Escape Claus

An obituary that probably went unnoticed for most of you was Frank Olivo, who worked a number of jobs in the Philadelphia area and died at 66 of diabetes-related complications. But you’ve all heard his story – in the last game of the 1968 season, with snow falling and the Eagles putting the finishing touches on a 2-12 season, Olivo, a 19-year-old kid in a dirty Santa Claus costume and a fake beard was asked to walk onto Franklin Field while Here Comes Santa Claus was played on the PA because the intended Santa was snowed in. Olivo faced a deluge from the stands – first boos, then snowballs. And forever more, Philadelphia would be renowned for having bad fans because they booed Santa. The ignored parts of that story – while the Atlanta Falcons have to pipe in crowd noise and the city has twice lost NHL teams to smaller Canadian cities, while the NFL had to finally rescind its blackout rule so that Chargers fans could occasionally see their team playing at home, while the Rays and Marlins have gone to World Series while playing in half-empty ballparks, while NHL teams are dictating what can be worn to games because fans can’t create enough of a home-ice advantage, more than 54,000 Eagles fans braved the snow and cold to watch an awful team going nowhere. And while Dodgers fans beat a Giants fan in the parking lot so severely he was left with permanent brain damage, while White Sox fans in separate incidents attacked an umpire and caused permanent eye damage to first base coach Tom Gamboa, while a Brewers fan tackled and punched Astros right fielder Bill Spiers, while New York Giants fans threw ice and sent a San Diego Chargers coach to the hospital, while a Chicago Cubs fan charged Randy Myers on the mound, while New York Rangers fans rocked an ambulance with concussed Pat Lafontaine inside and chanted “Buy a Porsche” at Flyers goalie Ron Hextall the season after goalie Pelle Lindbergh was killed while driving a Porsche, Philadelphia has bad fans because they booed a skinny kid with a bad fake beard in a grubby Santa Claus costume.