BY JEFF FALK
Nicknames are handles usually bestowed upon us by others. Rarely do we ‘nickname’ ourselves, and even more rarely do they stick.
But Robert May is a unique individual. And apparently that fact was true at a young age as well.
May, Palmyra’s assistant football coach and the former head man at Hershey High School, came up with a nickname for himself while a student at Milton Hershey school. While it’s a bit unusual, it’s been with him ever since.
“They called my older brother ‘Fish,'” explained May. “At Milton Hershey, everybody had a nickname. They called me ‘Little Eel’, ‘Minnow’, ‘Little Fish’. And I hated it.”
So as he’s been known to do, May took matters into his own hands.
“I was playing ice hockey and I was a goalie,” said May. “I got to play a lot. And one of the most popular goalies at the time was Gump (John of the Montreal Canadiens) Worsley. So I said my nickname is going to be ‘Gump’.”
May’s nickname took on a life of it’s own, so much so that some people think ‘Gump’ is his God-given name or don’t know that it’s Bob.
“So I made my own nickname,” said May. “When I went to college that’s all they called me. It stuck!”