Come To Think of It: San Diego Chicken Crosses the Road to Retirement

Ted Giannoulas, the man behind the chicken costume, may be hanging up his beak for good.

What the cluck?

The Chicken is baseball’s best-known mascot, and perhaps the most famous in all of sports.

Some have confused The Famous Chicken as the mascot of the Padres. Although he does make appearances occasionally at San Diego sporting events, he has never been the official mascot of any San Diego sports team.

But you think he isn’t an important part of baseball lore? Well, consider that The Chicken was named one of the 100 most powerful people in sports for the 20th century by The Sporting News.

According to Wikipedia, the mascot “originated as an animated TV commercial for KGB-FM Radio in San Diego. Writer, cartoonist, and actor Brian Narelle...offered to animate a wacky acrobatic chicken as part of a commercial contract bid."

"Subsequently Giannoulas, then a student at San Diego State University, was hired to wear the first suit for a promotion to distribute Easter eggs to children at the San Diego Zoo. A redesigned suit followed that more closely resembled The Famous Chicken today."

Did you know that Giannoulas was once sued by the producers of the show Barney & Friends for beating up a Barney look-alike?

We all owe him a debt of gratitude for that.

But he won the case, with the court holding that his performance was satire protected by the First Amendment.

Also, were you aware that the official mascot of the San Diego Padres is not the Famous Chicken but the Swinging Friar?

The Chicken does a special dance following home runs. Chicks dig the long ball, and apparently so do chickens.

The Chicken was elected to the Mascot Hall of Fame in 2005.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I never even realized that there was a hall of fame for mascots.

What’s next, a hall of fame for beer vendors?

(By the way, if they ever have a hall of fame for beer drinkers

You're currently logged into Facebook

Do you want to share your Bleacher Report activity on Facebook?