Sports The 10 Greatest Mustaches in Sports History
From the pitcher's mound to the Olympic pool, these athletes proved that a mustache can be part of the uniform.
Athletes have a complicated relationship with facial hair. Some leagues banned it, some coaches hated it, and a few sports (looking at you, swimming) seem actively hostile to it. Which makes the mustaches that broke through all the more impressive. Here are the ten greatest in sports history, as judged by a newsroom with strong opinions and a baseball card collection.
10. Lanny McDonald (Hockey)
The Calgary Flames winger won the Stanley Cup in 1989 under one of the great walrus mustaches in hockey history: enormous, red, and unmistakable. Hockey mustaches are a proud tradition, and McDonald sits at the top of the tradition.
9. Dale Earnhardt Sr. (Racing)
The Intimidator's mustache (1951–2001) was part of the brand: dark, full, and as serious as the black No. 3 car. It is still one of the most recognizable images in motorsports.
8. Goose Gossage (Baseball)
A Hall of Fame relief pitcher with a thick horseshoe that made a 98 mile-per-hour fastball look even less friendly. Gossage's mustache is the reason the phrase "intimidating closer" exists in the public imagination.
7. Keith Hernandez (Baseball)
The 1980s Mets first baseman wore a full chevron that later got its own storyline on Seinfeld. It is proof that a mustache can cross from the sports page to pop culture and back again without losing anything.
6. Wade Boggs (Baseball)
A consistent chevron across a Hall of Fame career with the Red Sox, Yankees, and Devil Rays. Boggs' mustache was not flashy, but it was always there, and consistency is its own kind of greatness.
5. Hulk Hogan (Professional Wrestling)
Yes, it is scripted. No, that does not matter. Hogan's blond horseshoe is one of the most famous mustaches on the planet, full stop, and wrestling is a sport of spectacle. He is on this list because no list of sports mustaches is credible without him.
4. Mike Ditka (Football)
The Chicago Bears coach wore a tight, dark chevron through a championship career and a long broadcasting run. Ditka's mustache is a coaching mustache: no nonsense, no curls, all authority.
3. Mark Spitz (Swimming)
In 1972, swimmer Mark Spitz won seven gold medals at the Munich Olympics while wearing a mustache, in a sport where athletes routinely shave everything for speed. The mustache became legendary precisely because it defied every rule of the pool. It remains one of the boldest facial-hair decisions in Olympic history.
2. Richard Petty (Racing)
The King of NASCAR, born in 1937, wore a mustache, a cowboy hat, and sunglasses for so long that the three became a single silhouette. Seven championships, 200 wins, and one of the most durable images in American sports.
1. Rollie Fingers (Baseball)
It could only be one man. Rollie Fingers' waxed handlebar, grown in 1972 with the Oakland A's "Mustache Gang," is the most famous mustache in sports history. It has its own history, its own legend, and its own entry in the Mr. Stach Hall of Fame. When baseball fans picture a mustache, they picture this one.
Honorable Mentions
- Dennis Eckersley, whose mustache-and-mullet combination defined late-1980s baseball.
- Don Mattingly, whose mustache became a plot point in The Simpsons.
- Aaron Rodgers and the modern football mustache revival, which we will cover separately.
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