What started as a $2-per-hour job that was intended to last one week has hatched into a 35-year career and pop icon status for Ted Giannoulas, otherwise known as the San Diego Chicken.

Giannoulas will have free range of Phil Welch Stadium tonight when the St. Joseph Mustangs take on Chillicothe in their MINK League home opener. That’s many miles and many years since, as a college student, he took the temporary assignment to hand out Easter candy for a San Diego radio station.

To find out exactly what shakes the Chicken’s tail feathers, we took a few minutes for a question-and-answer session with the legendary mascot:

Q. How did the whole Chicken schtik get started?

A. It was a hare-brained scheme hatched by a local radio station back in spring of 1974. It was a promotional gimmick. They desired to get a chicken suit and hire somebody to wear it. No one at the radio station wanted to wear it. It was beneath their dignity. So they sent a representative to campus at San Diego State. The gentleman walks in, unannounced. He looks at us and said, “You’re the shortest; I think you’ll fit in the suit.” The whole process took less than 60 seconds.

Q. When you first answered that call back in 1974, did you have any idea you’d still be clucking 35 years later?

A. I was just hoping to hang around for a second week at the time. I just saw it as an opportunity to get my foot in the door at a real radio station. I wasn’t looking to be a full-time chicken. I was just looking to show my work ethic.

Q. What would be the accomplishment of your career you would most like to crow about?

A. I’ve been invited to the White House, met about four presidents. I’ve also been to eight countries around the world by invitation. I’ve been to the NBA finals, All-Star games, World Series. But the defining moment for me was my Grand Hatching, in June of 1979 (at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego), five years after I’d been fired by the radio station. I had a whole town rallying behind me. They sold out — 49,000 seats — and the Padres were in last place at the time. This was before sellouts became commonplace. Baseball historians have called it possibly single greatest sports promotion ever conceived. (To see a video of the Grand Hatching, click on http://www.sandiegochicken.com/asseenontv.html)

Q. Don’t you nearly fry in that suit with all those feathers?

A. I’m always in heat. It gets so hot my eggs are hard-boiled. But’s second nature to me. It’s good sweat therapy, like being in a sauna. I just drink lots of water.

Q. You used to do 250 dates or more a year, but you’ve cut that down to about 75 or so in recent years. Still, what does your favorite hen (wife Jane Giannoulas) think about your being away from the roost so much?

A. She likes it that I’m away a lot less now. Soon I’ll have been performing in five different decades. I’m the Minnie Minoso of mascots.

Q. I’m sure you don’t want to lay an egg with your performance in St. Joseph. What can the fans in St. Joseph expect from you?

A. The St. Joe/Kansas City area fans are as great of fans as there are in the country. They love to laugh in this area. I’ll guarantee the fans the funniest night of the year.