The Sixers signed Reggie Jackson on a veteran minimum deal after he was traded to the Charlotte Hornets and then bought out.

It begs an important question –

Where does he stand in the pantheon of bespectacled Philadelphia athletes? Is he top five? Top 10? You can wear rec specs, glasses, aviators, pretty much anything, but the criteria is that you have to wear them during the game. Think Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. And we ruled out baseball players who wear sunglasses in the field. We’re talking guys who needed vision help and didn’t wear contacts, so that would deem NFL visors ineligible. You’d have to be Eric Dickerson or Rodrigo Blankenship to qualify for the list. We crowd sourced and came up with a preliminary offering:

 

JD Hammer

Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports


Hammer pitched for the Phillies in 2019 and 2021 but otherwise has been a lower league journeyman. He signed a minor league contract with the Rockies a few years ago, then found his way through the Angels system and eventually into the Mexican league.

Vance Worley

Howard Smith-USA TODAY Sports

Pitched for the Phils from 2010 to 2012. Was it really that long ago? Jeez. The Vanimal is 36 now. He went to Minnesota in the Ben Revere trade and wound up throwing for the Twins, Pirates, Orioles, and Marlins before bouncing around in the minors.

Kent Tekulve

Photo: Fleer

Tekulve was a workhorse MLB reliever back in the 70s and 80s. He didn’t come to Philadelphia until 1985, when he was 38 years old, but went on to throw 367 innings in four years. He’s in the Pirates Hall of Fame and won the 1979 World Series with the Buccos.

Dick Allen

Malcolm Emmons-USA TODAY Sports

Dick Allen would have to be #1 if we were ranking these in any sort of order. His #15 was retired and he’s on the Phillies Wall of Fame. 7x All Star, a former AL MVP, NL Rookie of the Year, 2x AL home run leader and 1972 RBI leader as well. He died a few years ago at age 78.

Fernando Valenzuela and Greg Luzinski*

Photo: Score

I put an asterisk on Valenzuela, because while he played for the Phillies in 1994, he may have moved on to contacts at that point. If you go through his Dodgers history from 1980 to 1990, you see a ton of photos of him wearing the old school glasses, like in the baseball card image above. We’ll talk to the eyeglass politburo and get a ruling.

Same thing with Greg Luzinski, actually. And Moses Malone. There are a lot of pics of those guys wearing glasses while playing for other teams, but there was much less frequency during their Philly days.

I asked around on Luzinski and came across this:

It seems like Luzinski added the glasses later in his Phillies career. That would also explain why you see so many White Sox pictures of him wearing glasses. That was his final career stop. But there’s video of him wearing the specs in 1980, so he’s good for this list.

Orlando Woolridge

Photo: Topps

Played for the Sixers in the 1993-1994 season. First guy off the bench. He was at the tail-end of his career back then but averaged 12 points per game behind Clarence Weatherspoon, Jeff Malone, Jeff Hornacek, and Dana Barros.

Harvey Grant

Photo: Upper Deck

Horace Grant is one of the most famous goggle wearers in sports history. His brother Harvey also wore them, and played for the Sixers during the final stop in his career, which was the 1998-1999 season. I don’t have any licensable photos of Grant as a Sixer, but you can see him with the Bullets in the photo above, where he played from 1988 to 1993.

Greg Gross

Photo: Topps

Came to Philly in 1979 as part of the Manny Trillo trade. A bench bat and depth outfielder who played 127 games during the World Series-winning 1980 season and had a couple of hits in the NLCS against the Astros. His best statistical year was in 1983, when they fell short at the end.

=================

No doubt, we probably missed a decent number of players. Glasses aren’t common in sport these days, so if you’re an O.G. sports fan and watched the teams back in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, you’d know better than we do. Gimme a shout and we’ll add to the list. We’ll build it out.