The Infamous Snowballing Santa by Philly Fans Story

The 40th anniversary approaches. The story from Philly.com.

Aging athletes will tell you the knees go first. In newspapering, it's the mind that goes first. We have to cram so much information into our poor tiny heads day in and day out that, sooner or later, it starts spilling out.

Fortunately, we have a superb backup hard drive of information: the readers. And a vote of thanks goes out to all those alert readers who called or wrote to let me know that Eagles fans did not pelt Santa with snowballs at the Vet, as mentioned in passing here last week. The storied event actually took place at Franklin Field in 1968, three years before the Vet opened.

But despite the fact that this happened in the '60s, a decade no one professes to remember, I don't have an excuse apart from brain cramp for missing that one.

I might have been thinking of the day in 1989 when the Vet faithful pelted Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson with snowballs (ask Gov. Rendell about that one), in a vain attempt to add a few creases and dents to J.J.'s immobile helmet of hair.

But Santa's snowballing occurred on Dec. 15, 1968. I was a senior at Northeast High School, working weekends as a copyboy at the old Evening Bulletin, a few short blocks from Franklin Field. The Eagles were playing the final game of a miserable 2-12 season against the Minnesota Vikings.

The team had started the season 0-11 and was in line for the first draft pick the next spring, which would turn out to be that noted memorabilia collector, one Orenthal James Simpson. But the Birds won a pair of late-season games to drop to third in the draft, behind Buffalo and Atlanta.

Seeing their team finish so badly, yet not badly enough to win the top pick in the draft, the fans were understandably upset with the team's owner, Jerry Wolman; the coach, Joe Kuharich (remember those "Joe Must Go!" buttons?); and just about everyone else in the organization. Unfortunately, Santa was the only recognizable person they saw on the field at halftime. (And what, really, had Santa brought the fans that season?) Never ones to waste a good supply of snowballs, the fans vented their frustration on the poor old elf, but he was merely an involuntary surrogate for the team's management and coaching staff.

This Dec. 15 will mark the 40th anniversary of that landmark occasion of Philly fandom.

RIP: The Spectrum

The home of the last championship in Philadelphia is set to be leveled in 2009. The Spectrum...a classic Philly icon...is going to be closed after the 2009 season. This is a very sad day! I remember the first time I got to visit the Spectrum and spent more time walking around in it looking at all the nostalgia from the Flyers and Sixers championships than I did the game I was there to see. Dr. J, Bobby Clarke, Bernie Parent...all of them dwelled there. First the Vet. Now the Spectrum. I hate this.

The Philly Fan Bitterness Quotient

Great article though I didn't like the authors assumption that we are the problem. Moron. The questions:

Ryan Howard is:
a) A player in the midst of making history.
b) A great force, even with the strikeouts.
c) The worst first baseman you've ever seen.
*d) Destined to flame out and fail.

Rafael Nadal's five-set victory over Roger Federer in the Wimbledon men's final was:
a) Sport at its finest.
b) Diminished by the rain delays.
c) In desperate need of an American.
*d) A freakin' tennis match.

Andy Reid is:
a) The best coach in Eagles modern history.
*b) Dull by design, stubborn beyond reason.
c) A lousy general manager.
d) Way past his sell-by date and should be fired.

Andre Iguodala is:
a) Worth an enormous new contract.
*b) A jump shot short of greatness.
c) A second banana on a good team.
d) A third banana on a great team.

Phillies ownership is:
a) Spending at the level of its income.
b) Invisible.
*c) Cheap.
d) Laughing at you.

Jeffrey Lurie and Joe Banner are:
a) Doing everything they can to win.
*b) Sitting on a billion, thanks to you.
c) Hiding behind/too tolerant of Reid.
d) Laughing at you.

Ed Snider is:
a) Unquestionable in his desire to win.
b) Too diversified in his business interests.
*c) Living in the past.
d) Laughing at you.

The Tour de France is:
*a) Despite everything, still the hardest event in sports.
b) A pleasant enough hangover companion.
c) Dirty, discredited, done.
d) A freakin' bike race.

Golf without Tiger Woods is:
a) Still a great display of skill.
*b) Lacking.
c) Unwatchable.
d) Really, really unwatchable.

The Beijing Olympics will be:
a) The greatest, purest example of sport.
b) Flawed but still compelling.
c) Corrupt filth wrapped in the flag.
*d) An irritant during Eagles training camp.

Donovan McNabb is:
a) The greatest quarterback in modern Eagles history.
b) A good man and good soldier.
c) Inaccurate and inadequate.
*d) The guy who threw up at the Super Bowl.

The Phillies' current level of performance is:
a) Good - first place is first place.
*b) Feast, famine, flawed.
c) Barely acceptable in a lousy division.
d) A mirage.

A Phillies division title will be:
a) Another sign of a franchise hitting its stride.
b) Reason to celebrate.
c) The barely acceptable minimum.
*d) Prelude to a disaster.

An Eagles wild-card playoff berth will represent:
a) Another chance to win a title.
b) A disappointment.
*c) McNabb's swan song.
d) Reid's swan song.

Twenty-five years without a championship is:
a) A conversation piece, nothing more.
*b) A badge of honor for long-suffering fans.
c) A testament to lousy ownership.
*d) A freakin' disgrace