Bob CollinsBe careful what you do at a football game. It might be the first line of your obituary.
Frank Olivo has died. He was the infamous Santa Claus who got pelted with snowballs after the Minnesota Vikings beat the Philadelphia Eagles in 1968.
At the end of every season, the Eagles staged a halftime holiday show. But the regular Santa couldn’t make it, so Olivo pitched in, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
The Eagles were ending a dismal 2-12 season. It was cold, and the 54,535 fans who had showed up in a snowstorm were not happy.
spro”You hear the booing,” Mr. Olivo said in an ESPN video a few years ago. “You hear it. I said, ‘Well, you know, I understand what’s going on here. They’re not booing me. They’re not just booing Santa Claus; they’re booing everything.’ ” He saw snowballs being hurled.
“Then I started getting hit with them,” he said in the video. “I remember watching a fellow make a snowball and throw it at me. I just walked up to him at the bottom of the wall, and I said, ‘You’re not getting anything for Christmas!’ “
A legend was born.
Olivo was 66.
(h/t: Romenesko)
