Bad Santa and Snowballs has Become a Legendary Episode in Eagles History

The incident from 54 years ago was brought up by a reporter from Germany in Nick Sirianni's final media obligation prior to Sunday's NFC title game

PHILADELPHIA – There was a reporter from Germany at Nick Sirianni’s final media availability before Sunday’s NFC Championship Game against the San Francisco 49ers.

He wanted to ask about the Eagles fans who will be in attendance at Lincoln Financial Field. He couldn’t phrase the question without referring to the Santa Claus game.

This was his question to the Eagles coach on Friday: “Your crowd is known in Germany as, I don't want to say hostile from time to time, but not being very friendly – throwing snowballs at Santa Claus or booing. How crazy is the crowd and how important is it for you?”

Sirianni thought the incident happened in 1979. He’s only 41 and wasn’t born when the incident happened. So, give the coach with a career record of 24-12, including playoffs, a pass.

It's funny that national media always bring it up to let everyone know just how “terrible” Eagles fans are. Like they think it's going to penetrate their tough hides and reach their feelings.

Really, it should be a point of pride at this point.

Other fan bases have tried to reach such legendary status, but it takes more than a few Vikings fans doing the Skol chant at the foot of the Philadelphia Museum of Art before the 2017 NFC title game or a tiny flock of San Francisco 49ers hanging a Niners jersey on the Rocky statue this weekend.

Yawn!

Here's a creative suggestion for other teams' fan bases: Try a drone show like the Eagles put on over the Art Museum on Saturday night.

Now that was cool.

As for the 'Snowballs at Santa' incident, here’s a refresher:

It was December 1968 when Eagles fans belted Santa Claus with snowballs. That was 54 years ago and it hasn’t died. That makes it legendary.

In 2017, ESPN made a spoof “30 for 30” documentary about the incident. It was even used as a question on “Jeopardy!” in 2021 and was correctly answered by 38-time champion Matt Amodio.

Most Eagles fan knows the story of the sad-sack Santa with an equipment bag of soggy towels as his “Santa sack” and a noticeable fake, scraggly beard who took the field.

His name was Frank Olivo, a 20-year-old fill-in for the “professional” Santa scheduled that day.

The weather was terrible, though.

So was the mood of Eagles fans, who had to sit outside in 20-degree weather with 30-mile-an-hour winds to watch a 2-10 football team.

It snowed overnight and there was plenty of it in the seating area at Franklin Field.

Olivo was supposed to appear on a large Christmas float featuring eight life-sized fiberglass float with eight life-sized reindeer, but the float got stuck in the mud, leaving Olivo to take the field on foot.

When the faux Santa came trotting into the end zone, he was pelted.

Olivo died in 2015, but the legend of snowballs and Santa Claus lives on from South Philly to the suburbs and well beyond. 

Like across the Atlantic Ocean far. To Germany.

If the Eagles have to play in Germany next year – and there’s a chance they might since two of their opponents in 2023, the Kansas City Chiefs and New England Patriots, are scheduled to be played on the road and those two teams have already been named to play one of their home games in Germany - get ready to hear about the incident again.

The good news is that the German reporter won’t see a repeat of that incident on Sunday.

There is no snow in the forecast and Christmas was more than a month ago.

Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Fan Nation Eagles Today and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglesmaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.