Have you ever wondered what happened to that iconic yellow-feathered mascot who revolutionized sports entertainment? If you grew up watching baseball in the 70s, 80s, or 90s, chances are the San Diego Chicken made you laugh until your sides hurt. As a lifelong sports fan, I’ve always been fascinated by the story behind this legendary character, so I decided to dig into what really happened to the San Diego Chicken and where he is today.
The Birth of a Legend: How the San Diego Chicken Came to Be
Before we get into what happened to him, let’s rewind to where it all began.
The San Diego Chicken (also known as The Famous Chicken or The KGB Chicken) was brought to life by Ted Giannoulas in 1974. At the time, Giannoulas was just a 20-year-old journalism student at San Diego State University who needed some extra cash. He got hired to wear a chicken costume for a KGB-FM Radio promotion, distributing Easter eggs to kids at the San Diego Zoo.
What started as a simple promotional gig quickly evolved when Giannoulas approached the San Diego Padres with a simple idea: “I’ll bet I could get into games free in this get up.” Little did anyone know this would spark a revolution in sports entertainment!
The Padres, who were struggling with the lowest attendance in the league, allowed him to wander through the stands If someone said “lay one on me,” the Chicken would “lay” an egg containing a prize When he took to the field, something magical happened – attendance doubled that summer!
The Chicken’s Rise to Fame
Ted’s remarkable ability to mime, joke with players and umpires, and connect with fans made him an instant hit. San Diego sports reporter Jack Murphy even described him as an “embryonic Charlie Chaplin in chicken feathers”
Some of his career highlights include:
- Appearing at over 5,100 events in 917 different facilities
- Performing in all 50 states and 8 countries
- Wearing out more than 100 chicken suits
- Being named one of the 100 most powerful people in sports for the 20th century by The Sporting News
- Co-starring on the Saturday morning children’s television series “The Baseball Bunch”
- Making appearances at WrestleMania events
- Even having his own baseball card in Donruss sets from 1982 to 1984!
The Famous Firing and Legal Battle
But it wasn’t all sunshine and feathers for our beloved mascot. Drama erupted in 1979 when KGB Radio fired Giannoulas on May 3. The radio station tried to replace him with another unnamed employee, but fans immediately knew something was wrong. They booed the imposter chicken so loudly that he was forced off the field!
A legal battle ensued, but Giannoulas ultimately won. In June 1979, Judge Raul Rosado ruled in his favor, allowing him to continue performing in a chicken costume (just not the original one).
In what became known as the “Grand Hatching,” Giannoulas emerged from an egg as his new persona, “The Famous Chicken,” in front of 47,000 people at a Padres game on June 29, 1979. The dramatic entrance was accompanied by the theme from “2001: A Space Odyssey” – talk about making an entrance!
Other Legal Feathers to Ruffle
The Chicken’s antics sometimes landed him in hot water:
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In 1991, a Chicago Bulls cheerleader was injured when The Chicken tackled her during an NBA game. Five years later, a jury ordered Giannoulas to pay $300,000 in damages.
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In 1998, the owners of Barney & Friends sued him for copyright infringement over a sketch where The Chicken engaged in a slapstick dance contest against a Barney-like character. Giannoulas won this case, with the court determining his sketch was protected speech as a legitimate parody. He even recovered his attorney’s fees!
So, What Really Happened to the San Diego Chicken?
Despite rumors that he retired or disappeared, the San Diego Chicken is still around! Ted Giannoulas continues to make appearances, though at a slower pace than during his heyday.
As of 2016, after 42 years of playing The Chicken, Giannoulas was still making appearances across the United States, though at a reduced schedule. That summer, he performed at 11 ballparks during July and August.
In a 2016 interview with The New York Times, Giannoulas expressed uncertainty about how long he would continue or whether he would appoint a successor, saying, “It’s not the end, but I can see it from here.”
In 2019, the San Diego Chicken made a comeback appearance at the San Diego Padres’ 50th-anniversary celebration, delighting longtime fans who grew up watching his antics.
The Chicken’s Legacy
It’s hard to overstate the impact the San Diego Chicken had on sports entertainment. The New York Times called him “perhaps the most influential mascot in sports history,” and with good reason!
Before the Chicken, mascots were generally dull and uninspiring. His success helped lead to mascots becoming widespread throughout professional sports, particularly in Major League Baseball. Those crazy, beloved team mascots we all enjoy today? We have Ted Giannoulas to thank for paving the way!
The Chicken’s influence was so significant that in 2011, he was inducted into the Baseball Reliquary Shrine of the Eternals, an honor reserved for those who’ve made a lasting impact on the game.
The Man Behind the Feathers
Interestingly, for much of his career, no one had seen what Ted Giannoulas looked like without the chicken costume. Unlike other mascots interviewed in a 1994 Boys’ Life magazine article who requested their human names be kept secret, Giannoulas was fine with his true identity being known.
On the personal front, Ted has been married to his wife, Jane Giannoulas, since 1995. The couple has no children and enjoys working in their yard or visiting the beach in their free time.
