PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The man famed in Philadelphia sports history as the Santa Claus who was booed and plunked with snowballs at an Eagles game on a winter day in 1968 has died.
Frank Olivo's family says he died early Thursday at a suburban Philadelphia hospital after a long battle with heart disease, diabetes and other ailments. He was 66.
Olivo was filling in for a snowbound Santa when he was jeered and pelted with snowballs while going down the field to the tune of "Here Comes Santa Claus."
Olivo's cousin Richard Monastra said Olivo took it in stride, even telling one nearby fan who hit him squarely with a snowball that he could expect coal in his stocking that Christmas morning.
And far from minding his moment in city sports history, Monastra says Olivo "gloried in it."