Book Excerpt: ‘Bullies’ explores never-before-told stories about Flyers’ rise

Excerpted from “Bullies,” a book written by Sam Carchidi and Jeff Hare that explores some never-before-told stories about the colorful Philadelphia Flyers teams that once dominated the NHL – and caused the league to rewrite its rulebook. The love affair between Philadelphia and the Broad Street Bullies is still going strong …. 50 years after their last Stanley Cup.

The excerpt, courtesy of Triumph Books:

By Sam Carchidi and Jeff Hare

As the decades have passed since the Philadelphia Flyers last won the Stanley Cup, the appreciation of their 1974 and 1975 championships has grown even greater—if that is possible. Back when the Flyers were captivating the city with their Cups, Philadelphia was in disarray and badly in need of some positive news.

Crime and inflation were high in Philly. Spirits were low. The sports teams were so bad that Philadelphia was known as the “City of Losers” before the Flyers shocked the NHL and won the franchise’s first Stanley Cup in 1974. They beat the favored Boston Bruins in the Finals, giving them the championship in just the franchise’s seventh year of existence.

With that as a backdrop, how did the Flyers—then known as the Broad Street Bullies because of their arena’s location and the aggressive way they played—accomplish such an unimaginable feat so quickly?

How did they come to be loved by so many people? How did they go from having 20 people at their introductory parade in 1967 to what was called “the mother of all parades” in 1974, when two million fans saluted them?

Well, the genesis of the story may be in the 1940s, when Ed Snider, who years later would become the Flyers’ owner, was a youngster in Washington, DC, and was victimized by anti-Semitic kids in his neighborhood.

After a while, Snider could not take any more. He turned into a tough kid of sorts. Snider decided he would never be pushed around again as he fought someone from the neighborhood.

About three decades later, he had that same attitude as he watched his Flyers get pushed around by the St. Louis Blues in back-to-back Stanley Cup playoff series losses. Never, he said, will that happen again, either.

Bottom line: The Broad Street Bullies’ birth has Snider’s fingerprints all over it.

Their rise captivated a city back then, and 50-some years later, the players from those teams are still deeply appreciated, still treated with reverence. They still don’t have to buy a drink if they walk into a bar. They are still recognized and respected when they bump into hockey fans in Philadelphia, Florida, and many places around North America. And beyond.

The Broad Street Bullies were known for their fists, but they were more than fighters. Much more. They received brilliant goaltending and had several high-quality players. They were also relentless. No NHL team outworked them. No team had players who understood their roles better than the Flyers.

Around the NHL, fans loathed them. That fueled the Bullies as they won consecutive Stanley Cups in 1974 and 1975. The road to their championships, however, was filled with potholes and heartbreak during their early years.

Snider’s Roots and the Bullies

Interestingly, those associated with Snider wonder if the true genesis of the Broad Street Bullies is connected to his childhood in Washington, DC, where he had his share of Jewish-hating enemies who tried to intimidate him.

Some of the neighborhood kids called him “Jew-boy,” and it infuriated him. Snider grew up during World War II and heard the stories about Jews being slaughtered in Europe. His parents owned a grocery store called Snider Market, and Eddie (as he was known at the time) worked there as a youngster, mopping the floors, setting up displays and the meat counter, unloading trucks, cutting meats, and cleaning the vegetable drawers. He took pride in everything he did.

Walking to and from school, he would get harassed by anti-semitic kids. They were neighborhood bullies who would throw his glasses to the ground and smash them. “Jew-boy, Jew-boy, don’t you cry, you’ll be a rabbi, by-and-by.” That was a chant he heard, according to Alan Bass in Ed Snider: The Last Sports Mogul.

Jay Snider, one of Ed’s sons, said his father had lengthy talks with him about that time period. “He was getting bullied,” Jay Snider, who served as the Flyers president from 1983 to 1994, said five decades after the team won its last Cup. “And he said one day he just made up his mind” to fight back.

