College Football: Ranking the best players names of all time

20. Bumper Pool, Arkansas

Unlike some others on this list, Bumper Pool is his real name after he legally changed it as a teenager. However, he had been known as Bumper since birth mostly because his father had loved the game so much. The Razorback linebacker’s name also once appeared as a clue on Jeopardy which automatically qualifies him for this list. However, more than just being the answer to a trivia question, Bumper Pool has been one of Arkansas’s best players over the past couple of years including recording 101 tackles in 2020.

19. Edgar Allan Poe, Princeton

He might not be as famous as his literary counterpart, but he wrote history on the gridiron. Edgar Allan Poe was a quarterback for Princeton who made the first All-American team in 1889. According to legend, after Princeton beat Harvard that year, a Harvard fan asked a Princeton alum if their quarterback bore any relation to the author to which the graduate said, “He is the great Edgar Allan Poe.” Turns out Poe was the second nephew of his more famous namesake! Some might also remember another Edgar Allan Poe who played for Army a few years ago who shares no relation to either.

18. William Shakespeare, Notre Dame

William Shakespeare also went by the nicknames “The Bard of Staten Island” and the “Merchant of Menace” which are two of the top nicknames of all-time in any sport. Shakespeare was an All-American halfback for Notre Dame in the 1930s and would be later inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. He threw the game-winning touchdown pass in the Game of the Century in 1935 versus Ohio State and would go on to become the first draft pick ever for the Pittsburgh Steelers, although he would never play a down for them since football was still not a lucrative profession at the time.

According to a story in the Pittsburgh Press as recounted in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, he also once met Ernest Hemingway in Cuba where Shakespeare worked at the time. Hemingway was in a local tavern when he saw him and went over to greet him. He extended his hand saying, “Hello there — I’m Ernest Hemingway” to which William said, “Glad to know you, I’m Bill Shakespeare.” Hemingway did not take kindly to that and almost punched him in the face.

17. Lyndon B. Johnson and 16. Mike Tyson, Cincinnati

The Cincinnati Bearcats 2015-16 teams had some all-name team players starting on defense those years including Lyndon Baines Johnson and Mike Tyson. By themselves, I probably wouldn’t include either on this list as more than an anomaly, but I feel like we should recognize that both played on the same team at the same time which is quite a coincidence.