{"id":185,"date":"2009-04-27T18:30:02","date_gmt":"2009-04-27T23:30:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/sports\/?p=185"},"modified":"2021-06-14T22:55:01","modified_gmt":"2021-06-15T03:55:01","slug":"a-rhymin-fool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/sports\/2009\/04\/27\/a-rhymin-fool\/","title":{"rendered":"Did Joe Theismann Change the Pronunciation of His Last Name to Make it Rhyme With Heisman?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><u><span style=\"font-weight: bold\">SPORTS LEGEND<\/span><\/u>: Joe Theismann changed the way his name was pronounced so that it would rhyme with Heisman.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><u><span style=\"font-weight: bold\">STATUS<\/span><\/u>: True<\/p>\n<p>Joe Theismann became the starting quarterback at the University of Notre Dame in the third-to-last game of the 1969 season, when the original starter was injured. Theismann had a fine junior season, leading Notre Dame to their first Bowl game in decades.<\/p>\n<p>So going into his senior season, there was a lot of hype around Theismann.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/sports\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/0111_large.jpg\" alt=\"0111_large\" title=\"0111_large\" width=\"442\" height=\"575\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-186\" srcset=\"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/sports\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/0111_large.jpg 442w, https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/sports\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/0111_large-230x300.jpg 230w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 442px) 100vw, 442px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In fact, more specifically, Theismann was getting a lot of early season support for the coveted Heisman Trophy, the award given out to the most outstanding collegiate football player of the year.<\/p>\n<p>The Heisman trophy is named after legendary Georgia Tech head coach John Heisman. Heisman pronounced his name Hize-man. Theismann pronounced his name Theez-man. <\/p>\n<p>However, before his senior year, to help make the rhyme work, Theismann actually CHANGED the pronunciation of his name to Thighz-man, figuring it would work for slogans, etc. such as &#8220;Theismann for the Heisman!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Theismann ultimately came in second in the Heisman voting to fellow quarterback Jim Plunkett.<\/p>\n<p>Both Plunkett and Theismann went on to win Super Bowls as quarterbacks in the NFL, Plunkett for the Oakland Raiders (twice) and Theismann for the Washington Redskins (he made a second Super Bowl).<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/sports\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/joe-theismann-photograph-c12961199.jpeg\" alt=\"joe-theismann-photograph-c12961199\" title=\"joe-theismann-photograph-c12961199\" width=\"360\" height=\"450\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-187\" srcset=\"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/sports\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/joe-theismann-photograph-c12961199.jpeg 360w, https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/sports\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/joe-theismann-photograph-c12961199-240x300.jpg 240w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 360px) 100vw, 360px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Amusingly enough, Theismann first asked permission from his grandmother before changing the pronunciation, and she told him (in her thick German accent) that the ACTUAL pronunciation was not Theez-man to begin with! It was Tice-man, so she thought that Thighz-man was actually closer to the &#8220;right&#8221; pronunciation!<\/p>\n<p><u><span style=\"font-weight: bold\">STATUS<\/span><\/u>: True<\/p>\n<p>Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is bcr&#111;&#x6e;&#x69;&#x6e;&#x40;leg&#101;&#x6e;&#x64;&#x73;&#x72;eve&#97;&#108;&#x65;&#x64;&#x2e;&#x63;om<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SPORTS LEGEND: Joe Theismann changed the way his name was pronounced so that it would rhyme with Heisman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7MjWh-2Z","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4223,"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185\/revisions\/4223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}