Mad Dog Mark Madsen. Professional basketball player who currently plays forward for the Minnesota Timberwolves. A graduate of Stanford University, he was given the nickname Mad Dog as a fifth-grader at Montair Elementary School in Danville, California by his P.E. teacher, a Mr. Cornell who appears not to have a first name. As the story goes Mr. Madsen and a friend, Jeff Peterson, would “do weird things... on the playground.” According to Madsen, “Cournell said, 'Madsen, some day you're going to have a nickname, and it's going to be 'Mad Dog.' My friend has been calling me that ever since.”