The story comes up so often that I wanted the record straight in my head so I can help straighten other people out about it. Here's a tight version for future reference, drawn from David Matthau's piece at WHYY.
It's December of 1968 and the Eagles have won 2 of their first 13 games. Only Buffalo is doing worse, which - for non football fans - matters because the worst team gets the top pick in the next draft, and everyone is clamoring for a young O.J. Simpson. Only in Philly could fans be demanding the coach get fired because his team isn't even winning at losing.
Fans arrive on December 15th to find a big winter storm has buried their seats in snow. Just imagine that for a moment. You show up to watch a terrible team and the first job of the day is digging out your own seat. But you push the snow off and get situated anyway (and that probably includes a beer or two to help).
Erstwhile, in the stadium offices, they're finding out that the guy they hired to play Santa for the halftime show is not coming. He looked out his window at the weather and decided to stay in bed. With the candy canes and cheerleader elves ready to go, this presents a problem, and as they panic for a solution, the team's PR manager looks up into the crowd and realizes there's a fan who wore his Santa costume to the game.
Frank Olivo is a local barber and Eagles loyalist. He's a skinny guy in a secondhand costume with holes in it and a beard barely hanging onto his face. He wore it for two reasons: he hoped the cameras might find him, and he planned to play Santa for his younger cousins at the family Christmas party after the game. So when they asked if he'd like to be Santa at halftime, what do you think his answer was?
Right before the half, the Eagles quarterback throws an interception that gets returned for a touchdown against them (a pick-six), and the frustration peaks. The teams exit the field and the halftime show starts up. The sleigh gets stuck in a snowdrift, and the fans take a long hard look at Santa. Somebody throws the first snowball. Given the quantity of snow in the stands, the signal is clear. The bad team, the bad season, and now this shabby Santa - it's too much. Santa hides behind the sled while a couple thousand snowballs fly. Nobody gets hurt. I imagine a sort of emotional purge in it.
That's what happened in the stadium. Later that night, on national TV, Howard Cosell skips the game highlights and shows only the Santa clip. So the story the country gets is that Philly fans are the kind of people who pelt Santa. Glen Macnow, the Philly sports writer, said it was like spitting on Miss America. Spitting on Miss America, can you even imagine? The imaginations of journalists, it's crazy.
The people who were there remember it differently. Ray Didinger, the Hall of Fame columnist, was in row EE that day at 22 years old, and says the fans were venting. He almost threw one himself until his mother told him he was not throwing that snowball. He also points out that 54,000 people showed up in a blizzard right before Christmas to watch a team that bad.
As for Olivo, he went back to his seat after the barrage and his section cheered him. On the way back he scolded one more would-be thrower: "You're not getting nothin' for Christmas!" Afterward he signed autographs at the barber shop for a while.
So if you come to Philly for a game and you're worried about the story, just know we love our teams maybe a little bit too much. And if you want to dress festive, be aware you might be getting yourself into something extra.
