Michael Thomas Leibrandt: An unfortunate Santa legend in Philly

Nearly a month ago, after another unremarkable Eagles performance in strikingly dark alternative uniforms in the first ever game that the Eagles have held on the Friday after Thanksgiving, things could have been a lot worse. Despite losing three of their last five games, the Eagles are still in the NFC Playoff Race at 10–5.

Conversely, 57 years ago, the Eagles were in the hunt for nothing more than the first overall selection in the following year’s NFL Draft. The excitement circulating among fans was due to a chance to draft a generational running back in USC’s OJ Simpson. But the 1968 Eagles, who started 0–11, would become remembered for yet another reason. 

The 1968 season was one of the worst ever for the Philadelphia Eagles. The team’s leader — colorful head coach Joe Kuharick — became the focus of the fan’s frustration. When lapel pins capturing the emotions that Joe Must Go didn’t work, they even rented a plane to fly over Franklin Field with a trailing banner that said the same thing.

Just when Eagles fans believed that they had a path to obtain the player that could help to resurrect the franchise — which was just eight years removed from an NFL Championship at Franklin Field — the team went and actually won its final two games. Just when you thought that things could not get any worse, December 15th occurred.

By 1968, the Eagles had already established a tradition of having a Santa Claus at the team’s last home contest. And when the man who was supposed to play Santa woke up and evaluated the prospect of dredging his way to Franklin Field in a foot of snow — let’s just say that the halftime show was soon without its main attraction. 

Brought out of the stands to fill-in was twenty-year-old Frank Olivo. By the time that Olivo walked out at halftime with the Eagles and Vikings deadlocked at 7–7 at halftime, the cold conditions, snow-filled bleachers, and overall poor play of the 1968 Eagles finally boiled over. With the float that was accompanying Olivo stuck in the mud, fans began to boo him and sent snowballs flying. 

What may have seemed at the time like a snowy outpouring of emotions at Franklin Field soon took flight around the country with a narrative that Eagles fans booed Santa.

The Eagles would end up drafting a running back in 1969 with the third overall selection. It wasn’t OJ Simpson, however. It was Purdue running back Leroy Keyes. And the outcome of the game at Franklin Field? The Eagles lost that game 24–17.

Michael Thomas Leibrandt lives and works in Abington Township, Pennsylvania.