On This Date in Sports April 9, 1974: Ray Kroc to the Rescue
In collaboration with the Sportsecyclopedia.com
It is the home opener for the San Diego Padres at San Diego Stadium, and 39,083 fans are grateful to still have their team. For most of the winter, it appeared the Padres were bound for Washington, as Topps printed the first series of baseball cards with the name Washington Nat’l Lea. However, at the last minute McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc swooped in to keep them in San Diego for $12 million.
The San Diego Padres who had been a team in the Pacific Coast League since 1936 got a chance for the big time when the National League granted the city an expansion team in 1969. The early Padres were not competitive, finishing last in their first five seasons while losing at least 95 games. Making matter worse attendance was not good as the Padres had trouble filling the cavernous San Diego Stadium.
After the 1971 season, Washington a longtime baseball stronghold was left without a team when the Washington Senators became the Texas Rangers. Officials in D.C. led by Jeff Danzansky quickly looked to bring baseball back to the nation’s capital and made a deal to buy the Padres to move them to Washington. The deals were all in place and the move was approved by National League owners, but the City of San Diego was not willing to go down without a fight. C. Arnholt Smith who had owned the Padres since their minor league days suddenly found himself tied up by lawsuits, that delayed the move creating a long off-season of uncertainty. Hoping to resolve things and keep the team in San Diego, Ray Kroc who once talked the McDonald Brothers into franchising their drive in and turned into one of the biggest corporations in the world offered Smith $12 million to buy the team and resolve the lawsuits. Smith agreed and the Padres remained in San Diego. Washington meanwhile, would have to wait 31 years to get another team, when the Montreal Expos, the Padres’ expansion brother in 1969 became the Washington Nationals.
The home opener felt like a new beginning for the Padres, leading local radio station KGB to come up with an idea, a chicken mascot that would run around and give prizes out inside eggs. Inside the chicken costume was Ted Giannoulas a 20-year-old student from San Diego State. Giannoulias first appeared at the San Diego Zoo giving out Easter Eggs, but angling to get in the stadium for free convinced the radio station to link up with the Padres. The idea worked and caught on as the San Diego Chicken was one of the more popular attractions to the rebirth of the Padres. The Padres would lose that game to the Houston Astros 9-5 and again finished last in the Western Division with a record of 60-102 in 1974.
The San Diego Chicken meanwhile became the forerunner of a new age of mascots. After working for KGB for five years, Ted Giannoulas was fired in 1979, but allowed to keep the costume after a lawsuit. This allowed Giannoulas new life himself as the San Diego Chicken became the most famous chicken in the world.