Apple podcast title the Broad Street Bullies
a deep dive into Philadelphia Flyers history
and NHL records Apple podcast description Unpack
the wild, gritty, and historic legacy of the
Philadelphia Flyers in this custom deep dive.
From their origins as a 1967 NHL expansion team
to becoming the feared back -to -back Stanley
Cup champions, we explore the legendary Broad
Street Bullies era, the unmatched 35 -game undefeated
streak, and the unforgettable showdown against
the Soviet Red Army. Discover fascinating NHL
trivia, the story behind the iconic Kate Smith
God Bless America tradition, the dominance of
Eric Lindros and the Legion of Doom, and the
birth of Gritty. Whether you are a hardcore hockey
fan or just someone who loves a larger -than
-life narrative, this deep dive extracts the
ultimate insights from Flyers lore. Imagine for
a second that you are tasked with creating a
brand -new professional sports franchise from
absolutely nothing. Right, a totally blank slate.
Exactly. You have no players, you have no arena,
no history, and absolutely no fan base. Just
an idea, really. Yeah. Now, imagine that within
less than a decade, that team you created out
of thin air doesn't just, you know, win championships.
They completely changed the physical and psychological
landscape of the entire sport. They broke the
mold entirely. They did. You don't just play
the game. You break it. You reinvent it and you
terrify your opponents in the process. So welcome
to today's deep dive. We are exploring the complex,
fiercely unapologetic history. It is an incredible
thought experiment. And as we go through the
source material today, which covers... decades
of this franchise's history, we are not just
looking at a list of hockey statistics. No, definitely
not. This is fundamentally a masterclass in brand
building, in psychological warfare, and really
resilience. It's a case study in what happens
when an organization decides exactly who they're
going to be and then commits to that identity
with absolute ferocity, even when the rest of
the league absolutely despises them for it. OK,
let's unpack this, because to understand how
they built that feared reputation, we actually
have to start. in a completely different city
with a totally different team. And a totally
different sport. Yes. The year is 1964. Ed Snyder,
who was the vice president of the Philadelphia
Eagles football team at the time, happens to
be at a basketball game. Up at the Boston Garden.
Right. And while he's there, he notices something
highly unusual. There is this massive wrapping
around the block line of Boston Bruins fans waiting
in the cold to buy tickets. For hockey? For hockey.
And here's the detail that catches his eye. The
Bruins were a last place hockey team at the time.
They were terrible. They were historically bad,
yet their fans were still lining up in droves.
What's fascinating here is how that moment reveals
Snyder's sharp business acumen. He didn't just
see a crowd of disappointed sports fans. He saw
a deeply loyal, completely untapped market. Yeah.
He recognized the baseline passion that hockey
inspires completely, regardless of a team's win
-loss record. And at the exact same time, the
NHL was quietly looking to expand beyond its
original six teams. They were feeling the pressure,
right? Right. Absolutely. The league was terrified
of a competing hockey organization taking hold
on the West Coast, and they desperately needed
to secure a new lucrative television contract
in the United States. So Snyder puts the pieces
together. He does. He sees the fan passion in
Boston, recognizes the league's vulnerability,
and immediately begins making plans for a brand
new arena in Philadelphia. He pitched an ownership
group to the NHL, and they successfully beat
out a competing group from Baltimore for the
franchise. So they secured the team in 1966,
but they still need an identity. The fun part.
Right. They announced this massive name the team
contest. Ballots are distributed at local Acme
markets, grocery stores all across the region.
Very grassroots. Extremely. And they get over
11 ,000 entries. Fans are suggesting names like
the Bashers, the Blizzards, the Bruisers. Very
aggressive names right from the start. Which
is funny considering what they become. But the
top brass essentially bypassed all that grassroots
effort anyway. Ed Snyder's sister, Phyllis, was
traveling back from a Broadway play and she casually
suggested the name Flyers. Just like that. Just
like that. Ed knew instantly that was it. It
sounded fast. It had a great phonetic ring with
Philadelphia. But to honor the contest, they
randomly drew a winner from the folks who had
submitted that specific name. And who was it?
It was a nine -year -old boy named Alex Stockard.
