It’s been 50 years. To those of us of a certain age, it doesn’t seem possible.
On Sunday, May 19, 1974 the Flyers scored a 1-0 win over the Boston Bruins at the Spectrum to win their Stanley Cup Finals series four games to two.
Those not among the 17,007 packed into the building watched on NBC-TV or listened on radio,
The following day, an estimated two million fans out for a parade, one of the largest gatherings of humankind in Philadelphia’s history.
The occasion was the defining moment in Philadelphia’s hockey history and proved to be the jumping off point for the growth of the sport in the region.
What hockey has become in this part of the planet in the years since, from preteens through the high-school and club levels, to adult levels, is due in part to what that Flyers team accomplished.
The Flyers’ roster that season included future Hockey Hall of Famers Bill Barber, Bobby Clarke, and Bernie Parent plus a Hall of Fame coach Fred Shero and a Hall of Fame general manger in Keith Allen (Bill Clement, who was also on the roster, was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame as a broadcaster).
Clarke led the team in scoring with 35 goals during the regular season and 52 assists for 87 points. He added five goals and 11 assist in the playoffs. Rick MacLeish, who scored the only goal in the Cup-clinching game provided 32 regular-season goals plus 45 assists for 77 points in the regular season, plus 13 postseason goals and nine assists.
Barber added 34 goals and 35 assists for 69 points in the regular season plus three goals and six assists in the playoffs.
Parent played in 73 regular-season games and compiled a league-best 1.89 goals-against average. In 17 postseason games he put together a GAA of 1.84 with two shutouts. Parent shared the Vezina Trophy that year and won the Conn Smythe Award as the most valuable player in the playoffs.
And the Flyers’ moniker, The Broad Street Bullies was not undeserved. They accumulated 1,740 minutes in penalties during the 78-game regular season. Dave Shultz accounted for 348 of those minutes, which led the league in that category, but he also scored 20 goals that year.
Andre ‘Moose’ Dupont, who assisted on the Cup-winning goal, was fourth in the league with 216 minutes.
But it should be remembered that the Flyers were underdogs going into the finals. They were still considered an expansion team, in just their seventh year of existence and while they finished first in the West Division that year, that division, with one exception, included teams that like the Flyers, had come into existence in 1967-68 or later (there were 14 teams in the NHL that year.
The Bruins led the East Division which included five of the Original Six teams and were considered heavy favorites. Their roster included the like of Phil Esposito and Bobby Orr.
The Bruins enjoyed home-ice advantage but when Clarke scored an overtime goal in the Boston Garden to win Game Two and square the series, it changed the complexion of event. The Flyers took Games Three and Four at the Spectrum, then dropped Game Five in Boston before returning home for what turned out to win the final game.
Ever since then, the members of that Flyers team and the 1975 team that won a second consecutive Stanley Cup, have been celebrated heroes. Some settled in the Philadelphia area and raised families.
Today’s generation of hockey players and fans owes them a debt of gratitude.
So, where did 50 years go?
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