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In 1968, the 19-year-old Oliva was dressed as Santa Claus at an Eagles football game where he was booed and pelted with snowballs. It's such a famous moment that ESPN even made a spoof 30 for 30. about it. Here to tell the story is Frank's first cousin and best friend, Richard Monastra. Here's Rich, starting with a little background on both him.
And Snowball Santa Frank Olivo. We were born in the post-war era. Two of us are baby boomers. I was born in 1946, Frank was born in 1948. in South Philadelphia, born to Typical Italian immigrant families.
Our parents hailed from Naples, Italy for the most part. We were born and raised in South Philadelphia, went to Catholic elementary schools, Catholic high school. I graduated in 1964. Frank graduated in 1966 from the same high school. Bishop Norman, I went on to college.
Frank decided that he wanted to be a barber, so he went to barbering school. His father was a veteran of World War II. He had landed at Omaha Beach in the D-Day. He was wounded, wound up with a plate in his head. His mother rose Worked her whole life in the tailor shops, which was pretty typical for South Philadelphia women.
Frank went to by a barber school in Center City, Philadelphia. in the area now they call uh Chinatown. God is by a barber's license. Frank really, really liked that. He liked being a barber.
He was very social. From the time he was a kid, he was very, very social. He got along with it with you know with everybody. He had a a talent. Early on we start to start to see it in him of being a bit of a showman too, he he would do um Impersonations of actors, movie stars, whatever.
Family really loved it. Kids in the neighborhood really loved when he would imitate our teachers, especially when we were in high school.
So and he sort of liked all that attention. He was sort of deprived of that attention as a kid. You know, his family, his own personal family, mother and father, I guess you might call them today, what we might say is a dysfunctional family. You know, Rose and Bruno were always working. Frankie was on the street a lot of the time.
Fortunately, he would come over to our house, and my mother kind of took him in. He was like our brother. That part of South Philadelphia was sometimes you know, has a bad rep. Um a little bit of the uh so-called mob guys uh hung out there. There's a place called um Poochies.
And um Next roast beef shop. I think both of those places were kind of fronts for the organized mob guys. Um but somehow Frank got friendly with those people as well. Every once in a while they would ask us to carried his little brown bags, To go from point A to point B. Little did we know we were carrying number plays or.
Horse bets. And Frank spoke up about it one time. He said, What's in these bags you're asking us to carry?
So, one of the guys at this place called Poochie showed him. And Frankie started to laugh. And so and the other the you know, the quasi-mob guy started to laugh too. And he said, I like you kids. You guys are really cool.
You got a real chutzpah here, so to speak. And he gave us a free roast beef sandwich and uh ham half a buck a piece. But as time time went on, You know, I went on to college. And um We were always fans of uh the Philadelphia sports scene. We used to go up to Old Shide Park to watch the Phillies play.
The um The cops there who guarded the stadium were very friendly. let you hang outside the stadium and once the first inning was over, They opened up the gates and we all got in for free. All the kids hanging outside the stadium got in for free. We sat up in the bleachers and watched the ball game. Once we were Uh a bit older.
I guess in our teens. Our uncles, they had eight season tickets, four in one row and four. seats right right behind the first floor. And as we grew up, they would take us to the Eagles games as a sort of a rite of passage. And that ultimately led up to the infamous snowball event.
in December of 1968. The Eagles are Scheduled to play the Minnesota Vikings, which were a fairly new team at that time. I think they had come into the league about 1961 or 62. Um they they weren't very good, but The Eagles were worse. The Eagles were having a very, very bad year.
They were something like. 2 in 10 or 2 in 11. The schedule was much shorter than they played, I think the NFL played a 12 or 14 game schedule then. Anyway, um this game All the sports writers had picked up on it, and they were calling it the O.J. Bowl in reference to O.J.
Simpson. If the Eagles lost this game, they would get the number one draft choice in the NFL draft. And of course everybody was touting O.J. Simpson. At that moment he was probably the best player in the country.
No. playing for University of Southern California. The Eagles were in a down, really a down period. Their coach, Joe Koharak, former coach at Notre Dame, Had signed a 15-year contract. Can you imagine?
Back in those days. And I think Joe Kaharak was a great example of the Pewter principle. You know, you rise one level above your competence. He was great as a college coach, but he was lousy as a pro coach. People would boo him.
routinely every game, win or lose. On this day There was an airplane circling over Franklin Field. trailing a banner saying Joe must go and every time the plane went over fans would you know would would would would cheer. The fans were in a sour mood that day, trust me. It had snowed the day before, Saturday, nothing much.
