Sam Sianis, legendary owner of the Billy Goat Tavern, died Friday from natural causes at Endeavor Health Swedish Hospital. He was 91.
“My dad was always a person who lit up the room when he walked in, always in a good mood,” said Mr. Sianis’ son Bill Sianis, who, along with his brother Paul Sianis, has operated the family tavern since their father mostly retired about a decade ago.
“I think he became a part of Chicago because of how he was, a hard working person but also with a big heart,” Bill Sianis said.
Mr. Sianis opened the Billy Goat Tavern on Lower Michigan Avenue in 1964, three decades after his Uncle William “Billy Goat” Sianis opened its predecessor on West Madison Street.
It was at this subterranean location on Lower Michigan that Mr. Sianis became famous for telling customers in his thick Greek accent: “Cheezborger, cheezborger, cheezborger. Cheeps, no fries, Coke, no Pepsi,” thanks to a 1978 Saturday Night Live skit that mimicked him.
Mr. Sianis became an icon who could be found behind the bar or at the grill, often taking pictures with customers.
Mr. Sianis’ uncle, William Sianis, was behind the legendary “Curse of the Billy Goat” that some believed plagued the Cubs for decades.
A goat had been William Sianis’ mascot since he found one outside his original bar — then named the Lincoln Tavern. It apparently had fallen off a truck and was injured. He took it in and cared for the animal.
His customers got a kick out of it. So William Sianis, who lived above the bar — at the time at 1855 W. Madison St., where the United Center now stands — decided he’d keep at least one goat in a little pen behind the building.
Not long after, he renamed the joint “Billy Goat Inn.”
William Sianis brought his billy goat named Murphy to Wrigley Field for Game 4 of the 1945 World Series, Cubs vs. Tigers, with the Cubs leading the series two games to one.
He and the goat were kicked out, legend has it, when the animal began to stink during a rain delay.
According to legend William Sianis threw up his arms and exclaimed, “The Cubs ain’t gonna win no more. The Cubs will never win a World Series so long as the goat is not allowed in Wrigley Field.”
William Sianis died in 1970. His nephew, Sam Sianis, who just passed away Friday, was a Cubs fan who continued the legacy of his uncle’s curse.
Weeks before the Cubs won the 2016 World Series, the Sianis family held a “Reverse the Curse” ceremony on Oct. 6 — the 71st anniversary of the goat getting booted from Wrigley Field.
To “awaken the spirits,” the family hung the same trokani — a Greek goat bell — that the original Murphy had worn around its neck to Wrigley around the neck of a new goat.
Mr. Sianis, who lived in Park Ridge, previously had tried to break his uncle’s curse multiple times, including in 1984 when he brought a goat onto Wrigley Field on opening day.
Mr. Sianis came to the United States from Greece in 1955, first staying with family in San Francisco before moving to Chicago in 1960 to work at his uncle’s tavern.
There are now a total of seven Billy Goat locations in Chicago.
The Billy Goat’s location on Lower Michigan near the former offices of the Sun-Times and Chicago Tribune made it a favorite watering spot for reporters and columnists.
Columnist Mike Royko was a regular and became close with Sam Sianis.
“He felt like they were brothers,” said Mr. Sianis’s son.
Mr. Sianis is survived by his wife, Irene, his sons Bill Sianis, Tom Sianis, Paul Sianis and Ted Sianis, his daughters Patty Sianis and Jenny Constantinou and 12 grandchildren.
Services are pending.