came out with the
roster and he was no longer there go. I guess
he uh he got cut or decided to quit or something. No,
he is now Rock Montgomery. Like, nothing to do with

(25:08):
either name, Like what happened.

Speaker 3 (25:13):
R o q?

Speaker 2 (25:14):
Yes, r o q, but it was roue Queeze mc
elderly to Rock Montgomery.

Speaker 3 (25:21):
That is.

Speaker 2 (25:22):
I got nothing. I got a problem with.

Speaker 3 (25:25):
Who is the defensive lineman they head that from Mississippi
that ended up prince ing to Colorado. He just changed
the spelling of his name.

Speaker 2 (25:33):
Oh yeah, I can't remember who it was. I can't remember,
but this guy just went both names on him. Greg.
I mean, that's like you could do one at a time.
It'd be easier for us to digest.

Speaker 3 (25:42):
You know.

Speaker 2 (25:44):
There it is, Yes, yes, our Jehi that's right, big
big guy, big guy, big guy Greg, Yes, exactly, the
biggest guy on the team. Yes, anyway, there you go,
root Queeze mc eldrie now Rock Montgomery. Just like Terry
Bowlea became Hulk Cogan. Athletes who changed their name famously Chris,

(26:07):
who you got?

Speaker 3 (26:09):
This may be my favorite reason for an athlete changing
their name. This guy played in the NFL, is like
twenty years ago, played for He played for a bunch
of teams. He wasn't that great a player, but he
was born Greg White Junior played for the Jats by
the Houston Texas, played football Minnesota. He liked this name

(26:30):
so much from the movie Team Wolf. He legally changed
his name to Styles White Wolf. Come on, that's the
best reason ever. Oh yeah, yeah, he became legally became
Styles White. Michael J. Fox was No, he wasn't Styles.
That was the other guy. He is a buddy Styles.
That's right, Kateboard. But yeah, he just loved that name

(26:51):
so much. He said, I'm to be Styles now. He
spelled it. I don't know how the guy in Team
Wolf spelled it, but he spelled his name s t
y Eli's because he's cool. So that's how he changed it.
I didn't know that one. Great, all right, this is
I don't think I've done wrestler yet, so I'm gonna
do one. And uh, you would be surprised to know

(27:12):
if you were a youth growing up for the nineteen
eighties as I was, that Kamala the Uganda Giant was
actually not from Deefus, darkest Africa. Come on, his name
was not Kamala. It was actually from Coldwater, Mississippi, and
his name was James Arthur Harris. There you go, I

(27:34):
mean his uh you ready is with b a page. Man.
It'll h there's some wild stuff in there. His father
was shot dead during a dice game when he was
four years old in Botswana Noppi or maybe Senatobia, which
is nearby.

Speaker 2 (27:51):
But anyway, Chris, this is the point that he was
not from there, Chris.

Speaker 3 (27:59):
Father.

Speaker 2 (28:00):
No, no, no, you're visiting it.

Speaker 3 (28:03):
Yeah, he drove and after that he was a sharecropper,
which you don't hear that much anymore, and drove a
truck and picked fruit and before he became before he
met Bobo Brazil and became well, first he became sugar
Bear Harris, and then he became Kamala the Uganda Giant.

Speaker 2 (28:25):
There you go, Wow, that's good, that's really good. Here's one.
This guy just had a nickname and it gets to
the point where that becomes his name, and like you
don't even know his first name anymore for the most part.
That is the wide receiver who started Oklahoma and now
in the NFL, Hollywood Brown, who back when I first
heard of him, ever, his name was Marquise Marquise Brown.

(28:49):
But now like you can say Marquise Brown, people don't
even know who that is. He is now officially Hollywood Brown,
even though I don't think anybody thinks his mama named
him that. But that's his name now, Hollywood Brown. So
I'm going to count that one. It's it's iffy, but
I'm going to count it. Chris, what'd you got?

