The announcers in this NFC championship football game didn't know whether to focus on the players on the field or the bizarre incident in the stands, where a man in a burning snowman suit was wildly running through the crowd.
You can watch the video here.
According to Busted Coverage, the man in the snowman costume, Daniel Yoder, bumped into a hot chocolate vendor and doused himself in liquid sterno, igniting the fleece of his costume. The panicked Yoder ran through the crowd, causing panic and confusion until another spectator came to his rescue by snuffing out the flames with their jackets.
From the January 3, 1978 edition of The New York Times:
The victim, 24‐year‐old Daniel Yoder of Dallas, suffered second‐degree burns on his neck and legs and was saved by a Vietnam veteran, Clarence Walters of Dallas, who threw his fur coat over the costume. Yoder, who is listed in fair condition in Parkland. Hospital, rented the suit for a costume party and wore it to the game as a joke. The Sterno was being carried by stadium vendor who was selling hot chocolate.
"There's only one thing I regret and that's losing my coat," said Walters. "If only Tex Schramm [the Cowboys' president] would buy me a new 'coat with a nice, fur collar, that would make it a great Super Bowl New Yew' for me."
[via r/ObscureMedia]
