A college football player became one of the most-talked about NCAA athletes over the weekend, but not because of his stats.
Bowling Green University linebacker Gideon Lampron went viral on social media after fans learned his legal middle name is ESPN. His family pronounces it “Ess-pen,” but his dad admits he chose the unusual name (written in all capital letters) as a tribute to the Disney-owned sports channel (originally named the Entertainment Sports Programming Network).
Gideon’s father, Marty Lampron, told the Dayton Daily News that he chose “ESPN” because he’s a big sports fan. However, he didn’t get his wife’s approval when he put the name on Gideon’s birth certificate — she wanted the middle name to be Xavier and said “no” when Marty suggested ESPN.
“I grew up in Boston. I went for months trying to talk my wife into letting me name him Larry Bird. It didn’t go well,” Marty told the Dayton Daily News in September.
“Then she delivers Gideon, and she’s out of it and the nurse comes for me to sign the birth certificate. When I signed it, I literally printed ‘ESPN’ in capital letters. She was out cold when I did it. When she woke up, I told her I did it, and she said, ‘No, you didn’t.’ She didn’t realize I did it. She wasn’t happy with me.”
Gideon ESPN Lampron, a junior LB from Keystone, Ohio, transferred to Bowling Green this spring after spending the past three years at the University of Dayton. According to Total Pro Sports, he started as a zero-star recruit in FCS and redshirted the 2022 season, but made 51 tackles in 2023 despite only starting once. He finished the 2024 season with 99 total tackles, including 56 solo, plus 6.5 sacks and two forced fumbles, earning him Football Championship Subdivision All-American First Team honors and offers from FBS schools, including Kent State, UTEP, Eastern Michigan, Ball State and Bowling Green.
Lampron’s weird middle name got attention from Yahoo Sports, Barstool Sports, and other publications, but he’s hoping he can live up to his lifelong association with “The Worldwide Leader in Sports.”
“I want to make my dad proud, because him making my middle name ‘ESPN,’ it has set some expectations. I am just trying to deliver,” Gideon told The Morning Journal in September. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
“Some of my friends would laugh. I never really hid it, I just never talked about it ever. Now, this is something that my friends are finding out. I have it on my Instagram and (X). I love (my middle name).”
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