Speaker 3 (29:07):
Uh? So I've got JR. Henderson who played for He
was on the UKLA national championship team, Toby Bailey Jim
Herritt coach team back in the U I guess maybe
the nineties sometimes, and he was a good basketball player.
He got drafted into the NBA, uh and he lasted
one year, and then he started, like a lot of
them do, started going overseas well. Then he started playing

(29:29):
in Japan and he loved it. He not just the league,
he loved being in Japan. So he wanted to become
a Japanese citizen and they said, well, you're an American citizen.
You can't just change. He said, well, how about I
changed my name to JR. Sokaragi And he thought that
was speed up the process. Well, it didn't speed up

(29:49):
the process. He eventually did become a Japanese citizen, but
he had legally changed his name to JR. Socaragi, hoping
he was speed up the application process. Bad advice maybe,
But but did he played for I mean, he played
for the Japanese national team and qualified for the Summer Olympics,
and uh taught himself to can you read write Japanese?

(30:11):
I mean he said he's gonna stay the rest of
his life, so there he is.

Speaker 2 (30:15):
I admire this sincerity there, you know that's right?

Speaker 1 (30:18):
Yeah, I like to.

Speaker 3 (30:21):
I do like that. Yep. Great. Well. One of the
absolute U s forts legends in Boston is David Orties
of the Boston Red Sox. But when he first came
to America with the Seattle Mayor Anders organization, he was
known as David Arius. And the reason that is is

(30:41):
because his full name is David America ortes Arius. But
in Spanish, uh, typically your you have two last names,
your first last name is your father's name, and your
second last name is your mother's name, So technically Ortiz
is his family name. But because the people in the
Mariners organization did not know this at the time they

(31:04):
named him, they listed him as David Aris all the
way through the minor leagues. He eventually wound up being
traded to the Minnesota Twins, and when we went to Minnesota,
he said, look, my name's Ortiz. Please referred to me
as Ortiz, and led to the joke that he was
the player to be named later. Right there, he goes,

(31:24):
but he is David Ortiz. He has always been David Ortiz,
but due to a I guess cultural differences, he was
known as David Arius for a while.

Speaker 2 (31:34):
Well that's really good. Here's one that there was a
name change out of pure practicality, And I actually think
this one was really smart. When I say the name
Jason Williams, you might think of eight different people. But
the Duke basketball player now you see all the time
on ESPN is one of their lead college basketball guys
is now Jay Williams. But do you remember he started

(31:57):
Duke as Jason Williams, And then there were all all
those Jason Williams or Jason's Williams, as Craig would say,
Jason's Williams. And so he just decided, you know what,
I'll be Jay. And so now you know, he kind
of he stands out a little more as Jay, not Jason.

Speaker 3 (32:13):
I thought too that the reason he wanted to be
Jay was because he didn't want to be confused for
Jason Williams, who shot the limo driver.

Speaker 2 (32:20):
There was him. There's also white chocolate Jason Williams. Yeah, yeah,
you're right, You're You're completely right about that. But you
know all those basketball Jason Williams.

Speaker 3 (32:30):
White chocolate the greatest blocker room quote of all time
when he got into a disagreement with Jeff Calkins of
the Memphis Commercial Appeal and took Jeff pen and said,
you ain't writing nothing, home boy.

Speaker 4 (32:47):
Also also the guy that I will till my dying day,
I will say, if we just go off of highlight
tape his first team in the history of basketball, there's
no doubt about it.

Speaker 2 (33:00):
He is one of the five best players of all time.
If I just show you his highlight tape, I'm completely
convinced of that. Now, there's more to it than that,
but his highlight tape is among the top two or
three in the history of basketball. Anyway, off the point,
but Jay Williams is the guy.

Speaker 3 (33:18):
Well and also and I agree with that wholeheartedly. Also
just one of the best storyteller. These YouTube interviews with
Jason Williams so just telling stories are the best. And
that one of the great Nike commercials of all time
was he and Randy Moss with the Royland Jennings Seeks
the hazard theme in the background. It's great, Chris.

Speaker 2 (33:38):
You know what's so great about it is that he's
sitting there with Mike Miller, his former teammate at Florida,
and Mike Miller obviously just thinks this guy's the funniest
guy in the world, which makes it funny for anybody watching.
If you haven't watched Mike Miller with with white Chocolate
telling stories, it's hilarious.

Speaker 3 (33:54):
Man, oh gosh. He tells that a story about coaching
in that All Star Game and not knowing either players
and make the game to be the coachs And they said, hey,
Anthony Edwards not and he said, is he supposed to be?
He said, I'm want to recruit in America. You have
time out and go in.

Speaker 2 (34:12):
I love it, and Mike Miller just dying laughing at everything.

