Dusting off the cobwebs: The Name-o-pedia

One of my many duties at ESPN was 'scrubbing' box scores. There's a team of about a dozen staffers who verify the accuracy of ESPN's box score compared to the 'official box' from the school or professional team. This means every number, statistic, player name, coach name, referee name, game time and attendance total of every game on any ESPN.com scoreboard page must match 100% with the official box.

And then it's checked three times over. This is scrubbing.

It was mind-numbingly tedious. I mean, we spent hundreds of hours of our lives counting beans. "Working in sports" can do wonders for a person's patience.  But we did it.

I must have seen over a hundred thousand names during my scrubbing days. Sure, if you scan for a name in a phone book, you might "see" a lot of names but this is different.  You are not verifying the precise spelling of every single name in the phone book and matching it with a name found on a separate piece of paper. That's what I mean.

But I like names. I like them so much I have four of them. I had the longest name of my graduating class at Wake Forest (which was only about 1200 students, but still impressive.) The names kept me going. Some were worth writing down. Some were even worth writing home about.

After a while, a select few of the scrubbers (Zack Mintz, Danny Mehigan, Pat McManus, and others) decided to keep track of the notable names.  We would take a second to write down the name, add it to the list after work and from there, it grew into something special.  It was a nightly ten second distraction but it kept our sanity intact, which at the workplace is very important.  It started out as an unsorted collection but eventually, the list needed form.  Some common threads between the names emerged and we divided the list into the categories below. (At first, we didn't attach the school to the name so don't be offended if there's no school attached). 

So without further ado, I present to you:

The Name-o-pedia (Dec 16 2008)

Birds
Raven Harris         American women’s basketball
Brittainey Raven         Texas women’s basketball
Kierra Mallard         Texas Tech women’s basketball
Tweet Williams         Northwestern State women’s basketball
Brian Cardinal         Minnesota Timberwolves
Tweety Carter         Baylor men’s basketball
Robin Porter         Mississippi State women’s basketball
Robin Garrett         UT-Pan American women’s basketball
Zack Peacock         Georgia Tech men’s basketball
Sebais Duck         Southern Wesleyan men’s basketball
Johnnie Bird         UCONN men’s basketball
Steve Crane        Lewis men’s basketball

Mammals
Dominic Seals        Texas Tech men’s basketball
Brian Seals            Fresno State men’s basketball
Kat Suderman        UC- Santa Barbara women’s basketball
Johnny Wolf        UNC Wilmington men’s basketball
Christian Wolf                     Florida Gulf Coast men’s basketball
Chief Kickingstallionsims    Alabama State men’s basketball
John Lamb                           Morehead State men’s basketball
Kayode Ayeni                St Francis (NY) men’s basketball
Booker Woodfox        Creighton men’s basketball
Molly Fox                   Wright State women’s basketball
Ryan Hare            Southern Illinois men’s basketball

Marine Life
Gator Parrish        Referee
Corey Salmon
Montarrio Haddock    Middle Tennessee State men’s basketball

Other Animals
Erik Buggs        Valparaiso men’s basketball

Food
Chop Tang        UW-Green Bay men’s basketball
Stanley Pringle        Penn State men’s basketball
Tiawanna Pringle        Louisiana Tech women’s basketball
Kyle Bacon        Referee
Thomas Kaiser        St. Leo’s men’s basketball
Morris Almond        Utah Jazz
Stephen Curry        Davidson men’s basketball
Seth Curry        Liberty men’s basketball
Sharaud Curry        Providence men’s basketball
Jordan Weiner        UC Santa Barbara men’s basketball
OJ Mayo        Memphis Grizzlies
Josh Mayo        Illinois-Chicago men’s basketball
Maze Stallworth        Morehead State men’s basketball
Raphael Chestnut        Duke men’s basketball
Cookie Johnson        New Orleans men’s basketball
Jordan Lemons        Grambling State men’s basketball
Reuben Clayton        UT-Martin men’s basketball
Pawel Kielbasa        Chicago State men’s basketball
Toby Veal        Colorado men’s basketball
Maureece Rice        George Washington men’s basketball
Von Wafer        Denver Nuggets
Jayne Appel        Stanford women’s basketball
Greg Danish        LaSalle men’s basketball

Feminine Men
Kim English        Missouri men’s basketball
Andrea Bargnani        Toronto Raptors
Abby Kabba        New Hampshire men’s basketball
Alexis Wangmene    Texas men’s basketball
Jodie Meeks        Kentucky men’s basketball
Shannon Behling        Mississippi Valley State men’s basketball
Courtney Stanley        Loyola Chicago men’s basketball
Lindsey Hunter        Detroit Pistons
Courtney Pigram        East Tennessee State men’s basketabll
Britt Barefoot        Southern Mississippi men’s football

Masculine Women
Brett Benzio        Tulane women’s basketball
Brett Timmons        Long Beach State women’s basketball
Kyle Dougherty        Villanova women’s basketball
Ty Felder        New Orleans women’s basketball
Shawn Goff        Southern Mississippi women’s basketball

'Countries'
Zaire Taylor        Missouri men’s basketball
India Warfield        Saint Louis women’s basketball
India Chaney        UNLV women’s basketball
Matt Holland        Air Force men’s basketball
China Threatt        DePaul women’s basketball
Israel Kirk        SE Missouri State men’s basketball
Kyle Spain        San Diego State men’s basketball
Italee Lucas        North Carolina women’s basketball
Asia Wilson        Florida International women’s basketball