The game started late because they had to clear the field. The game starts, the game goes on, and the Eagles are winning. And the fans are booing.
So you can imagine. 'Cause everybody wanted them to lose so that they could draft Simpson.
So Anyway, historically, the Eagles at the last home game Used to have Santa Claus come, you know, come out on a sleigh. And he would, you know, throw these miniature uh footballs into the stands. And one of which was a gold-colored one. And if you caught the gold one, you got a season ticket for the next year's games.
Well, that year, December of 68. For whatever reason, they decided. Not to throw out the footballs. People were booing that.
somewhere in the second quarter. this man from the from the Eagles He's looking throughout the stands and he spots Frankie with a Santa Claus suit.
Now, the obvious question is: why is Frankie wearing a Santa Claus suit to the Eagles game?
Well, Our grandmother. Each Christmas What host they a Christmas party for all the grandchildren. and she would give them our gifts there. She was getting up in years. And rather than going visit each one of our households, even though we were fairly close, it was a bit of a chore for her.
It was a big party, all the relatives, all the cousins, aunts, uncles. There had to be 60, 70 people in the house.
Well, one of my uncles usually plays Santa Claus. Charlie Simpkiss had been doing it. But Charlie had lost a lot of weight. He wouldn't fill out the suit.
So He drafted Franco Levo to do the Senate.
So he gave him the Santa suit, and uh Frankie decided on a whim to wear the Santa suit to the Eagles game. Because we were going to go right from the Eagles game back to my grandmother's house for the Christmas party. And you're listening to Rich Manastra. and he's the first cousin of Frank Olivo. And Frank, well, you're going to hear more about this remarkable Episode in Philadelphia sports history and American sports history for that matter.
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Hey, what's up, it's Mario Lopez. Back to schools, an exciting time, but it can also be overwhelming and kids may feel isolated, a vulnerability that human traffickers can exploit. Human trafficking doesn't always look like what you expect. Everyday moments can become opportunities for someone with bad intentions, whether you're a parent, teacher, coach, or neighbor. Check in.
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You've been listening to Rich Monastra. Tell the story of Frank Olivo. The Snowball Santa. Let's continue with the story.
So we're in the stands. Frankie's got the Sanders food on. The place is in a sour mood. The Eagles are winning. Planes are flying over, saying Joe must go.
Uh I mean it was really nasty. Anyway, this guy from the Eagles staff Spots Frankie. goes up into the stands and asks him if he'd be interested in subbing for The man they had hired to play Santa Claus. Apparently, the guy they had hired, the Eagles had hired. was stranded up in North Jersey somewhere.
and couldn't get down there to Philadelphia because of the snow.
Okay. PR guy for the Eagles, tell them what to do, where to be, and so forth. And they took him into one of the bowels of the stadium there. Half time came. The PA announcer gets on.
the PA and says Santa Claus is coming to town. Would everybody welcome Santa Claus, what a big Philadelphia welcome.
Well Uh That's when the fun began. Frankie enters the field. He's walking around carrying a big sandbag, and he's got some of the Eagles' cheerleaders are dressed up as elves. And they're walking around the, you know, the uh base of the stadium. And all the booing started.
People started booing Santa Claus. And then the snowballs came. People are picking up, they're making snowballs and throwing them at Santa Claus and the elves.
Well, a couple of the elves ran for cover. And here's Frankie became the target of all this. not only did they start throwing snowballs, but they start throwing anything they can get their hands on. People are throwing beer cans, beer bottles, sandwiches, anything they get their hands on, they were heaving at Santa Claus. They're taking out their vengeance about the Eagles' poor season.
And winning this game, and thereby losing the OJ bowl, they were taking their frustrations out on poor Santa Claus.
So Frankie and what was left of of the elves crew made a uh circle around around the field. And then they went back in. Frankie wa worked his way back to the to our seats. Of course, when we all got back to the Christmas party, we all were telling the others who were at the party what had happened. You know, Frank had got hit with snowballs and beer cans and stale sandwiches and hoagies and God knows what all.
And people were half laughing and you know half shocked by it all. It wasn't until that night Somebody had the television on in one of the other rooms. at my grandmother's house. And they noticed That Frankie's on TV.
So we all ran over to the TV set, you know. And uh you you see him gonna coming out of the tunnel of the stadium. They're playing some music on the PA system, and people started throwing snowballs, and you hear the booing and all that. Of course, Philadelphia fans have had this reputation for eons. about being rowdy fans and you know all that stuff.
