Milwaukee Bucks: In search of the best Bucks player nicknames

Milwaukee Bucks: In search of the best Bucks player nicknames – Dick Cunningham

From the Bucks’ inaugural season to winning their lone NBA championship in 1971, Dick Cunningham had a front row seat to the team’s rapid rise from startup to title-winning team in three years time.

And while Cunningham didn’t play more than a bit-part role throughout his six years with the Bucks, it didn’t stop him from being an integral presence during such a fruitful era of Bucks basketball.

It was Cunningham’s physical presence and embracing of doing the dirty work down low and setting screens that led to him earning the nickname ‘The Cement Mixer,” an all-time nickname coined by the Bucks’ legendary announcer in Doucette. After all, Cunningham had arrived to Milwaukee having led the NCAA in rebounding at 21.8 boards per game as a junior at Murray State for the 1966-67 season.

Cunningham proved to be the perfect backup to the extraordinary talents of Abdul-Jabbar as he often spelled the NBA’s all-time scoring leader when he was in foul trouble or when Bucks head coach Larry Costello wanted more size and a little more physicality on the interior.

And Cunningham’s NBA career came to a premature end after the Bucks’ run to two NBA Finals, all of which stemmed from an incident where he cut off his right big toe while mowing his lawn.