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I wrote about nicknames yesterday, and how they aren’t as good as they used to be. I came up with the 10 best college football nicknames ever, a list that in no way do I claim is encyclopedic. A sport as historic and tradition-rich as college football will have hundreds of pockets of teams and players that don’t immediately spring to mind.

I do think, however, that anyone will be hard-pressed to beat The Galloping Ghost as a nickname. Or Crazy Legs.

I mentioned in the column this morning and the video yesterday that I had produced a top-10 list of OU football nicknames. Here are the 10:

10. Claude “Little Tub” Tyler:  Little Tub wouldn’t go over today, but it’s a great name for 1919.

9. Raymond “Sugar Bear” Hamilton: I love nicknames that are opposites. There was nothing sweet about the way Ray Hamilton played defense, either at Douglass High School or OU or the New England football Patriots.

8. Forest “Spot” Geyer: OU’s first great passer, in 1915, nicknamed for his pinpoint passing. Hey, “Spot” Bradford has a nice ring to it.

7. “The Boz”: Pretty much sells itself.

6. “Bugger” Paul Parker: You know, I never have heard why Paul Parker was called “Bugger.” Doesn’t sound very nice.

5. Dewey “Snorter” Luster: Another opposite. Snorter was a mild-mannered coach.

4. Indian Jack Jacobs: Great quarterback from 1940. You never could get away with that today. Indian Sam Bradford?

3. Gilford “Cactus Face” Duggan: Same deal. If I called someone Cactus Face today, I might get a Mike Gundy rant out of Bob Stoops.

2. Leon “Mule Train” Heath: On second thought, this might should be No. 1 and probably deserves to be on the college football 10. Mule Train. Just a fantastic nickname.

1. Ed “Wahoo” McDaniel: I don’t know what it means, but I know I love the nickname of this 1958 linebacker.

My old friend Ed Frost wrote me today about this subject. It was good stuff:

“Agreed, today’s nicknames aren’t as good as yesteryears’.  The question that interests me is: why?  Are Americans less creative now?  Are we falling victim to making everything shorter and quicker — and less interesting?  Is it part of the technology and speed process?  You know, like it happened with songs.  Some of the old folk ballads used to have 20 or more verses and endless variations.  But when records came along and disc jockeys, the radio stations didn’t want songs that lasted more than about three minutes.

“Anyway, I enjoyed the column today, and it brought back memories, like a kid in Hobart who played ball and was known as Booger Red.  Don’t know why.  His real name was William Lee, I think.  And he is deceased, so we can’t ask him. ”

All I can say is, bye, bye, Miss American Pie.

Sorry for the delay in blogging. I had vacation, the trip to San Antonio, some family issues and trying to finish up the Centennial series, which ate my lunch.

And angered some of the masses. I heard from many an Oklahoman who offered up ideas on how I could have improved my Centennial lists, but most of them suffered from fatal logic. Many wanted me to add someone to the list, but few offered a suggestion on who to take off.

This wasn’t a Dick Vitale NCAA bracket. Listen to Dickie V., and 136 teams should be in the field of 65. If someone goes on the list, someone else goes off.

I was pleased with most of my lists. I wish I could redo the athletes list; I think I would make it strictly Oklahomans, people who were raised here. That would eliminate the collegiate move-ins, but that would have been OK. My team list was so subjective, you could have turned it almost upside down and not been overly scandalous.

But the venues, I thought were great. The coaches was good, too, and the events. Few people have convinced me I made any kind of oversight on those lists.

The criticism can be funny. I’m told Pat Jones, who was very kind after my venue list and had me on his radio show, was upset that I didn’t include the 1984 Oklahoma State football team. Those Cowboys went 10-2 and could have played for a national title had they beaten OU in late November.

But this wasn’t a could-have list. This was a did-have list. Funny thing, the 1984 SOONERS weren’t on the list, either. Don’t you think they deserved to be higher than the ’84 Cowboys?