So Why Did Eagles Fans Boo and Throw Snowballs at Santa Claus?

It was a cold winter day in 1968 and Philadelphia Eagles fans were not happy.

So how the story goes as to what happened to Santa Claus during a halftime show against the Minnesota Vikings at Franklin Field. He was also pelted with snowballs from angry fans.

Frank Olivo, a former Atlantic City craps dealer, would go dressed as Santa Claus the final Eagles game of each year and when the Santa hired didnt show up because of a snowstorm team officials spotted him in the crowd and asked him to fill in.

What happened to Olivo next became of the more synonymous narratives told about Philadelphia sports fans and their negative attitude towards their sports teams.

They booed and threw snowballs at Jolly Old Saint Nicholas.

"He was a sitting duck," described longtime Eagles fan and former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell.

The Eagles were finishing up a disastrous season and were in the line for the first overall pick in the 1969 NFL Draft which would net them USC star OJ Simpson. The team won two games late in the season, however, and lost that opportunity to draft Simpson.

As you can surmise, Eagles fans were not happy with these developments and they were not having it on that snowy day.

So there's some context to the most overblown sports story that surrounds the city of Philadelphia and it's sports fans. It has tainted the Philadelphia fans for close to half a century and lazy journalists and media alike continue to script a negative narrative.

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