The NHL’s Most Interesting Name: 1950s

Wait, he wasn’t in the 50s…(by Pablo D. Flores, via upload.wikimedia.org)

No "Part I," "Part 2" this time, the 1950s were simply not that interesting.  In a period made more exciting by the emergence of rock and roll, it became less cool to be called "Obs," "Bep," and "Hib."  We end up with a lot of common names instead, but that doesn't leave the tank dry.  Stick around after the jump to have a look and vote.

As usual, another look at the purpose:

…hockey history is chock full of names that can pique a person’s interest, whether it’s because it’s unintentionally funny to the English sensibility (Petr Pohl), almost regal (Normand Rochefort), or lends itself to entertaining wordplay (Darius Kasparaitis). The criteria for our “most interesting names” is a bit loose, in that the name can strike you as any one of the above descriptors, or all of them, but ultimately you are going to vote on the name that “strikes” you the strongest.

The contenders…

• Lulu Denis – Only played three games in the NHL; gotta be down with the French pronunciation to get the full effect.
• Jim Morrison – Loved the NHL two times.
• Bing Juckes – There’s something about this one that makes me uncomfortable, and I can’t put my finger on it.
• Aggie Kukulowicz – A Winnipeg-born big-bodied forward whose fluency in Russian was used during the Summit Series, his name was very likely the sound you hear when someone goes insane.
• Gump Worsley – There are few people who have a name that more closely matches them than this Hall of Fame goaltender.
• Julian Klymkiw – Another native of Winnipeg, he played in only one NHL game and lacked at least one, if not two, vowels in his last name.
• Rags Raglan – His nickname is one of the early examples of our contemporary nicknaming conventions (taking the stressed syllable in a person’s last name and adding “-ie” or “-s”). Loved having an interesting name so much he named his kid Herb.
• Max Quackenbush – Has a nice ring to it, for a name with “Quack” and “bush” in it.
• Fred Sasakamoose – I like the way this one sounds, too. Sasakamoose was the first “full-blooded” First Nations person to play in the NHL.
• Dick Gamble – That is one kind of gamble I’m not willing to take.