ARMOUR SQUARE — Who’s that guy in the yellow M&Ms jacket?
A fixture at U.S. Cellular Field, the M&M guy is often seen sitting behind the plate at White Sox home games, watching his beloved South Side sluggers play ball, always wearing the yellow jacket.
His name is George Jacobs, the 67-year-old owner of Windy City Limousine and an avid bridge player. He believes it’s his duty to wear the yellow M&Ms jacket to all Chicago sporting events.
“I felt like I was in my team uniform, and if I didn’t wear it, it would somehow be disrespectful to the team,” Jacobs said in an interview. “I realize that’s loony, but people count on me to wear it.”
The story of the yellow M&Ms jacket began in 2003, when Jacobs’ wife, Stacy, bought him a fantasy package at Joliet’s Chicagoland Speedway, where he would get to drive a race car around the track.
The present came with the NASCAR jacket made famous by champion driver Kyle Busch.
Later that year, Jacobs wore the jacket to a legendary Cubs playoff game.
“It turned out to be the Bartman game,” said Jacobs, who grew up in Rogers Park and roots for the Cubs when they’re doing well.
Two weeks later and 90 miles away from Wrigley Field in Lake Geneva, somebody recognized Jacobs and his jacket from that devastating game.
“They remembered the jacket,” Jacobs said.
In 2005, the M&M guy legend took off.
That’s when the White Sox built the coveted “scout seats” behind home plate. By a wild stroke of luck, Jacobs landed tickets for some of the best seats in the house.
Jacobs started wearing the jacket to all Chicago sporting events, no matter what the weather brought. Even in the sweltering heat, Jacobs wears the jacket.
The white-haired spectator soon had a new nickname: “The M&M Guy.”
Blogs wrote about him, both celebrating and ridiculing him. CBS named him one of Chicago’s 20 “douchiest” sports fans. A South Side newspaper put him on the front page.
Today, if Jacobs doesn’t show up to a game, people notice.
The M&M Guy went to every game of the White Sox 2005 World Series run, and when the Sox clinched the series in Houston, President George Bush Sr. walked up to him and his wife and congratulated Jacobs like he was a team owner.
He once got so close to the action on the field that he spoiled an easy pop-up foul for then Tampa Bay Rays catcher Dioner Navarro.
Jacobs recalls the Sox announcers joking it was the “play of the game.”
Though the dropped ball caused him some grief, the incident forever cemented the M&M guy a ballpark celebrity.
Jacobs, who has two daughters and a Maltese named Lola, now owns four yellow M&Ms jackets.
“I don’t do anything,” Jacobs said. “I just come to the games, sit in great seats and wear my yellow jacket.”
First published on dna info