by vulcanjedi

Created on: May 06, 2008

It was June 1973, our annual Father Son breakfast at the church. The guest speaker was a man by the name of Fred Shero. He said he was the coach of Philadelphia's hockey team, The Flyers. He called them the Broad Street Bullies. I didn't know who the Flyers were but I knew where Broad Street was. My grandfather was the superintendent of the Broad and Locust building. I wish I could say I remember his great inspirational speech but I was 11 years old and not paying attention. I do remember him repeating the word "Teamwork" several times. As we were leaving the breakfast Mr. Shero was signing autographs on Flyers bumper stickers. As my cousin and I got one he told us to watch his boys play. What he didn't tell us was hockey season was over and wouldn't start again till the fall. When I got home I asked my mom if I could put the bumper sticker on my wall and she said no of course. She said anywhere except the walls so I stuck it right on the middle of my air conditioner. Summer vacation was the following week and the only thing on my 6th grade mind.

At some point in late 1973 the Flyers were back on my mind. They had started their season and were making the news. Sure enough there was that guy, Fred Shero, on the news. The Flyers were winning most of their games. All of a sudden we were paying attention to one of our local sports teams. And more and more of us were starting to play hockey, getting sticks and pucks and other hockey stuff for Christmas. My uncle made a goalie net out of pipes and my cousin found out the foam company around the corner from him sold pads for $5 that could be used for goalies. By the time Easter came around in 1974 we were looking forward to two things. Playing hockey and watching the Flyers in the playoffs.

One of the games was on during mass and I seem to recall my cousin trying to sneak his AM radio and earplug in with him until his mother found it. Those old earphones were loud. The only other games I recall were the finals. Watching the Flyers lose the first game then win the second in overtime. And then Bernie Parent's shutout in game 6 to bring the cup home to Philly. People were outside hooting and hollering and it seemed everybody in the neighborhood had been watching the game. And then it was all over the news that the entire city had been watching the game because everywhere the news crew showed there were people in the streets partying.

We found out there was going to be an official parade downtown that week. The flyers were

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