King Kong

[Houndpower]

Anyone know how Jerry Korab ended up with this handle ?

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[MS]

Because he was the biggest player in the league (or close to it) in the early-mid 1970s, at least until Bob Dailey and Willie Huber arrived on the scene.

Under-rated player historically. Outside of the 'big 6' (Robinson, Savard, Lapointe, Park, Potvin, Salming) he was maybe the next-best defender of the mid-1970s.

 

[Houndpower]

Because he was the biggest player in the league (or close to it) in the early-mid 1970s, at least until Bob Dailey and Willie Huber arrived on the scene.

Under-rated player historically. Outside of the 'big 6' (Robinson, Savard, Lapointe, Park, Potvin, Salming) he was maybe the next-best defender of the mid-1970s.

I found a Bio on him that has him at 6'3" 220 lb.....reason enough I guess to be called King Kong.....just thought there might be some other story to it.

 

[MS]

I found a Bio on him that has him at 6'3" 220 lb.....reason enough I guess to be called King Kong.....just thought there might be some other story to it.

That was *huge* for that era.

Nowadays 6'5" players are pretty commonplace, but prior to 1975 they were unheard-of. When Bob Dailey broke in in 1973, he was the first 6'5" player in the history of the league.

Guys who were 6'1 190 were really big players in that era, whereas now it's about the league average size.

 

[reckoning]

Did a little digging through a couple of books but couldn't find out anything except that he already had the nickname before joining Buffalo and that apparently he hated it.

MS mentioned Bob Dailey; interesting to note that in Dailey's rookie year with Vancouver, Korab was still in Vancouver until being traded midway through the season. So that would've briefly given the Canucks likely the two biggest defencemen in the NHL (Larry Robinson was the only other one who might've be in their league size-wise), as well as the biggest goalie in 6'4" Gary Smith.

 

[Mad Habber]

That was *huge* for that era.

Nowadays 6'5" players are pretty commonplace, but prior to 1975 they were unheard-of. When Bob Dailey broke in in 1973, he was the first 6'5" player in the history of the league.

Guys who were 6'1 190 were really big players in that era, whereas now it's about the league average size.

Peter Mahovlich was listed at 6'5".