The other night Claire groaned and I asked what was wrong. She said she just got a charley horse. Sometimes I get those leg muscle spasms — they really hurt.
Anyhow, I got to thinking… Who is/was this Charley? And what’s the deal with his horse? Why on earth would a leg cramp be referred to as a charley horse? I just couldn’t let this pressing question go unanswered, so my extensive research kicked in.
I found the answer — or at least one answer in an old West Virginia newspaper. The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer, in 1886, published the following story:
“Base-ballists have invented a brand new disease, called ‘Charley-horse.’ It consists of a peculiar contraction and hardening of the muscles and tendons of the thigh, to which ball players are liable from the sudden starting and stopping in chasing balls…. Jack Glasscock is said to have originated the name because the way the men limped around reminded him of an old horse he once owned named Charley.”
That’s one story about how the term originated, but there were others. Another is attributed to a baseball player that played for the Chicago White Stockings, Joe Quest. Apparently, Joe and his teammates spent an off day watching horse races on the south side of Chicago. According to a tip they’d received the previous night, a horse named Charley was practically guaranteed to win. The tip was touted as a cinch — the horse simply couldn’t lose. Everyone placed bets on Charley except for Quest. The other players teased him for his choice. Although Charley had a sizable lead from the beginning, he ultimately stumbled and injured himself going around the last turn and lost. Quest allegedly told his teammates “Look at your old Charley horse now!” Joe kept up the ribbing the next day and exclaimed, “There’s your old Charley horse — he’d made it all right if it hadn’t been for that old Charley horse” when a teammate strained himself in a similar way while running to second base.
Another account is that the name comes from an old horse named Charley that dragged equipment at the Chicago White Stockings ballpark. Apparently injured players would compare their limping to Charley’s gait and called a leg muscle injury a charley horse.
One explanation I uncovered indicated that the name is said to owe its origin to the fact hat a player afflicted with it, when attempting to run, does so much after the fashion of a boy astride a wooden horse, sometimes called a ‘Charley horse’”
So — it appears that no really knows the true origin of the term, but all the theories and explanations seem to lead to baseball. I guess the only thing all the theories completely agree on is that they hurt like heck!!
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