John Sullivan, an Oreland native who played the Phillies’ first mascot (“Philadelphia Phil”) from 1973 to 1978, was featured by The Philadelphia Inquirer this week for maintaining a 50-year friendship with Nancy D’Egidio, who played “Philadelphia Phillis” for three years in the 1970s.

Sullivan, 69, is the godfather of D’Egidio’s son, and D’Egidio, 72, and “is at almost every Sullivan family function: birthday parties, christenings, weddings.”

“He was my closest friend,” D’Egidio told The Inquirer. “I mean, I guess he still is. He’s still my best friend.”

You can get a glimpse of the oversized adolescent twins dressed in Revolutionary War-era clothing on July 5, 1976 against the Los Angeles Dodgers:

According to The Inquirer, Sullivan’s father was the Phillies’ director of promotions and his cousin, Tom Dickinson, was the first-ever Philadelphia Phil. Sullivan began working for the Phillies at 13 and began playing “Phil” when he was 16.

In 1980, Sullivan became a police dispatcher in Springfield Township. He was hired as a sworn police officer in Upper Dublin Township shortly after, a position he held for 35 years “working primarily as a communications officer in charge, overseeing information systems, and automating data sharing between law enforcement agencies,” The Inquirer said.

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