Philly Front Office

In 1979, something happened that would change the sports world forever. The San Diego Padres publicized an event called the Grand Hatching. On June 29th, a sellout crowd of nearly 50,000 would witness the rebirth of their prized son and prodigal mascot. How they knew that June 29th would be the day mother nature would bless America’s Finest City¹ with such a miracle is anyone’s guess, but the date will live on in the history of baseball. Here is the story of Ted Giannoulas, the man everyone knows but no one has ever seen.

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The San Diego Chicken started as an animated commercial character to promote a local radio station in San Diego, KGB-FM. This was not done by Giannoulas. He came on to the scene a few months later when the radio station made a costume and needed someone to play the real-life chicken at promotional events for $2 an hour. He was just 20 years old. Well, as 20-year-olds will do, he and his baseball-loving-self had an idea. He figured that if he wore the suit, the powers that be just might let him in to Padres games for free (the 70s were a wild time). He was right.

The Padres let the giant chicken into the games and the fans loved it. He heckled the umpires, taunted opposing hitters, and even laid eggs on people. Every Padres home game for years, the Chicken was there. Attendence doubled and people were noticing. While the Chicken wasn’t the first mascot, that would be Mr. Met, he quickly showed teams around Major League Baseball how to do the concept right (Mr. Met is a hack). Pretty soon every team had their own version of the Chicken.

With his fame growing, the Chicken figured he could expand his social scene. He was right again. Pretty soon the Chicken was all over San Diego including at Clippers and Chargers games, political rallies, and generally anywhere he wanted to go. At one point, he attended over 520 consecutive Padres games.

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As all good stories do though, this one took a bad turn. Giannoulas was fired in 1979. The radio station had sued him for making unauthorized appearances as the Chicken who the radio viewed as their property. While that was the technical reason for the termination, it was probably more about the $50,000 per year salary he was now earning. Afterall, the chicken suit was the star not the guy in it, right? Wrong. People became quickly aware that their beloved Chicken was now being portrayed by someone else and the popularity died. The Chicken was now rejected as fans were firmly behind Giannoulas.

While the lawsuit went on, Gianoulas was ordered not to appear at all as the Chicken. In court, the man behind the suit refused to ever come out of it and wore a paper bag over his head while in attendance. It doesn’t matter who technically “won” the lawsuit, the results are what’s important. Giannoulas was free to be a chicken…but not the chicken. It had to be a slightly different one. Not unlike what happened with the Phillies and the Phanatic recently, Giannoulas would have to alter the costume enough to not be substantially similar to the radio chicken, but he could be the Chicken nonetheless. With this ruling, Giannoulas came to an agreement with the San Diego Padres to finally become their mascot, albeit unofficially. He would now be the property of Giannoulas. Together though, they had an idea to reintroduce the new bird…

The Padres announced that on June 29, 1979, there would be an event at the ballpark called “The Grand Hatching.” With a state police escort, a giant egg was driven in to Jack Murphy Stadium on top of a giant truck. As the fans roared, the theme made famous by 2001: A Space Odyssey and “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair played on the speakers. The egg rolled, shook, and hatched with the NEW San Diego Chicken free to finally be himself. Watch below, it is 3 minutes worth your time.

In the following years, the Chicken would appear in movies, TV shows, music videos, multiple Wrestlemanias, on baseball cards, and sued by both Barney and a Chicago Bulls cheerleader. He started at the age of 20, but Giannoulas is now around 70 years old and not nearly as spry as he once was after over 5000 appearances all over the world. Still, no one knows what he looks like.

Photo: Padres

1. Not my opinion, it’s just the city nickname ↩︎