Recent Chicken Sightings
The Chicken hasn’t completely disappeared from public view. Some of his more recent appearances include:
- In 2015, appearing as an Honored Guest at Anthrocon, a Furry Convention held in Pittsburgh
- In 2020, being included in Super 7 toys’ Baseball Mascots Action Figures series
- In 2021, attending the game where umpire Joe West broke the record for most games umpired
- In 2022, appearing in the Peacock documentary “I Love You, You Hate Me” to comment on the infamous Barney sketch
Why We Still Love the San Diego Chicken
There’s something timeless about the Chicken’s appeal. In an era of high-tech entertainment and digital distractions, there’s something refreshingly authentic about a guy in a chicken suit making people laugh through physical comedy and improvisation.
Maybe it’s nostalgia for a simpler time in sports. Maybe it’s the universal appeal of his humor that crosses generational lines. Or maybe it’s just that watching a grown man in a chicken suit tackle mascots and dance with umpires is inherently hilarious!
The Final Cluck (For Now)
So what happened to the San Diego Chicken? He’s still around, just not as omnipresent as he once was. While Ted Giannoulas has slowed down his performance schedule as he’s gotten older (he would be around 70 years old now), his legacy as one of the most influential figures in sports entertainment remains firmly intact.
The next time you’re at a baseball game enjoying the antics of the home team’s mascot, remember to thank the San Diego Chicken – the feathered pioneer who hatched a whole new dimension of sports entertainment that continues to entertain fans to this day.
As a lifelong sports fan who grew up watching mascots evolve from boring sideline decorations to central entertainment features, I’ve always had a soft spot for the San Diego Chicken. Researching this article made me appreciate even more how one man in a chicken suit could transform an entire aspect of sports culture. If you enjoyed this walk down memory lane, please share it with fellow sports fans who might appreciate this bit of mascot history!
One of the pro sporting world’s longest-tenured and best-known mascots enters his 50th year of entertaining fans this season.
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, its 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 McDonalds 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 Ruths 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 announcers booth and took the microphone. Future Hall of Famer Dave Winfield, then in his second year with the Padres, posted Krocs words this week on his Facebook page:
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 Leagues 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.
“Im 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 peoples hearts.”
(Dean Hanson | The Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne, Ind.) Morganna the Kissing Bandit plants a big smooch on the San Diego Chicken April 6, 1983, during an intermission at the Toledo Goaldiggers-Fort Wayne Komets hockey game at Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, Ind.
San Diego Chicken Controversy 1980
FAQ
Did San Diego Chicken make a comeback?
Recently, in July 2019, the San Diego Chicken made a comeback on the sports field for the San Diego Padres’ 50th-anniversary celebration. Speaking of his career highlights, by 2015, he had reportedly made 5,100 appearances in 917 different facilities, 50 states, and eight countries, donning more than 100 chicken suits.
Who is the San Diego Chicken?
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — Fifty years ago, an iconic professional mascot emerged in San Diego, clad in bright orange and yellow feathers. For decades since, the San Diego Chicken has captivated fans with his comedic bits and sketches in various venues around the world.
What happened to the chicken?
The Chicken was on hand at Jack Murphy Stadium in 1978, when the Oakland Raiders beat the San Diego Chargers on the infamous “Holy Roller Play” on September 10. After the Raiders recovered the winning touchdown in the end zone, The Chicken fell on the ground and lay motionless as though he had a heart attack.
How many times a year does the San Diego Chicken make?
Back in the day, the San Diego Chicken would make between 250 to 275 appearances a year. Now 71 years old, Giannoulas stated that he keeps his bookings to around 75 a year. However, he remains adamant that he is the one and only person who dons the yellow feathers.
Who is the San Diego Chicken mascot?
The San Diego Chicken (also known as the Famous Chicken, the KGB Chicken or simply The Chicken) is a sports mascot played by Ted Giannoulas. The character originated in 1974 in an animated TV commercial for KGB-FM Radio in San Diego.
Was the San Diego Chicken traded away before he became the Atlanta chicken?
The San Diego Famous Chicken was almost traded away before he became a local icon The San Diego Chicken was almost the Atlanta Chicken, here’s the story on a trade that almost changed the course of sports history. Here’s how San Diego Chicken dodged becoming the Atlanta Chicken.
Why did the San Diego Chicken get fired?
The KGB Chicken also appeared at many San Diego Clippers basketball games. However, some sort of conflict emerged between KGB Radio and Giannoulas, and he was fired on May 3, 1979. (I don’t know what the conflict was about, but I’m going to guess Giannoulas asked for more money and KGB refused.)
Do they still have the San Diego Chicken?
It’s now been more than 50 years since London native Ted Giannoulas debuted as the San Diego Chicken, the hilarious mascot that thrilled millions and changed the way fans experience live sports across North America. Now 71, he’s slowed down, taking few gigs – and is his career’s final, feathery farewell at hand?
How much does the San Diego Chicken make a year?
San Diego Chicken (San Diego Padres)
At its peak, it is estimated to have earned nearly $500,000 annually. Although its appearances at games have diminished in recent years, it is believed to remain one of the highest-paid characters, with earnings ranging between $200,000 and $300,000 annually due to its fame.
Does the famous chicken still perform?
To date, he has performed nearly 10,000 times in more than 900 venues across the U.S. and eight other countries. Back in the day, the San Diego Chicken would make between 250 to 275 appearances a year. Now 71 years old, Giannoulas stated that he keeps his bookings to around 75 a year.