And he had actually spelled it F -L -I -E -R
-S on his ballot. Oh, that's great. Yeah, but
they gave it to him anyway. And he won an RCA
color TV, which, you know, for a kid in 1966.
It was a massive prize, a huge deal. But a name
is just a word until you attach a visual identity
to it. They hired an advertising firm and an
artist named Sam Saccone designed the logo we
still see today. The flying pea. Exactly. It's
an iconic piece of sports branding. A flanted
pea with four stylized wings attached to it and
a burnt orange dot in the center representing
a puck. The entire design, the aggressive slant,
the wings, it was meant to visually represent
pure speed. And then there are the colors, burnt
orange, black and white. Very distinct. You see
that specific shade of orange today and you immediately
think of the Flyers. But the inspiration was
surprisingly disconnected from a winning tradition.
How so? Well, one of the co -founders, Bill Putnam.
wanted hot colors, and pulled the orange from
his alma mater, the University of Texas. But
it was also a direct nod to the old Philadelphia
Quakers, which was a historically terrible NHL
team from the 1930s that wore orange and black.
Interesting. The Quakers set the all -time NHL
record for futility. They won only four games
in an entire season. It's a fascinating psychological
choice, isn't it? They took the visual aesthetic
of a colossal local failure and attached... it
to a logo built for speed. Like they were reclaiming
it. Precisely. It was about reclaiming the city's
flawed hockey history and rebranding it. And
in their early years, in the late 60s, they were
a perfectly fine, albeit unremarkable expansion
team. They weren't terrible, but they weren't
turning heads. Right. They had some skilled players,
but they certainly weren't dominant. The true
catalyst for the franchise, the moment the Flyers
truly forged their modern identity, happened
after the 1968 -1969 season. The playoffs against
the Blues. Yes. They made the playoffs and faced
the St. Louis Blues. And the Blues didn't just
beat Philadelphia. They systematically and physically
battered them. They bullied the Flyers right
off the ice in a humiliating four -game sweep.
Imagine being Ed Snyder. You're watching this
massive investment you've built from the ground
up just get entirely manhandled on national television.
It had to sting. So he issues a mandate to his
general manager right then and there. He basically
said, we are never ever getting physically outmatched
again. Go get me bigger, tougher players. And
that single mandate changed hockey history. It
ushered in one of the most feared eras in the
history of professional sports. They drafted
a cast of characters who completely changed the
game. First, you have Bobby Clark, a 19 -year
-old diabetic from Manitoba. Other teams actually
passed on him because they were worried about
his health. Which is wild in hindsight. Totally
wild. The Flyers took a chance, and he became
the absolute heartbeat of the franchise. He eventually
became the youngest captain in NHL history at
the time. So Clark provided the immense skill
and the relentless work ethic. But Snyder's mandate
also brought in the pure muscle. They drafted
Dave Schultz. an enforcer who would go on to
set a single -season NHL record for penalty minutes.
And this is a record that is hard to even comprehend
today. It really is. To give you some context
on how staggering this is, a typical NHL game
today might see a highly penalized player sit
in the box for maybe 15 to 20 minutes over an
entire season if they get into a few fights.
Over a whole season. Yes. Dave Schultz racked
up 472 penalty minutes in the 1974 -75 season
alone. That is absurd. 472. It's a record that
still stands today. Yeah. And given how the sport
has evolved regarding safety, it will likely
never be broken. By 1973, that mediocre expansion
team label was entirely gone. Jack Chevalier,
a writer for the Philadelphia Bulletin. watched
them brawl their way to a 3 -1 victory over the
Atlanta Flames. And he wrote an article that
coined their legendary moniker. The Bullies.
Yes. He wrote, quote, And just like that, the
Broad Street Bullies were officially born. It
stuck immediately. It was the perfect nickname.
But I think it also overshadowed a critical point.
What often gets lost in the mythology of the
Bullies is that they were incredibly undeniably
skilled. You have to be to win. Exactly. You
don't win back -to -back Stanley Cups in 1974,
1975 just by throwing punches. They had Bernie
Parent in goal, who was phenomenal. He won the
Vizina Trophy as the league's top goaltender
and the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoff MVP
in both championship years. The strategy behind
the physical intimidation was highly calculated.