International Cities
London Warren
London Giles        Nevada men’s basketball
Ashley Ellis-Milan
Milan Johnson
Heather Zurich
Paris Horne
Milan Hejduk
Milan Prodanovic
Bobby Rome
Vinny Lima
Aumornai Edinburgh
Sydney Colson
Sydney Carter
Troy Jackson

US Cities
Brooklyn Pope
Jon Montgomery
Trey Montgomery
Jaan Montgomery
Jamal Durham
Blaire Houston        NC Central women’s basketball
Jerrell Houston
Antonio Houston        Catawba men’s basketball
Ryan Houston
Dallas Lauderdale    Ohio State men’s basketball
Dallas Green        Robert Morris men'
Orlando Smith
Charlotte Otero
Savannah Hill
Savannah Stedman    Northwestern women’s basketball
Oliver Lafayette

US States
Evan Washington
Martiz Washington
Leonard Washington    USC men’s basketball
Georgia Jones        Oral Roberts women’s basketball

An’Juan Wilderness

Misc Notables
Yoyo Greenfield
Jordan Barncastle
Papa Guisse
Papa Dia
Phil Nelson        Portland State men’s basketball
Kevin Love
Ivory White
Mark Whitehead
Champ Oguchi
Wink Adams
Sharnika Breedlove
Mike Leggo        NHL official
Special Jennings
Louis Birdsong
Beloved Rogers
Toy Richbow
Suzanne Grossnickle
Chris Rhymes
Tyson Papenfuss
Radar Onguetou
Jonathan Belt
Shy Ely
Steve Gentile
Genesis Maciel
Laura Blaydes
Candace Champion
Ashley Sweat
Hank Thorns
Dionte Christmas        Temple men’s basketball
Julius Allgood        Texas-Pan American men’s basketball
Daniel Northern        Tennessee Tech men’s basketball
Derwin Kitchen        Florida State men’s basketball
Karima Christmas    Duke women’s basketball
Cherrish Wallace        Baylor women’s basketball
Tequila Martin        Tennesee State women’s basketball
Chastity Reed        UALR women’s basketball
Marc Couch        Referee
Gordo Castillo        New Mexico State men’s basketball
Anthony Breeze        Coastal Carolina men’s basketball
Jazz Williams        Southern men’s basketball

Hollywood and Rock Stars
Brittany Spears
Rhianna Faithfull
Swayze Black
Swayze Martin
Rob Thomas
Bret Michael
Jamie Vanderbeken
Chris Martin
Jordan Costner
Chris Brown
Ian Anderson
Curtis Jackson
Ron Howard
Steve Martin
LaToya Jackson
Kramer Soderberg    Valparaiso men’s basketball
Garfield Blair
Bobby Brown
Britney Murphy        St. John’s women’s basketball
Austen Powers        Seattle men’s basketball
Josh Jackson        South Carolina State men’s basketball
Tim Meadows        Prairie View A&M men’s basketball
Michael Scott        Virginia men’s basketball

Famous Athletes
Michael Irving
Calvin Johnson
Isaiah Thomas
Dee Brown
Marcus Allen        Jacksonville men’s basketball
Emeka Okafor Jr
Carlee Roethlisberger
Abi Olajuwon        East Carolina men’s basketball
Will Bynum
Michael Turner
Ryon Howard
Sam Mitchell
Reggie Jackson        Tennessee Wesleyan men’s basketball
Brandon Lloyd
Tim Brown        Southern men’s basketball
Luis Guzman        Temple men’s basketball
Jeff Kent        Referee
Josh Smith        Savannah State men’s basketball
Jerry Jones Jr        Bethune Cookman men’s basketball
Mike Singletary        Texas Tech men’s basketball
Jimmy Williams        South Carolina St men’s basketball
Shaquille Johnson    Marshall men’s basketball
Monica Wright

Occupations
David Nurse
Rashad Bishop
Bishop Wheatley
Justin Baker
Maurice Baker        Dakota Wizards
Anthony Farmer
Jim Mower
Demetrus Judge
Garrett Fiddler
Rigoberto Sargeant
Kiara Butler
Lamar Butler        Colorado 14ers
Jimmy Butler        Marquette men’s basketball
Shanika Butler        UALR women’s basketball
Shelly Bellman
John Barber        Utah Flash
Garrett Butcher        Butler men’s basketball
Trey Shoemaker        Catawba men’s basketball
Antonio Pope        SE Louisiana men’s basketball
Pharoah Kirk        Tuskegee men’s basketball
King Cannon        Central Arkansas men’s basketball

The Brittany List
Brittnye McSparron    Drake University women’s basketball
Brittney Davis        Oregon State women’s basketball
Brittany Hallberg        UNLV women’s basketball
Brittainey Raven        Texas State women’s basketball
Brittny Jones        Fresno State women’s basketball
Britteni Williams        UALR women’s basketball

First Name-First Name
Michael Eric        Temple men’s basketball
Chris Paul        New Orleans Hornets
Justin Dennis        Cal State Bakersfield men’s basketball
Cory Richard        Southeastern Louisiana men’s basketball
Andre Craig        SLU men’s basketball
William Eddie        Central Michigan men’s basketball

Astronomy
Anthony Crater        Ohio State men’s basketball
John Moonshower    Army men’s basketball
Star Allen        Ohio State women’s basketball
Orion Outerbridge    Rhode Island men’s basketball
Tyler Laser        Eastern Illinois men’s basketball
Genesis Lightbourne    Iowa State women’s basketball
Sky Lindsay        St. John’s women’s basketball




What's your favorite?

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