Eddie “waited in some bushes” for the ringleader, Jay Snider said. “And when the kid walked by, he basically ambushed him and beat the crap out of him.” Snider became a tough guy. He became respected for standing up for himself. He developed a swagger and joined a group of friends who looked out for each other.

His family said he was also enamored by tales of his Uncle Sam, who told Eddie that when he was younger, he would deliberately walk through anti-Semitic neighborhoods and display a huge Star of David, goading the people to fight him.

Eddie applauded his uncle’s chutzpah. So, when Snider years later proclaimed, “We will never be pushed around again” after the Blues physically manhandled the Flyers in the 1969 Stanley Cup playoffs, he was speaking from personal experience.

“Ed was a street fighter,” said Lou Scheinfeld, a one-time Flyers executive and Snider’s drinking buddy for many years. “Ed would fight you. I mean, I pulled him back from getting into fights in restaurants when somebody said something to him or bumped into him. I stopped him from going over the glass after a referee.”

Keith Allen, the Flyers Hall of Fame general manager, had to intervene between Snider and a heckler during a 1973 playoff game in Minnesota. In Keith the Thief, a book written by his son, Blake Allen, Snider recalled the incident. Snider and Allen were sitting in the stands with their wives, Myrna and Joyce, respectively. They were cheering loudly whenever the Flyers scored or did something positive, and it caught the ire of a North Stars fan who was sitting a handful of rows in front of them.

“Snider, you’re a bum! You stink, Snider,” said the fan, who added some profanity-laced statements.

This went on for a while until Snider couldn’t take it any longer.

“Let’s go outside!” Snider screamed.

The man stood up. He towered over Snider, and he had arms like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

Allen, a former NHL defenseman who was an imposing figure, went with him. They went outside. Cooler heads prevailed. Thanks to Allen’s presence, Snider went back inside and was still in one piece.

Scheinfeld recalled the time Snider made an unsuccessful attempt to go into the referees’ locker room, planning to fight one of the officials.

There were many other Snider eruptions, including one when he worked for Philadelphia’s NFL team. “He got into a fight in Hershey at an Eagles preseason game because fans were giving him some shit,” Scheinfeld said. “He got into a fight at Madison Square Garden at a Flyers game.”

It was a continuation of his youth. “He was a tough kid,” Scheinfeld said. “He was in a lot of
fights as a kid.”

One night after work, Scheinfeld and Snider planned to go to dinner. They walked out of the Spectrum when Ed decided to use one of the arena’s public restrooms, which was jammed because a concert was being held that night. “He pushes right through, gets right to the front, and some guy yells, ‘What in the hell? What’s the matter with you?’” Scheinfeld said. “And Ed gets up in the guy’s face.”

Scheinfeld was stern with his boss. “Ed,” he said, “let’s get the hell out of here.” As they walked toward the exit, Scheinfeld shook his head. “Why the hell did you do that?” he asked. “That was unnecessary.”

“Because you were right behind me,” Snider cracked, figuring Scheinfeld would jump in if it came to blows. As Snider aged, his fighting urges reduced, or at least they were more under control. But his desire to win became magnified. “He was so intense,” said Jay Snider, one of his sons. “You really couldn’t talk to him during a game.”

Boots out Trump

That’s why he once kicked Donald Trump out of his owner’s suite because Trump wasn’t paying attention to the game and was talking too much, distracting Snider from watching his beloved Flyers.

“Even between periods, you tried to talk about the weather or something else, and his mind was someplace else,” Jay Snider said about his father. “He was so focused and emotional. The only thing he was passionate about was the Flyers. Ever. And he lived and died with it—every win, every bad call, and everybody was against us [in his mind]. And he was infamous for running down to the referees’ room.”

Snider did it out of love. Love for Philadelphia. Love for the fans. Love for his hockey team.

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If you would like to purchase a copy of “Bullies”, the book is available at local bookstores. You can also purchase the book on Amazon, following the attached link.