It created open space on the ice for their immense
talent to actually execute plays without being
contested. Because everyone was terrified of
getting hit. Precisely. And they had a fascinating
psychological weapon off the ice, too. In 1969,
the team's promotion director started playing
a recording of Kate Smith singing God Bless America
instead of the traditional Star Spangled Banner
before important games. This is such a unique
piece of sports history. It really is. Initially,
this was just a crowd control tactic. They were
trying to help calm the arena and defray political
tensions during the Vietnam War because fans
would actually stand still and sing along to
Kate Smith. It brought the temperature of the
building down. Exactly. Our sources note it was
a practical... move that just happened to work.
But it quickly evolved from a crowd control tactic
into a full blown organizational superstition.
Because they kept winning. Right. The team simply
started winning whenever they played it. By the
end of the 2016 -2017 season, the Flyers had
a staggering, almost statistically impossible
record of 100 wins, 29 losses, and five ties
when God Bless America was sung before home games.
That is wild. Kate Smith even performed it live
in person before game steps of the 1974 Stanley
Cup final against Boston. She was out there...
miming a knockout punch to the energized crowd,
and they won the cup that very day. You can't
write a better script. You really can't. But
here's where it gets really interesting. That
intimidating reputation eventually spilled over
international borders. The Red Army game. The
Red Army game. In 1976, the Flyers played an
exhibition game against the Soviet Union's Central
Red Army team. Now, according to the source material,
the Soviets were essentially a hockey machine.
They were. They were crisp. precise, totally
dominant on the world stage. They were accustomed
to simply outskating everyone they played. But
the Flyers decided to play their brand of hockey.
Midway through the first period, Flyers defenseman
Ed Van Impe lays a massive, punishing hit. on
the Soviet star, Valery Karlymov. Just levels
him. Levels him. Put yourself in the skates of
those Soviet players for a second. You've trained
your whole life for precision, and suddenly you
are facing a team that turns the ice into an
absolute war zone. They didn't know how to process
it. They didn't. They were so shocked, they literally
skated off the ice in protest. They quit. They
completely refused to play against that level
of aggression. They only returned to the ice
after being warned by NHL officials that they
wouldn't get paid for their entire international
tour if they didn't finish the game. Money talks.
It does. And the Flyers ended up winning 4 -1.
They became the only NHL team to defeat the Red
Army outright during that series. And the quote
from the Flyers' head coach, Fred Shiro, after
the game, captures their identity perfectly.
What did he say? He said, yes, we are world champions.
If they had won, they would have been world champions.
We beat the hell out of a machine. We beat the
hell out of a machine. That cemented their home
arena, the Spectrum, as the most terrifying building
for visiting teams to play in. Undeniably. But
as the league modernized its rules over the years
to combat that extreme physical style, the Flyers
had to innovate. Think about the sheer physical
and mental stamina required to simply endure
an 80 -game NHL season. It's a grind. It is a
massive grind. Yet during the 1979 -1980 season,
the Flyers went undefeated for 35 straight games.
That's 25 wins, 0 losses, and 10 ties. A North
American professional sports record that 40 -plus
years later, miraculously, still stands today.
Maintaining peak focus and performance over 35
consecutive games. is a psychological anomaly.
It requires an entire locker room to refuse complacency
night after night after night. Yeah. But the
1980s also brought a profound shift for the franchise.
It was marked by deep tragedy that really tested
that locker room's resilience. A really tough
era. It was. They had transitioned into a new
era, led largely by their brilliant Swedish goaltender,
Pelle Lindberg. He had just won the Vizina trophy
and led them to the absolute pinnacle of the
league. But in November of 1985, Lindbergh was
tragically killed in a car accident. Such a devastating
blow. It brought a soaring franchise to an abrupt...
Heartbreaking halt. The team had to show immense
emotional perseverance just to keep going after
losing their star and, frankly, their friend.
