When Bryant Reeves came out of little Gans, Oklahoma, he went to Oklahoma State. On a flight to a game, he reportedly couldn’t believe how vast the U.S. is and his amused teammates promptly started calling him Big Country.
It fit in a lot of ways. Reeves is certainly country - Gans is a hamlet of about 250 people - and Reeves is a very big man.
He is 7-0 and weighed between 275 and 300 in his playing days. He first came to attention at Oklahoma State after hitting a surprising buzzer beater against Missouri in 1993.