Stengel was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and originally nicknamed “Dutch”, a common nickname at that time for Americans of German ancestry.
He came by the nickname “Casey” (derived from the initials of his hometown) and the wide popularity of the poem Casey at the Bat, honestly.
In the 1950s, sportswriters tagged him with the sobriquet “The Old Professor” (or “Perfessor”).
His barbed wit and his amiable obfuscation on baseball-related matters made him legend.