And a couple years later, the goaltending mantle
is taken up by a fiery rookie who brought that
old Broad Street intimidation right back to the
crease. Ron Hexdahl. Ron Hexdahl. He was unbelievably
competitive. In his rookie year, he leads them
all the way to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final
against Wayne Gretzky's Edmonton Oilers. The
Dynasty Oilers. Right. lose the series. But Hextall's
performance was so dominant that he won the consmith
trophy for playoff MVP anyway. He became one
of the very rare players to ever win it as a
member of the losing team. Hextall was a revolutionary
player. He refused to stay in the crease. Before
him, goalies were mostly passive participants
when it came to handling the puck. They just
stopped it. Yeah, they stayed put. Hextall acted
almost like a third defenseman. He was aggressively
clearing the puck. And his puck handling ability
led to something completely unprecedented. Goal.
The goal. In December of 1987 against the Boston
Bruins, he fired the puck the entire length of
the ice into an empty net. Incredible. He became
the first NHL goaltender to ever score a goal.
And he later repeated the feat, becoming the
first goalie to score in the playoffs, too. As
we move into the 1990s, the Flyers pull off a
move that literally alters the landscape of the
entire NHL. The 1992 trade for Eric Lindros.
Massive turning point. Massive. Lindros was a
highly touted generational prospect who absolutely
refused to play for the Quebec Nordiques, which
was the team that drafted him. The Flyers decided
they had to have him no matter the cost. And
the cost was astronomical. To acquire the rights
to Lindros, the Flyers traded away six players,
plus two first round draft picks and $15 million
in cash. Wait, hold on. Let's look at the pieces
they gave up. One of those six players was Peter
Forsberg. Right. Who goes on to become a Hall
of Famer and wins multiple Stanley Cups with
the Colorado Avalanche, which is the team that
Quebec eventually became. Considering the Avalanche
built a literal dynasty off those traded players,
doesn't that make this trade a massive historic
failure for Philadelphia? That is a highly debated
point among sports historians. And it's a great
friction point in the source material. Objectively,
yes, Colorado won the championships. But from
a brand and market dominance perspective in the
1990s, Lindros was precisely what Philadelphia
needed. They needed a superstar. They did. And
they built a forward line around him that was
so dominant, so massive, and so physically punishing,
he was dubbed the Legion of Doom. What a name.
It consisted of Eric Lindros, John LeClaire,
and Michael Renberg. Over their time together,
those three players scored a combined 666 points.
Six. You cannot write a more intimidating script
than that. They didn't win a cup, but they brought
the Flyers back to the Stanley Cup final in 1997.
And they completely revitalize the franchise's
fearsome identity for a new generation. That
grit. That refusal to quietly fade away, it seems
permanently embedded in the team's DNA. Just
imagine you're watching your favorite team during
the 2010 playoffs. The Boston series. Yes. You're
in the second round playing the Bruins. You go
down 3 -0 in the series. In hockey, coming back
from a 3 -0 series deficit is almost statistically
impossible. It never happened. But the Flyers
win Game 4. They grind out a win in Game 5. They
win Game 6. They force a Game 7 in Boston. And
what happens? They immediately fall. behind 3
-0 in the first period of Game 7. That is crushing.
If we connect this to the bigger picture, most
professional rosters would simply fold right
there. The psychological weight of fighting back
for three exhausting games, only to get crushed
in the opening minutes of the deciding game.
It's too much. Yeah. But the Flyers pulled off
the biggest comeback in franchise and league
history. They rallied from that 3 -0 deficit
in the game to win it 4 -3 on a late goal by
Simon Gagne. Just an unbelievable display of
locker room culture. They became only the third
team in the long history of the NHL to win a
series after trailing three games to none. And
they rode that momentum all the way to the Stanley
Cup final. Resilience is in their blood. It really
is. Now, looking through all these notes from
our sources, there is so much wild history with
this team that we have to do a quick deep dive
trivia round. Let's do it. Let's start with the
logistics of the infamous 1975 Fog Game. Oh,
the Fog Game. This happened during the Stanley
Cup final against the Buffalo Sabres. There was
an unusual May heat waves, and the Buffalo Arena
did not have an air conditioning system. The
massive temperature difference between the humid
air in the building and the ice caused the rink
to literally fill with a thick, heavy fog. You
literally couldn't see. Players couldn't see
the puck. They could barely see the players next
to them. The referees had to keep pausing the
game to have players skate in large circles just
to wave the fog away. so the goalies could see.
