May 2, 1988, was a night to remember for 50,402 Oriole fans sitting in the stands at old Memorial Stadium, as well as for shortstop Cal Ripken Jr.

It was “Fantastic Fan Night” when Morganna Roberts, “The Kissing Bandit,” wearing pink hot pants, a tight-fitting T-shirt and sporting a Niagara of Farrah Fawcett-esque blond hair, charged the field and bussed a startled Ripken as he was coming up to bat.

This was not the action of some frenzied fan overcome by Ripken’s good looks and athletic prowess, but another conquest by Morganna, who launched her career tagging professional athletes in 1970, when dared by friends, she propelled herself onto the field at the now-demolished Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati and landed a kiss on late Reds outfielder Pete Rose, after telling him how much she liked his hot dogs.

By the time she came to East 33rd Street that warm May evening, Morganna had compiled what she called her “baseball stats,” having kissed 21 major leaguers, including Fred Lynn, Steve Garvey, Steve Yeager, George Brett and Don Mattingly.

She didn’t confine her repertoire to just baseball players but also conquered such basketball players as Charles Barkley and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Morganna got her start when she was 13, after running away from a Catholic boarding school near Louisville, Kentucky, and hitching a ride to Baltimore.

With her measurements of 45-20-36, it wasn’t long before she found work as a stripper at the Flamingo Club on The Block, after passing herself off as an 18-year-old.

After several years in Baltimore, she took her act on the road.

As her fame grew, so did her measurements — by the time she kissed Ripken, she was 60-23-39.

“People ask me where I get my bras and I always tell them the same people who make my bras made the domes for stadiums,” she explained in an interview.

In 1985 when she took the field and kissed Houston Astros pitcher Nolan Ryan, the team dropped charges against her after the larger-than-life Texas lawyer Richard “Racehorse” Haynes said he would argue that his client fell over the rail chasing a foul ball.

“Gravity took its toll, she fell on the field, and the rest is history,” Haynes said.

Before the 1988 Ripken incident, Morganna had been arrested 14 times in connection with her on-field exploits, but this time Baltimore police arrested her and she spent eight hours at the Women’s Detention Center before being released.

She returned to Baltimore from her home in Columbus, Ohio, to face the music at Eastside District Court.

Prosecutors said they would not press charges if Morganna agreed to stay away from Memorial Stadium for a year.

Judge Charlotte Cooksey explained that if Morganna broke the deal, charges would be reinstated and she’d be fined $100.

“So, I’ll kiss the whole team next time, it will be worth it,” she told The Evening Sun, explaining that all she wanted to do was bring a little luck to the Orioles, which at the time were 1-23.

“After all, it was Fantastic Fan Night, am I right?” she said. “Well, I am a Fantastic Fan.”

After kissing the San Diego Chicken mascot in 2001, she told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, “He’s no chicken. He’s a rooster, believe me.”

Morganna announced on New Year’s Day 2000 that she was officially retiring as the Kissing Bandit.

“I had a great time,” she told the Seattle paper at the time. “All the fans were wonderful. All the players were wonderful. The road was wonderful. But I had just had enough.”

Now 77, Morganna, who no longer gives interviews, lives quietly with her husband, Bill Cottrell, an accountant, in Columbus.

Anyway, the night Morganna presented Ripken with a good-luck smooch, he hit a home run, and she did manage to bring the Orioles luck: The team beat the Texas Rangers, 9-4.

“What a show,” the late Oriole general manager Roland Hemond told The Evening Sun at the time. “This is one you’ll never forget.”

Got a news tips? Contact reporter Fred Rasmussen via email at frasmussen@baltsun.com.