Speaker 3 (34:16):
He says, I love it.

Speaker 2 (34:19):
I love it all right?

Speaker 3 (34:20):
Uh well so yeah, yeah, yeah, I told you the
story of styles White, which I love. That reason, this
may be the worst reason and the dumbest reason to
change your name and figures. It would go to a
figure skater. But Rudy Galindo, who is a famous figure skater,
and he started doing double skating or whatever they call it.
Don't want figure skaters. He started doing double skating.

Speaker 2 (34:42):
Pairs with uh.

Speaker 3 (34:44):
What's what's the pairs? Thank you pairs? Uh? Well, he
started doing pairs with Christy Amagucci, another famous figure skater. Well,
they started competing together and they got to be very
good friends, and he finally said, I'm going to change
so she spelled Christie k r I S t I.
He changed his name. Rudy are you d Why are
you D?

Speaker 2 (35:04):
I just to Matt Turs, Come on, she still wouldn't
go to dinner with you.

Speaker 3 (35:12):
I wouldn't go. I wouldn't watch him skate. Well, I
wouldn't watch skate start with, but I especially won't watching skate.

Speaker 2 (35:17):
Now, Yeah, that's rough. That's pretty rough. That's a that's
why they call a tryhard.

Speaker 3 (35:24):
Yeah, exact, I think you get about to get friend
zoned over there.

Speaker 2 (35:28):
Yes, Chris, he's like, we're going out. You stay here
for at least twenty minutes before you leave, exactly, Greg,
what you got?

Speaker 3 (35:41):
All right, I'm gonna I'm gonna go local here. Former
Sarah Land star who went on to play at South Alabama.

Speaker 1 (35:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (35:49):
But when he played at Old Miss, he was DeMarcus Thomas. Uh,
but then later he became DJ Thomas. When he came
to South Alabama, his name is DeMarcus Wall, so he
became DJ Thomas. But then later, even later he became
DJ Thomas Jones. And the reason for that was actually
asked him this personally. He said that he was raised

(36:12):
by his stepfather, whose last name is Jones, and to
honor him, he legally changed his name to DJ Thomas Jones.
I like it. I like it.

Speaker 2 (36:21):
That's a that's a go. I knew where you were
headed with that one when when you started. I didn't
didn't have it on my list. But as soon as
you sounds like, oh I know this one, I definitely
know this one. How about this and this This one
was just this was such a layup that the guy
almost had to do it Lloyd Free. I mean, come on,
he changed his name to World B Free. He didn't
have to change his last name. I mean that was like,

(36:43):
if you want peace, then then you just changed your
name to World Be Free.

Speaker 3 (36:47):
Did you say it was the layup because of basketball? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (36:50):
I see what I did there? See what I did there,
World B Free.

Speaker 3 (36:57):
I remember.

Speaker 2 (36:58):
I remember when I was a kid and that happened.
I was like, well, the world has just opened up
to me. Like I didn't know you could do that,
just change your name to the World Be Free. So
I thought that was pretty cool. What'd you got, Chris?

Speaker 3 (37:10):
So this is a crazy story, all right. So this
guy he was born Robert Stephen Bobby Stevenson, right, and
he was a hockey player and he was good well
when he was growing up. When he was young, his
father beat his mother so badly that he was charged
with attempted murder. Okay, but then he jumped bell and

(37:33):
fled to Canada. Well, his wife, Robert Stevens's mother, forgave
him and then she and her son joined him in Canada,
but they had to live under assumed names because he
was wanted for attempted murder. His dad picked the name
Ryan after watching Save in Private Ryan, which is weird,
but anyway, and so his son started being known as

(37:55):
Bobby Ryan. Well, he got to be a big time
hockey star and ended up playing in the NHL and
played in the Olympics, and so people started kind of
digging into his past and people say, okay, well, you
know you're not charging anything. Do you want to be
known as you know, Bobby's my name is Bobby Ryan.
I'm sticking with it, and uh his uh, his dad,

(38:18):
by the way, was later arrested, not for any other
stuff but for u for gambling and was arrested and
since to uh since to prison. But so, I mean,
all this became public, but they were, okay, you you know,
your name is Robert Stevenson, except my name is Bobby Ryan.
And that's what I'm going with. So that's what he
stayed with, I mean, And he played in the NHL,

(38:39):
played for several teams in the NHL, was a great
hockey player, but never went back to his U.

