Any discussion of Harthorne Wingo, a popular reserve for the New York Knicks in the 1970s, usually starts with his name. His first name was Harthorne — not Hawthorne, as it was often misspelled. As for his surname, fans would chant it (“Wing-o!, Wing-o!”) at Madison Square Garden to beseech Knicks Coach Red Holzman to insert him in the game. His name “belongs in a poem or a song,” Dave Anderson, a sports columnist for The New York Times, wrote in 1973. But the Beastie Boys used his name in their 1989 song “Lay It on Me”: “More updated on the hip-hop lingo (Not so hard, man)/My favorite New York Knick was Harthorne Wingo.”

Source: New York Times January 26, 2021 23:48 UTC