The name says it all – with a little help from your imagination

It jumped out at me. I was watching Oregon State take on the Washington Huskies last Saturday evening when the Beavers sent out their placekicker for a field goal try.The man's name was Atticus Sappington. I'm not sure whether it was his first name or his last that made me take notice. Perhaps it was both. For sure his first name took me to the movie To Kill A Mockingbird where Gregory Peck played lawyer Atticus Finch. I don't believe I had ever heard the name Sappington before. Atticus Sappington was indeed a "novel" name and it sent my brain to thinking about other kickers I remembered who had, well, let's just say unusual names.My first thought was that Sappington should have played for the University of Texas. The Longhorns had two of my favorite names for the position in Happy Feller and Cameron Dicker. The former's real first name was James, but how can you not use his nickname in this type of column. Besides he did go by Happy Feller. The second guy was one of my choices for kicker in my NFL Fantasy Draft. How could I pass on Dicker the Kicker?Nicknames are awesome and another current college kicker who has one is from the University of Missouri. Harrison Mevis is called the Thiccer Kicker as he is 5-foot-11 but weighs a robust 243 pounds. He reminds me of one Sebastian Janikowski who had similar proportions while kicking in the NFL.Mevis can kick though. He blasted a 61-yard game winner against Kansas State earlier this season. That's the longest made field goal in SEC history. I'm not sure the nickname is necessary though. How cool is the name Harrsion Mevis?So these kickers sent me to the internet to find other interesting names that put the toe to the pigskin. Here's a look at what I found.There are several kickers in the NFL who hailed from foreign countries. I'll bet you remember these guys: Morten Andersen, Jan Stenerud, Garo Yepremian and Uwe von Schamman. Weird names to us perhaps, but not to their native birthplace.Can you name the countries where these kickers hailed from? In order that would be Denmark, Norway, Cyprus and Germany. How do you like the name Bumper Pool who kicked at Arkansas. Maybe you prefer Jet Toner from Stanford. Why does his name have you thinking of your copying machine? The University of Kentucky trotted out Chance Poore for field goal attempts. Faith in his abilities came (or went) with his name.It could be worse. The Pitt Panthers had a kicker named Chris Blewitt. I'm sure no fun was had by opponents when he missed a kick!I doubt if there are too many Alabama fans in this area. But you had to root for their kickers when they sent out Leigh Tiffin and Van Tiffin. Roll Tide.I found a pair of kickers that had to be listed together. Western Illinois used Taylor Rowan and Jacksonville State had Ashley Martin. If you do not get the Rowan and Martin connection, you are too young. More needs to be said about Ashley Martin.She is indeed a female and that makes her unique to start with. She happens to be the first female kicker to score in a collegiate game with a couple of extra points in 2001. She also kicked in high school where she was chosen as Homecoming Queen.The tiara was placed on her head while she was in her football uniform. How cool is that.Another female kicker garnered my attention. In 2003 Tonya Butler became the first female to convert a collegiate field goal, doing so for the University of West Alabama. It's true. The Butler did it!Here's a few more for your entertainment. Jim Gallery kicked for the University of Minnesota in the early 1980's. It was rumored that he brought his own fans to the game, or was it his paintings?Joey Julius supposedly gave up kicking to start some kind of refreshment stand in malls throughout the country. He had to be called "Orange" during his kicking days, don't you think?Josh Lambo is a recent (2015-2022) kicker who was a soccer goalkeeper before taking his talents to the NFL. The only thing wrong with his career was that he didn't play for Green Bay. I can see the headline… LAMBO LEAVES LAMBEAU FAITHFUL DELIRIOUS WITH GAME WINNING KICK!There is one kicker that should change the pronunciation of his name as Ryan Succop has a favored status associated with his name and not in a good way.Finally I ran across a kicker named Richie Cunningham. I have no idea if Pottsy, Ralph Malph or The Fonz attended his games!