Speaker 2 (38:44):
To his name, say with Bobby Ryan, crazy crazy great crazy.

Speaker 3 (38:49):
Uh, well you know again, one of the great territorial
wrestlers of my childhood. Abdill as a butcher. It's a
mad man from Sudane. Was it actually not from Sudan?
What may have been a madman? But his name, but
he was actually and he was not an Arab. He
was African American and Native American and raised in Windsor, Ontario, Canada.

(39:12):
His name was Lawrence Robert Shreve, like Shreeport, I guess
you know he would say it that way. But he
was better known as Abdill of the Butcher, famous for
blading the top of his head so much so that
he actually had bits in his head when he was
in his later years. And for a long time down
not far from the airport in Atlanta, you could go

(39:36):
have dinner at Abdullah the Butcher's house of barbecue or
house of ribs and Chinese food. Good. Yeah. I always
when I was living in Anistons, was not far from Atlanta,
I always thought about going out there and never got
around to it. He died in twenty twenty four, but
he apparently would if he went in there to eat.
He was there. They like to greet you and sign

(39:58):
autographs and all that stuff. Building a bunch of Lawrence
Robert Shreed.

Speaker 2 (40:04):
Here's one that this is one of those real time
ones where you knew a guy of something, then you
knew him as something else. It wasn't like it happened
and then you found out out to the factor whatever.
But star running back at Alabama on the nineteen ninety
two national championship team, one of the rare guys from
New York who came south to play for Alabama. What
we eventually became new to be the running back as

(40:26):
Derek Owens Lassic. But he added a name in the middle,
right in the middle of his Alabama career where I
think it was like I'm gonna add my dad's name
to my name or whatever. But so he added that
extra name and instead of Derek Lassick, he was Derek
Owens Lastic. So there you go, right in mid career
at Alabama. All right, we're doing in honor of Hulk

(40:48):
Hogan athletes who changed their name. Why don't you got Chris.

Speaker 3 (40:53):
Well, there's lots of our several examples of athletes who,
as we missed earlier, adopted their nickname and made their
real name. John Coppenhaber, who is an MMA fighter liked
his nickname so much he made it his real name,
and that's okay. But his nickname was war Machine, and
so he's no longer John Coppenhabor, he's war Machine. And
that's all fine until you pick it up an order

(41:14):
Chick fil A and they, you know, one for war Machine. Yeah,
here you go.

Speaker 2 (41:19):
So yeah, oh not real good.

Speaker 3 (41:22):
Now you should have talk a little.

Speaker 2 (41:25):
They're not going to treat him as well as they are.
Will wor'll be free? You know, I think just rout
with the bat. I think I'm going to like world
be Free better than I like him. Just my initial
rich Craig ads you got.

Speaker 3 (41:39):
Yeah, you know. There obviously a lot of women who
got married during their after they became famous, changed their name,
probably the most notable being Chris Everton player, who became
Chris Evert Lloyd after she married Phellow tennis player John
Lloyd nineteen ninety seventy nine. They did divorce in nineteen
eighty seven. She got remarried to Skier Andy Mill, but

(42:01):
she did not ever become Chris Everett Mill as far
as I know. But and then or she was never
Chris Everett Norman. When you get married to Greg Norman
for however, a brief that was anyway, she was Chris
Eerbert Lloyd for quite a few years in the eighties
who got the.

Speaker 2 (42:17):
UH as the all time best name change in the
world of sports.

Speaker 3 (42:22):
I don't know that there's some of it are just weird.

Speaker 2 (42:24):
Yeah, World b free, like world be Free.

Speaker 3 (42:27):
Yeah, or metal World Peace. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (42:29):
I was gonna say, yeah, either one of those. Probably
any of those would probably work, all right, But it's
in honor of Hulk Cochan. We did get some wrestlers,
but uh, we didn't make it all wrestlers, which we
easily could have done. All Right, that's gonna do it,
Chris Beckham, Craig Stevenson. That is lists with Chris and
in honor of Hulk Cochin, who changed his name from
Terry Bulla. That is our list with Chris. This week

(42:51):
Chris Beckham Craig steven said, I am Randy Kennedy would
do it every week here on Sports Talk nine

Speaker 4 (43:01):
Two dis