How did Cal McLish get his name?

Baseball player Cal McLish
Cal McLish

Major League Baseball pitcher Cal McLish was born in 1925. He played from the mid-1940s to the mid-1960s for a total of seven different teams.

His full name? Calvin Coolidge Julius Caesar Tuskahoma McLish.

Why?

Here’s what he told reporters in the mid-1950s:

“There were seven of us in the family and my mother named all but me,” says Cal. “When I came along she let dad pick a name and he came up with Calvin Coolidge Julius Caesar Tuskahoma. It’s a dandy, ain’t it?

“I don’t know why he named me Calvin Coolidge. He never voted Republican in his life, in fact, he was a Democrat. Just liked the name, I guess. And I suppose that’s why he slipped Julius Caesar in there, too.

“Tuskahoma is an Indian name, so that makes sense. I think it was a town in the Indian territory of Oklahoma. Both my mom and dad were born in Indian territory though they’re not full-blooded Indians.”

He went on to mention that his dad (John) was one-quarter Chickasaw and his mother (Lula) was one-sixteenth Cherokee.

Source: Vaughan, Doug. “On the Rebound.” Windsor Daily Star 5 Jun. 1956: 18.

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