[Ads-l] "Big Sky"

[Ben Yagoda]

Here’s the detail I remember from that nickname contest: "No fewer than 200 fans submitted the nickname Beaut.” (https://vault.si.com/vault/1981/11/23/scorecard <https://vault.si.com/vault/1981/11/23/scorecard>)  As a pun, it’s a Butte.

Ben

notoneoffbritishisms.com <http://notonoeoffbritishisms.com/> 

> On Aug 30, 2021, at 12:00 AM, ADS-L automatic digest system <LISTSERV at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> wrote:
> 
> On Sun, Aug 29, 2021 at 1:33 PM Nancy Friedman <wordworking at gmail.com <mailto:wordworking at gmail.com>>
> wrote:
> 
>> Anyone else remember when the San Francisco 49ers tried to give star
>> quarterback Joe Montana the nickname "Big Sky"?
>> 
>> Wikipedia:
>> 
>>>> Montana earned the nickname "Joe Cool" for his ability to stay calm at
>> key moments, and "Comeback Kid" for his history of rallying his teams from
>> late-game deficits. His teammates in San Francisco called him "Bird Legs"
>> [70] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Montana#cite_note-70 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Montana#cite_note-70>>[71]
>> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Montana#cite_note-71 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Montana#cite_note-71>> due to his very
>> thin legs and small calves. He was called "Golden Joe" because he played in
>> California (the Golden State), and also appeared on a poster superimposed
>> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superimposition <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superimposition>> in front of the Golden
>> Gate
>> Bridge <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Gate_Bridge <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Gate_Bridge>> with the wording
>> "The Golden Great".[72]
>> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Montana#cite_note-72 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Montana#cite_note-72>> Two more names
>> were provided by a *San Francisco Chronicle
>> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Chronicle <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Chronicle>>* nickname contest
>> early in his NFL career: the winner was "Big Sky", but another contestant
>> suggested that since "Joe Montana" already sounded like a nickname, Montana
>> needed a real name, and christened him "David W. Gibson".[73]
>> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Montana#cite_note-73 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Montana#cite_note-73>> Montana liked the
>> Gibson name so much that he had it stenciled above his locker.<<
>> 
>> 
>> Nancy Friedman
>> Chief Wordworker
>> www.wordworking.com <http://www.wordworking.com/>
>> http://nancyfriedman.typepad.com <http://nancyfriedman.typepad.com/>
>> Medium <https://medium.com/@wordworking <https://medium.com/@wordworking>>
>> 
>> tel 510 652-4159
>> cel 510 304-3953
>> twitter/instagram  Fritinancy
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On Sat, Aug 28, 2021 at 9:15 AM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com <mailto:wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>>
>> wrote:
>> 
>>> From around 1950, the state of Montana has embraced the
>>> promotional nickname of "Big Sky Country."  There's even a tourist town
>>> called Big Sky.
>>> 
>>> Of diverting pedantic interest is that "Sonh-yoo-wau-na, or Big Sky," is
>>> among the "Sachems and War-Chiefs of the...Six Nations" listed as signers
>>> of a treaty with the United States which was entered into at
>>> "Kon-on-daigua, N.Y." (modern Canandaigua), June 26, 1794.
>>> 
>>> See _Gazette of the United States_ (Jan. 30, 1795), p. 10.
>>> 
>>> Modern use of the phrase comes from the title of A. B. Guthrie's
>>> best-selling novel, _The Big Sky_ (1947), filmed in 1952.
>>> 
>>> JL
>>> 
>>> --
>>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
>> truth."
> 


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