**This series highlights those few lucky [and unlucky] athletes that have names that make you stop and do a double take.**
I haven't done one of these posts in a long while but as I was sorting through some old cards when I was home I was reminded of the greatness of Bimbo Coles.
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| 1991 NBA Hoops #108 Bimbo Coles |
Bimbo was born Vernell Coles and so I can see why you would possibly embrace a name like "Bimbo" instead of Vernell. In almost all the biography's I took a look at to write this post they nearly all have a statement similar to this: "He [Bimbo] received his nickname from a cousin in reference to a line in a country music song." The sources never mentioned what song exactly inspired the nickname and so I decided to do a little digging. I was expecting a momentous search with many potential choices to take into consideration. Instead, I put "Bimbo" and "Country" into YouTube and come up with the answer immediately:
I had no idea that country great Jim Reeves had a song called "Bimbo" and listening to the lyrics I can imagine a Vernell Coles doing something similar to the character of Bimbo in the song. It was released in 1954 it went to #1 on the country charts.
You can find other posts in the Heartbreakingly Great Names series by going here.
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