That sounds like an absolute logistical nightmare.
It was chaos. Okay, next up. March 5th, 2004,
against the Ottawa Senators. We talked earlier
about Dave Schultz's penalty minutes. In this
single game, the Flyers and Senators set an NHL
record for most combined penalty minutes. It's
a brawl. To put this into perspective, a normal
game might see 15 to 20 penalty minutes total
between both teams. In this game, they racked
up 419 penalty minutes. 419. It was the physical
manifestation of boiling tensions. The two teams
had a history of bad blood leading up to that
night. And with under two minutes left in the
game, a massive brawl broke out. Just a free
-for -all. But it wasn't just one fight. It was
a systematic line brawl. As soon as one group
of players was ejected and the next line stepped
onto the ice, they instantly dropped their gloves
and started fighting again. Even the goalies,
right? Even the goaltenders skated to the center
of the ice to fight. It was absolute pure chaos.
Pure Broad Street DNA. Okay, how about a fashion
disaster? The Cooperalls. Ah, the early 1980s.
The Flyers were one of only two NHL teams to
experiment with cooperols. Instead of the traditional
short hockey pants and high socks, cooperols
were long track pants that extended from the
waist all the way down to the ankles. They look
ridiculous. They really did. And they only wore
them for two seasons because the NHL literally
had to ban them for safety reasons. Wait, safety
reasons? Yes. The synthetic fabric was significantly
more frictionless than normal hockey gear. If
a player lost their balance and fell, They would
slide across the ice dangerously fast and crash
violently into the boards. Banned for being dangerously
slippery. That is incredible. You can't make
it up. You can't. And finally, we have to talk
about 2018. The debut of a true cultural phenomenon.
Gritty. Gritty. A seven -foot -tall, fuzzy, googly
-eyed orange creature introduced as the team's
new mascot. What's fascinating about Gritty is
the public relations arc here. When he was first
unveiled on social media, the Internet collectively
recoiled. People hated him. The initial reaction
was widespread backlash. People thought he was
terrifying and bizarre. But the Flyers marketing
team made a brilliant pivot. When a rival team's
account insulted Gritty on Twitter, Gritty's
account fired back with an unhinged aggressive
threat. They leaned in. They completely leaned
in. And within 48 hours, the city of Philadelphia
fiercely adopted him. The narrative shifted from
he's a nightmare to he's our nightmare. I love
that. It's a master class in leaning into your
weirdness. He is the aggressive, unapologetic
spirit of the Broad Street bullies perfectly
distilled into a mascot. So what does this all
mean for you? Why does diving into the history
of a hockey team matter to your daily life? I
think the Flyers history is a massive testament
to the power of a clearly defined identity. Absolutely.
Whether you are running a business, managing
a team or just navigating your own career, knowing
exactly who you are is half the battle. When
Ed Snyder realized his team was getting pushed
around in the late 60s, he didn't try to copy
the graceful skating styles of his competitors.
He doubled down on toughness. He did. He said,
we are going to be the toughest, meanest group
in the room. They leaned into it unapologetically,
even if it made them the villain to everyone
else. And that identity has sustained a global
brand for over half a century. It's a vital lesson.
The most successful entities don't just react
to their environment. They actively shape it.
The Flyers didn't adapt to the polite norms of
the NHL. They forced the NHL to adapt to them.
They dictated the terms of engagement on their
own terms. And that leaves us with one final
provocative thought to chew on today. We've talked
extensively about how the Broad Street Bullies
used extreme physical intimidation to dominate
their era. But with the modern NHL evolving into
a league that strictly prioritizes blinding speed,
advanced skill, and rigorous player safety rules
over brute strength, could a team like the 1970s
Flyers ever exist today? That's a great question.
Or has the era of true physical intimidation
in professional sports been permanently left
in the past? It's something to think about next
time you watch a game. Thank you so much for
joining us on this deep dive into the legendary
lore of the Philadelphia Flyers. Keep questioning,
keep unpacking the stories around you, and we
will catch you on the next deep dive.