That up there is a real headline, in a real newspaper, on a real story about a real basketball player named Guilherme Crabogiale Fuck.
Guilherme Crabogiale Fuck has a fantastic, mellifluous name, and it would be more childish to pretend we're not tickled by the fact that his surname is an English obscenity. It's funny, and it's curious, but it's easily explicable: the 6-foot-6 forward for Alberta's Medicine Hat College is a Brazilian of German descent.
"It doesn't mean what people think it means," said Fuck."In German it [fuchs] means fox."
But it's spelled "fuck," so he has problems in the Anglosphere. His conference puts the pronunciation in parentheses (foo-kee). Some message boards automatically censor his name. His own school puts his second name on his jersey, and on its website, even though Fuck doesn't go by anything but Fuck.
(There seems to be confusion on how to spell his second name, but we're going with the spelling listed on the college's and conference's websites.)
So, well done by the Medicine Hat News, for not shying away from printing Fuck's name, which would be unconscionably silly in a story about the very real challenges faced by someone with the last name Fuck.
The Medicine Hat News was asked by Medicine Hat College sports and recreation staff to use his first and middle names prior to the season, but will use his proper last name going forward, starting with this story.
"When they asked my opinion I said I want to have my last-last name, I'm not ashamed of it," said Fuck. "I would rather always use my last-last name. Back in Brazil that's what I use, I don't use my first-last name."
Fuck averaged 18 and 10 this season on his way to being named to the all-Canadian team, and is preparing to lead his Rattlers into the CCAA tournament. Fuck's coming for you, Canada.
Top image via Shane Gibson.