A Brief History of Rec-Specs in Organized Sport (Part 1)
 
 As a bespectacled young sports fan, I've always felt a bit of remorse for having not lived through the hay day of unwieldy vision-correcting athletic eyewear. As the price of contact lenses dropped, and their availability among younger age groups became greater, this ever evolving technology almost single handedly relegated Rec Specs to the corrective-vision-sidelines. Here are just a few of the trailblazers who thrived in an era when Lassaic Surgery would have sounded as ridiculous as hovering skateboards or reality television.

Kurt Rambis
I Figured I'd start with one of the godfathers of on-court eyewear, Kurt Rambis. Although not exactly Rec Specs in a traditional sense, the Buddy Holly style frames Rambis sported during his rookie season as a Los Angeles Laker in 1981 must have initially sent shockwaves throughout the entire NBA. According to his wikipedia page, "Rambis is remembered in both Santa Clara and Los Angeles for his all out effort and willingness to do the "dirty work" that many players do not embrace."  The webstie neglects to mention however, that many female sports fans residing within the LA and Santa Clara area codes generally viewed the baller as a sex symbol, due mostly in part to the way his specs worked in conjunction with a truly devastating mustache.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and James Worthy
While Kareem and James Worthy were both active during the eight Los Angeles NBA Finals appearances in the 80's, not many people seem to bring up their eerily similar tastes in on-court eye apparel.  If you think back, both men gravitated toward a clear, bug-eye style of goggle that Bono would eventually begin to embrace later on in the career of U2 (his pair obviously contained dark lenses.)

Eric Dickerson
Let's switch gears here and focus on the NFL's fourth leading rusher of all time, who allegedly also had webbed feet. Eric Dickerson pulled off the Jheri-Curl/Rec Specs look so effortlessly and with such great ease that it's truly a shame the guy was forced to don a bulky NFL helmet during his time on the football field. If you take a look at the goggles Dickerson generally wore, you'll notice that they're beginning to resemble the type of Rec Specs that rose to supremacy in the NBA during the 1990's.

Horace Grant
When most people think Rec Specs, I'm going to assume the name "Ho-Grant" generally comes to mind. As if his involvement with the Bulls and Magic throughout the 90's wasn't enough, Horace Grant's affiliation with the "NBA Jam" video game franchise certainly played a pivotal role in making him one of the greatest players to ever pick up the ol' leather pumpkin. Although Grant wasn't generally regarded as a superstar in the traditional sense of the term, he balled along side many of the greats...