Shoeless JOE Jackson was a professional baseball player in the early 1900s. He was known for his incredible batting skills and is widely considered one of the greatest hitters of all time. His nickname, 'Shoeless JOE, ' came from an incident in which he had to play a game without shoes due to a new rule that prohibited players from wearing metal cleats. The nickname stuck and he became known as Shoeless JOE Jackson.