August 22, 2003

Why Tiger?

Commenter the girl* in the following post asked:

Is your Tiger name a reference to American Graffiti? This has nothing to do with the entry, but I felt I must ask.
I felt like my readers might like know also and my answer might be overlooked if provided where the question was originally asked. Here is the story:

When I was a little boy, my Dad always called me Terry the Tiger. I am not sure why I got that nickname, but it was better than my brother's: Podink P. Possum. My sister was merely Pete. This nickname faded away and disappeared after I grew up. Some of the kids in high school tried to tag me with the nickname Lizard, but after I pelted several of them with some sizeable rocks, they decided it was best not to call me that.

When I was practicing law in Dallas, there was a pretty well-known attorney there called Tiger Leach. I am not sure if he is still alive, but have no reason to think otherwise. I never did attempt to use such nickname there, and just was glad to be called Terry.

However, when I first moved to this area, everyone was always telling me about this attorney that used to be here back in the old moonshining days, a Rhodes' scholar, reknown to have single-handedly scored on an opposing team when at Baylor**, who lived in a cave, and all other kinds of legendary stuff. His name was Bull Adams. Well, I came here with the goal of becoming equally legendary, so figured the only way to compete with a "Bull" was to have an equally formidable nickname. Tiger, although abandoned for a number of years, already belonged to me. It was rightfully still my nickname. It doesn't hurt that the local football team is also called the Tigers.

*Is this an alias for Nicole?

**Legend has it that for some reason all the other members of the Baylor squad were disqualified, injured or something, so instead of forfeiting, Bull Adams took the field by himself, picked up the ball, and, with several opposing players hanging all over his immense frame, plodded down the field to score a touchdown. I am not sure if he kicked the extra point or went for the two point conversion. The legend is a bit hazy in parts.

Posted by Tiger at August 22, 2003 04:12 PM | TrackBack
Comments

It's not exactly an alias. I don't exactly know how to explain it, except that I presently appreciate how nondescript it is as a descriptor. There's something about blogging that has an Everyman quality to me that I appreciate, and "the girl" is an Everyman sort of name for me.

Posted by: the girl at August 25, 2003 08:58 AM