by Pete McEntegart
Staff Sports Writer

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Lafayette,LA - It all started on a seemingly ordinary March afternoon in 1974 when San Diego radio station KGB went looking for someone to fill a yellow-and-blue chicken suit.
Not possessing any employees willing to dress up as poultry, the station's management dispatched a representative to a radio class at nearby San Diego State, perhaps reasoning that only a college student would be willing to don a chicken suit for just $2 an hour.
They were right.
"I raised my hand and they just said,"We'll see you tomorrow," recalls Ted Giannoulas, a student in the class that fated day. "No audition, no interview, not even an application. " Despite the humble circumstances, sports archeologists now point to that March afternoon as the end of the dark days BC (before Chicken, as Giannoulas likes to call it) and the dawn of the modern mascot era.
KGB's original plan was simply to have Giannoulas wear the suit for one week - passing out candy eggs to children at the San Diego Zoo in an Easter promotion - but Giannoulas possessed the type of vision that separates The Chicken from the chicks.
A diehard baseball fan, Giannoulas reasoned that the furry get-up just might be his ticket to a free pass for San Diego Padres games.
"I called the Padres, and they said they would give me a ticket if I gave them a plug on the radio," Giannoulas said. "Then at the game, I just started cavorting in the grandstand. The rest became Chicken history. "
That "cavorting" was just the start of the phenomenon that is The Famous San Diego Chicken, who has since brought his unique blend of sporting tomfoolery to all 50 states and nine foreign countries for some 200 events a year. Giannoulas estimates that he's entertained some 65 million people, a figure he believes has been topped only by Bob Hope and the Rolling Stones, but which is unquestionably a record for a man dressed as a flightless fowl.

Tonight, The Chicken will make his first appearance in Lafayette, spreading his wings at the Texas-Louisiana League game between the Lubbock Crickets and the Alexandria Aces.
"This is my first time in Lafayette, and I'm really looking forward to it," Giannoulas said. "I hear it's a tremendous sports town, and I know how well they've received the hockey and soccer teams. "
And this Chicken is not afraid to say, without reservation, that Lafayette will embrace his act with open wings.
"This will be the funniest night of the year for Lafayette sports fans," Giannoulas said. "They have never seen a show like I will put on. Every inning that I am out there they will burst out laughing. I guarantee that it will be the best sports night in Lafayette this year. " Alexandria General Manager Craig Brasfield is certainly a believer in The Chicken's allure. Counting tonight, Giannoulas will have performed six times for the Aces in four years.
"The Chicken by far is our No. 1 promotion," Brasfield said. "We average about 1,800 fans a night, but there's never been less than 3,000 for The Chicken. He is a big leaugue performer. He entertains the crowd throughout the game. "
Giannoulas will primarily stick to his tried-and-true routines. He will coach first base for Alexandria for one inning. He will bring out a group of toddlers dressed as chicks- the chicken babies- who will follow him around and mimic his every move, even when he lifts his leg and pretends to "water" the umpire or visiting manager.
Umpires draw much of The Chicken's ire. After a questionable call, The Chicken might whip out an oversized eye chart or a can of air freshener. He enjoys jawing with the umpires between innings, gesticulating wildly in the hopes of being ejected by the man in blue.
Brasfield, in fact, first met The Chicken when the General Manager was working as an umpire in the Northwest League in 1984.
"He'd walk up to you and whisper," 'When I push you, you run me,' "Brasfield said. "So he'd start arguing, and when you'd eject him, all hell would break loose. The crowd would go crazy. "
And Giannoulas just may be the hardest working mascot in sports.

"He's always the last one to leave the stadium," Brasfield said. "He signs and signs until every single fan who wants an autograph has one. "
Through it all, The Chicken has managed to entertain without insulting or demeaning the game, an important part of his lasting appeal.
"I've had real baseball purists come up to me and say,'I detest mascots, but you, sir, are something special. ' "Giannoulas said, citing the likes of Billy Martin, long-time executive Buzzy Bavasi, hit king Pete Rose, pitcher Don Sutton, and Braves announcer Skip Caray.
Only one baseball figure, in fact, was a well-known Chicken-basher- recent Hall-of-Fame Inductee Tommy Lasorda, the former manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Lasorda, famed for his invocation of the "Great Dodger in the Sky" and his claim that he bled Dodger blue, once vehemently objected to what Giannoulas called his "sombrero dance," in which The Chicken sashayed around a Dodgers hat.
"He got upset that, by mistake, I stepped on a Dodgers hat-26 times," Giannoulas chortled. " He went crazy because I had desecrated the Dodgers' logo! I thought he was going to have a seizure on the field. He was beet-red and screaming, and the crowd was laughing like crazy.
"I have a lot of respect for Tommy, and he was a great manager.
But he was a little overzealous about the Dodger logo. " But with his former tormentor enshrined in Cooperstown, however, Giannoulas has started to give more thought to his spot in beseball history. "They have a wing for writers and broadcasters, and a wing for umpires," Giannoulas said. "Maybe one day they'll have a Chicken wing. "
Until then , though, Giannoulas will continue to do what he loves best - dress up like a chicken and prance around at a ballgame. "Nothing tickles me more than being out there with a crowd that's never seen me before, and wowing them with hysterical laughter," Giannoulas said. "That's why I do this. There's nothing more joyous than the sound of thousands of people laughing. I'm lucky enough to hear that every night. "