We're the only city that had a judge on site and a Um Sort of a jail. in this in the bowels of the stadium for people who got too rowdy.
So, I mean it was really crazy. Philadelphia is a great sports town, don't get me wrong, but people can get really crazy sometimes.
So, this story made national news, and at least one. aspect of International news. The London Times picked up on it. He told us he did not expect You know that booing. He said booing bothered him more than anything.
He said, you know, he couldn't understand people throwing snow and all that. But he said the booze he said who the hell boo Santa Claus And of course that's the line that Got tagged to Philadelphia from that point on. This is the city that. you know, booed Santa Claus. And every once in a blue moment, you hear some sportscaster on some station, local or national.
Throw that line out there. You know, when something happens negatively in the city of Philadelphia. They'll say, well, you gotta remember this is the city that boots Santa Claus, you know. Of course, when he went back to work at the barbershop, he was working in the in a barber shop in the suburban station, which is the main train station in the center city of Philadelphia. And people would come in there, they would spot him there.
Of course, his picture was. uh cut out of the newspapers. It was the people hanging up in their w their windows of the barber shop. He got a lot of customers from local uh celebrities business people. television stars.
One of his customers was the Archbishop of Philadelphia at the time. It was a man by the name of John Kroll. He's now deceased. But he was asking Frankie for his autograph. Imagine this: the Cardinal of Philadelphia asking.
Frankie for his autograph.
So he had all the local politicians would stop in there. Mayor Tate. James Tate was the mayor of Philadelphia. Had his picture taken down in Frank's Boy at Barbershop, so he became a local celebrity. Frank never got any pay from the Eagles.
They gave him a pair of cufflinks, if you can believe that. Frank was not much of a cuff shirt kind of guy, you know. In fact, one of my uncles, uh, Tony, He was a bit of a loudmouth, to say the least. Wrote to the Eagles. And and he called them a bunch of cheap S S O B's.
Yeah.
So Anyway, Frank got his own shop. Didn't fare well. It was a bad time. By this time it's the early 80s. how to close the shop down.
He went to work at one of the casinos. that had just opened up in Atlantic City. As a dealer, he got his license as a dealer. And he ultimately worked his way up to become a pit boss. He got the rub elbows with some of the acts that were appearing there.
One of his favorite buddies was Don Reckles. Frankie had, he was on a first name basis with Don. with Don Reckles, you know. They exchanged cards at Christmas time. I think when Frankie's daughter got married, or maybe it was his son, I forget which, Don Rickle sent him a gift.
Throughout his life, however, Frank was uh plagued by Uh Heart heart issues. Even as a kid, we would have, you know, sometimes you'd have to stop playing ball for a bit or whatever we were doing that became. too much of an exertion for him. Frank died on the 30th of April 2015. He was let's see he was about sixty five or sixty-six at the time.
I didn't. the formal uh eulogy at Frank's funeral. And while I was preparing to do that, I was getting phone calls when I tell you, literally, from all over the country. The story Didn't die. It just wouldn't leave him.
Even to this day, the fact that you contacted me. evidence is the fact that people are still talking about it. The day of his funeral. The uh the priest asked me What music they should have for Frankie. And half jokingly, I said.
Play here. comes Santa Claus. The priest looked at me rather puzzled. I said, I'm just kidding. You know what I mean?
But I thought that would have been appropriate, because I think he would have loved that.
So the legend lives on. He's the uh The gift that keeps on giving. Here comes Santa Claus, here comes Santa Claus, right down Santa Claus Lane. And you've been listening to Frankie Olivo's first cousin, Rich Monastra. Tell the story of the snowball Santa.
But all of the story, the neighborhood, the context. The neighborhood stores. And the psychological profile of a Philadelphia Eagle fan, at least a whole bunch. And I was a New York Giants fan growing up in northern New Jersey, and I will never forget my first away game at Philadelphia. And I had the temerity to wear a New York Giants hat.
that lasted about a second. The story of Frankie Olivo, the story of the snowball Santa. Here. on our American stories. And he doesn't care if you're rich or poor, he loves you just the same.
Santa Claus no Stop settling for weak sound. It's time to level up your game and bring the boom. Hit the town with the ultra-durable LG X-Boom portable speaker and enjoy vibrant sound wherever you go. Elevate your listening experience to new heights because let's be real, your music deserves it. The future of sound is now with LG X Boom.
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