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Settling the Caleb Williams-George Gervin Iceman Debate Once and for All

Complaints about Caleb Williams trying to take George Gervin's nickname miss the point about what's really going on here.
Gene Chamberlain|
The Iceman cometh, known by any other name as Caleb Williams.
The Iceman cometh, known by any other name as Caleb Williams. | David Banks-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

So many times in modern sports, superstars of other eras get tossed aside as players and fans age.

Colston Loveland stood in front of a group of sportswriters in Chicago last year after being drafted, and more or less said LeBron James was basketball's king and not MJ. Somehow everyone kept from laughing too loud at the press conference.

That's what happens when a young kid doesn't know better. MJ is the King, LeBron the king.

This isn't to say it never happens that someone new comes along. Tiger Woods came along and could have been better than Jack, but wasn’t, largely through his own fault. Tom Brady came along and was even greater than Joe Montana at winning titles.

But 6-for-6 in the finals and being more clutch than anyone ever says enough about all of that. Fortunately, Loveland has been much better a tight end than a judge of basketball talent.

Now, there is this dispute about George Gervin and Caleb Williams over the Iceman nickname.

As someone older, who remembers the ABA Virginia Squires, ABA/NBA San Antonio Spurs and then the Bulls team Gervin played on for one year, the first thought when Williams was referred to as the Iceman was that Gervin was the Iceman.

Then again, there have been lots of "Icemen."  

  • The UFC's Chuck Liddell had that nickname. 
  • In fiction, the Iceman was a character known as "Hickey" in Eugene O'Neill's play "The Iceman Cometh."
  • Bobby Drake of X-Men was Iceman, and that name is a trademark like  Marvel’s other characters.
  • Iceman in Top Gun was Val Kilmer's character of Tom Kazansky.
  • There is a movie "Iceman" starring Timothy Hutton about reviving a 40,000-year-old Neanderthal from the ice.
  • In the really cold world known as reality, Richard Kuklinski was a contract killer with ties to organized crime and is known as the Iceman.

But no one, to me, was Iceman more than Gervin. Maybe it's just what happens when you're older. You stick up for the old guys.

This is not the same thing

However, in this case, something entirely different is at issue beyond a nickname.

This is a trademark/copyright debate for the Iceman between Williams and Gervon. Williams actually filed for it AND THEN Gervin did several days later.

Sorry, you snooze, you lose. Use it or lose it, or something like that.

Anyone can have a nickname. This isn’t about the nickname. You can call anyone anything you want. I was born in a town where it seemed everyone was given a nickname, and there were all sorts. Some guy was even nicknamed Poopy. I can't imagine why, nor do I want to know why, but I doubt anyone was trying to get a trademark for that.

If something means enough to you that you decided to trademark it, but someone else suddenly decides to do it after you, and they had the chance to do it for four decades without doing it, I would seriously doubt the law will come down on the side of the person who was slow to the draw.

If it was so important to Gervin, he should have done something about it before Williams scooped it up.  It’s not like he had insufficient time.

The courts will decide this, unless Gervin and Williams decide between themselves. And, apparently attorneys for Gervin say there was some sort of misunderstanding in the past that prevented him from having rights to this.

Wink, wink. That's rather convenient.

We'll see what the final verdict is, and those familiar with the process say it could take 18 months or more before all of it gets decided.

Based on the fact there are numerous Icemen and that Caleb Williams filed for this when Gervin didn't, law trumps age. 

Gervin may forever be known to us old people as the Iceman informally, but Williams is now, too, because it’s just a nickname. And it seems only logical the courts will make this nickname a more formal title for the guy who filed first.

All hail the Iceman, No. 18.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.

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