Clay Henry: Razorback Football Nickname Challenge
By Clay Henry
Nicknames are usually great fun. We have them for everything. I’ve had a few hung on me through the years although none have stuck outside my home.
My family called me Grumps for about five years, mainly because of a depressed mood during the start of football season. They said the workload of doing magazines 12 times in three months changed my attitude. It was used behind my back until I retired as publisher at Hawgs Illustrated.
“You are no longer Grumps,” my wife revealed at the start of the 2022 season. “You no longer are depressed about work.”
There is another one that comes and goes. I take the children of friends to Dry Run Creek of the Norfork River. Those youngsters call me Fisherman Clay. It’s appropriate and fun.
I like Fisherman Clay much better than Grumps. But it should be noted that we don’t get to pick our nicknames.
I know the owner of one of the all-time great nicknames at Arkansas was unhappy when he was dubbed Bambi during his second season in pro football. San Diego Chargers teammate Charlie Flowers gave Lance Alworth the nickname that stuck in training camp after some dazzling moves against his teammates.
“You are Bambi,” Alworth said Flowers told him. “I asked him why? He said it was because of the way I ran (like a deer) and had big brown eyes.”
Alworth told me in a 2006 interview that he hated that nickname but said that’s all his teammates called him for a long time. Late in his career, younger players with the Dallas Cowboys called him “Mr. Alworth.” He said that made him feel old and he longed to be called Bambi again.
This is a trivia quiz about nicknames. But first there has to be a trivia question about Flowers. He’s one of the great Arkansas high school running backs of all time, but did not play for the Razorbacks. It’s ironic that he played with Alworth at San Diego, starring at fullback. He was a star at Ole Miss. Alworth is one of the greatest players from Mississippi, but didn’t go to Ole Miss.
The trivia question: name the Arkansas high school where Flowers played? Of course, he was a great back at Marianna. Perhaps only the old timers got that one right.
Bambi is a good enough trivia question to make it on the Jeopardy TV show a few years ago in the nickname category. I don’t recall if any of the contestants got it right.
