A Few Minutes With Ted Giannoulas, AKA The San Diego Chicken

SAN DIEGO, CA — A visit to any modern-day major or minor league ballpark or sports arena inevitably is highlighted by appearances by a costumed team mascot. Performers like the Phillie Phanatic, Wally the Green Monster, Stuff the Magic Dragon, Iceburgh and Billy Buffalo can all trace their lineage back to one man - a 5-foot-4 son of Greek parents who emigrated to Canada before finding paradise in southern California.

His real name may not be familiar to most sports fans, but Ted Giannoulas has gained worldwide fame as his alter ego, the San Diego Chicken. An initial 10-day booking turned into a 5-year run promoting his employer, which subsequently led to a 5-decade career entertaining spectators around the globe. He has performed in all 50 states, as well as Canada, Mexico, Australia, Japan, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands. He estimates he has entertained at nearly 8,000 sports events alone; "including television appearances, trade shows, parades and conventions, it's easily triple that," he said in a recent interview with Patch.

His audiences have ranged from ages 1 to 100, and have included four U.S. presidents.

"President Ford attended the 1978 All-Star Game in San Diego," Giannoulas recalled. "Ronald Reagan invited me to meet him at his last campaign rally in 1984, George H.W. Bush and his wife Barbara threw out the first pitch at the new stadium in Chattanooga, Tenn. in 2000, and George W. Bush had me on the White House lawn for the first Tee Ball All-Star Game in 2001."

The road to fame started quite modestly for Giannoulas, who was born in August 1953 in London, Ontario.

"My godparents moved to San Diego in the late 1950s, and when my dad visited them he loved it, saying it reminded him of the climate in Athens," he said.

The Giannoulas family soon followed suit, and Ted enrolled at Herbert Hoover High School, alma mater of a more famous Ted, Red Sox legend Ted Williams. He was sports editor of the school newspaper, then after graduation, majored in journalism at San Diego State University.

In March 1974, he was hanging around at the campus radio station, KCR, when a representative of KGB radio - "a real rock and roll radio station," Giannoulas quipped - walked in looking for some temporary help on a short promotional assignment at the San Diego Zoo.

"He said it only paid two dollars an hour, and the person would have to wear a chicken outfit, but all five of us volunteered," he said. "He looked at me, referred to me as 'the short guy' and said I would fit the suit best. That was the extent of my audition; I started the next day."

After the 10-day gig ended, Giannoulas suggested to KGB management they extend their publicity awareness by sending him to the home opener of the San Diego Padres. Recently purchased by McDonald's founder Ray Kroc, the team had finished in last place in 1973 with a dismal 60-102 record, winding up 39 games behind the division-winning Cincinnati Reds. The club also finished last in the National League in home attendance, attracting just 611,826 fans to 81 games, an average of 7,553 per contest.

Coming one night after Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth's career home run record, the baseball world was buzzing, but the inept, error-filled performance of the Padres in a 9-5 loss to the Houston Astros became the setting for a pair of infamous incidents that will likely never be forgotten by the 39,000 spectators in attendance. During the seventh-inning stretch, Kroc entered the public address announcer's booth and took the microphone. Future Hall of Famer Dave Winfield, then in his second year with the Padres, posted Kroc's words this week on his Facebook page:

"Ladies and gentlemen, I've got good news and some bad news. The good news is we outdrew the Los Angeles Dodgers in attendance today (met with cheers and applause). The bad news is this is the stupidest ball playing I've seen in my life."

As Kroc was speaking, a naked man dashed onto the field during the brief but popular fad known as streaking. "Kroc was yelling, 'get that man, get that man,'" Giannoulas recalled.

Giannoulas technically did not work for the Padres, but was instead employed by the radio station. He began branching out into other venues, which led to a volatile misunderstanding with an overseas hockey team in 1977.

"Kroc had just bought the San Diego Mariners [of the World Hockey Association], and hosted an exhibition game with the powerful Soviet national team," he said. "I was in a red chicken suit with the KGB logo in 8-inch high letters on my chest. The Russians objected, thinking I was making fun of their spy agency. They would not take the ice until I was escorted from the building. After about a 20-minute delay and an explanation from our management, I was allowed to stay, but I think they were rattled. We got an early 2-0 lead on them, but then they settled down and whipped us pretty good [the final score was 6-3]."

In 1978, he was performing in the stands at San Diego Stadium during one of the National Football League's most controversial finishing plays. In the waning seconds of a game between the Chargers and Oakland Raiders, Ken Stabler "fumbled" the ball, which was then "mishandled" by Pete Banaszak before being recovered in the end zone by Dave Casper to provide Oakland with a 21-20 victory. Following the play, the Chicken was caught on videotape feigning collapse, lying prostrate in the walkway. Known alternately as "The Holy Roller Play" and "The Immaculate Deception," the play led directly to a change in NFL rules the following season.

During his prime, Giannoulas would sometimes make 12 to 15 appearances a day on behalf of the radio station, "especially during ratings time," he said. In 1979, he was let go, but despite the filing of a lawsuit against him, he continued his act "in my own chicken suit," now known as The Famous Chicken.

Those circumstances led to what Giannoulas called "the highlight of my career" - the "Grand Hatching" on June 29, 1979. The Padres were averaging about 18,000 fans per game, but thinking many more would attend his return, he struck a deal with team management that would pay him $1.50 for every person in attendance over that number.

He arrived on top of a truck inside an 8-foot Styrofoam egg, and when he emerged near the third base bag, he received a standing ovation which lasted several minutes.

"Media from across the country were there," he said. "Even Walter Cronkite sent a crew to cover it."

He is proud of the fact that in nearly 50 years, he has never missed a scheduled appearance due to injury or illness. He recalled passing out on top of the dugout due to the humidity at Wrigley Field in Chicago, and a mid-summer day in Kansas City when the mercury reached 120 degrees on the artificial turf. "The players were putting their cleats in trays of ice between innings," he laughed.

Giannoulas has worked in every major American city except Boston - "I was in Lynn, Mass. for a Seattle Mariners minor league team, but never made it to Boston." He has been smooched on the ice in Fort Wayne, Indiana by the notorious Morganna the Kissing Bandit, and he was chewed out in front of numerous players and media members by legendary Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda after stomping on a Dodgers hat during a Mexican hat dance routine.

In 1982, history was made when the Donruss Co. featured him on a baseball card.

"It was the first time in baseball history a fan was included in a card set," he said with pride. "It was such a hit with the fans, the following year they put me on the cover of the box. That was pretty notable considering that was the rookie years of Cal Ripken, Ryne Sandberg and Tony Gwynn."

He still sees those trading cards quite often, as he receives autograph requests "non-stop, by the hundreds." Her personally signs each and every request, as long as the fan includes a self-addressed stamped envelope.

His appearances have been sporadic in recent years, owing to several factors: the coronavirus pandemic, which kept him from Padres games for three seasons, and recent hip replacement surgery, which he attributed to his years of physical entertaining coupled with approaching age 70.

"I'm somewhat limited now - my heart says yes, but my bones say 'not so fast'," he said.

Giannoulas laughs at the notion some have put forth that he be enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

"It was work, but not a job, and there is a big difference," he said. "Plaques are nice, but plaudits are better. I am in the Hall of Fame of people's hearts."