By Tim “Shoe” Sullivan

According to Wikipedia, a nickname is “a substitute for the proper name of a familiar person, place, or thing, for affection or ridicule”. It’s something you call someone else that ain’t their real name.

There are many common nicknames. Let me give you some. Elizabeth is usually “Betty”. William is “Bill”. Do you know any Virginia that isn’t called “Ginger”? A Richard goes by “Dick”, and a Henry is always “Hank”. Well, then again, not always. I don’t think Henry the VIII wanted to be known as “King Hank”.

Charles is frequently turned into “Chuck”, and Duane is normally “Duke” — as in, Duke Somers of Stevens Point. Why John Wayne was “Duke” isn’t really clear. His true name, I believe, was Marion.

In the past, we’ve presented three articles about nicknames in Stevens Point — 200 names or so. That’s a lot of nicknames. And readers keep remembering more. Charlie “Ross” Rossier brought up Gary “Mubcat” Moll. (I’m guessing he meant “Mudcat”, but it’s close enough).

And some nicknames are identical. Jim Gavin said his nickname is “Jimmy G”, and that also goes for Jim Gavin Jr., Jim Getzlaff, Jim Galloway, and former Brewer Jim Gantner who was also “Gumby”. Then there’s the Juniors like “Jr.” Jurgella, “Jr.” Hojnacki, and Junior Sample.

Wait. That last one was on “Hee Haw”.

Kurt “Cooter” Higgins is a big local sports fan. (I think his favorite NFL, MLB, and NBA players were John Riggins, Alan Wiggins, and Andrew Wiggins.) A former bartender at JL’s Pub went by “Beanie”. Her real first name was Sabina.

A dude at the jail was called “Bear”, and Ronnie Nitka answers to “Nitro”. Bob Rohde was called “Horse” and was also known as “Herman”. And the former UWSP baseball coach Jim Clark was always referred to as “Jumbo”. “Mouse” hung around the Elbow Room, and Mike Splitt of the Upper Wisconsin River Yacht Club was “Rat”.

If you’re looking for a hotbed of nicknames in Point, check out the Stevens Point Fire Department. Seems like everyone over there has one. Captain Moody is “Captain Nitro”, “Mr. Brass”, and “Jimmy Jam”. Glynn Novak is called “Pokey”, and Mark Schoeberle goes by “The Shark”.

Ben Molnar is “Red Wing”, and Ross Oestreich is called “Big Hoss”. Oh, then you have Larry “Big Lar” Pingel, Jason Karpinski as the “M.P.” or “Karp”, and Dennis Zvara, also known as “Zippy”.

Can’t forget Ron “Heebs” Heibler, Matt “Mr. Zanuary” Zander, Travis “Cookie” Koch, and Vic “VicToosh” Kedrowski.

And we’re STILL not done with the firefighters. Tom Wastart is called “Dr. Wom”, Trevor Howard is “Hambone”, and Frank Minervini goes by “Frank the Tank”. And if you call the (Stevens Point) fire department and ask for “Petey Bear”, you’ll get Pete Ostrowski. Tell them you’re looking for “Sugar Man” and they’ll summon Dan Congdon.

It’s also true that Drew Egan is a huge Star Wars fan and goes by “Chewbacca”.

Tom Hatfield (“Mad Hatter” and “Lil Tom”) reminded us that Steve “Rosey” Rosenthal threw the last no-hitter in Stevens Point softball while pitching for Archie’s (Craig Hansen). Then you have Chris “Pops” Haka who coached with Bob “Ma” Pesch. There’s a pair for ya. “Ma” and “Pops”.

Karen “Coco Puff” Dudeck played softball for Flugies. The coach was her hubby Mike “Dudes” Dudeck. Karen said, “Never have your husband for a coach unless you want to sit on the bench.”. Also on “Dude’s” team was Tom “Strawberry” Fields.

A reader who wished to remain anonymous said we missed Tom “Granny” Gramowski, Donnie “Opie” Opiola, Gerald “Gil” Molski, Louie “LJ” Molepske, Ray “Lefty” Orlikowski, and Keith “Lowland” Hyland. Most of those guys played in the first year of Little League in Point.

The reader also brought up Frankie” Slu” Sluslarski, Dick “Tuna” Otterlee, Dave “Pepper” Peplinski, Bob “Bozo” Kostuchowski, Jerry “GarBalls” Altenberg, Rex “Sexy” Zimmerman, Jim “Senator” Bablitch, Norm “Rogo” Rogoski, Jim “Snuffy” Laska, Bob “Shefri” Shafranski, and Carol “The Brat” Molepske. Actually, Carol was a great gal.

I worked with Barb “Foot” Alfuth and batted against Curtiss “Corky” Filtz. Also went to school with “Packy” Pfiffner. (Can someone explain why that first “f” is in “Pfiffner”?) Also worked with Craig “Gerty” Geertz and watched modified softball pitcher Wally “Where’d he go?” Wendt.

People who went by initials were or are all around Point and the neighboring areas like Plover. There’s B.J. Pratt and B.J. Stearns. T.J. Schwebach and T.J. Jungwirth. There used to be JL’s Pub on the square. Jim “J.C.” Cisewski and “C.J.” the bartender at Little Joe’s (two great guys) are no longer with us. “B.A.” Thomas as well. Then still kicking are “J.D.” Diser, “RJ” Kleman, and RJ Horst.

We should also mention “Kimmer” Krayecki and Mark “Swamp” Hendricks. No idea how “Swamp” got his nickname. And I like to call Tina Mower “Lawn”.

Well, now we’ve come to the end of IV. We’ll wrap it up with three more of my buddies.

Chris Wisniewski and Felicia Bella. That’s right. The “Weesh” and the “Feesh”. And the best one is still Lloyd “Bugsy” Gross.