For the almost fifty years since 1967, the simple six-letter word “Flyers” has meant only one thing to the legion of diehard sports fans in Philadelphia: hard fought tough-as-nails hockey. And more than any other person responsible for this over that entire half-century was the son of a grocery store owner from Washington, DC, who, when he “emigrated” to Philadelphia in 1964 at age 31, had never seen a hockey game. His name, of course, was Edward M. Snider who passed away in California early this morning at age 83 just hours after seeing his beloved Flyers earn a hard fought berth in the 2016 Stanley Cup playoffs with a typical “Sniderian” two month run to pass four other teams vying for the final wild card spot.
No team owner in the long history of Philadelphia has had a greater impact on the culture of sports -- ALL sports -- in this city and its vast surrounding area than did Ed Snider. He made our city with a long history in professional baseball, football and basketball -- but a perennial failure in hockey -- one of the leading “hockey towns” in the world. Much of what the team, its players, and the people of Philadelphia have all meant to each other over the past nearly half century would have never have happened without the passion and dedication of this one unique man.
I was born in Philadelphia and have lived here all my life. Although I never played the game myself, i have been involved with the Flyers professionally in one way or another since 1969 so I have pretty much “seen it all” and have been lucky enough to know “Mr. Snider” for most of that time. With no major league hockey here until my senior year in college, I grew up a die hard Phillies fan, a team during virtually all of my youth (with the exception of the 1950 “Whiz Kids”) was always a dead last place finisher in the National League. So I know well what it was like to only have a “loser” to root for.
The 1967-68 Flyers
Even though there had been a passel of minor league teams (and one desultory NHL club in 1930-31 that “won” just four games) that had played in Philadelphia in the forty years between 1927 and the Flyers first game in 1967, none of them had even been able to capture the hearts for the game of the passionate sports fans of William Penn’s “greene countrie towne”. One of the reasons was there was not even an adequate indoor arena for hockey in Philadelphia which reduced all of those clubs to having to play at the now long gone dank 5,500-seat Arena at 46th & Market Streets in West Philadelphia.
When the NHL expanded from six to a dozen teams in 1966 with play to begin the following year with the Flyers as one of those six -- but already facing financial difficulties, in came Ed Snider to the rescue, up went the Spectrum, and in October, 1967 the Flyers played their first game. The staid old HOCKEY NEWS was skeptical of the expansion, however, and of the six new franchises the “bible of hockey” predicted the first to fail would be the Flyers. They were clearly unaware, however, of the single minded passion and determination of that grocer’s son, Ed Snider, and what he would do with the nascent club.
Ed Snider and the Cup
Not only did the Flyers not fail, but in just seven years became in 1974 the first expansion club to win the Stanley Cup, and then repeated as playoff champions the next year to boot. Mr. Snider knew, of course, that this was not the end of the job as one of the most difficult things to do by far in sports after achieving excellence is to sustain it year after year. Under his watchfulness, however, the Flyers have been able to maintain their status as one of the premier teams in sports almost without interruption ever since.
Even though the club had a five year stretch in the late 1980's when it missed the playoffs, it has reached the Stanley Cup finals six more times and over its history since its last cup victory and trails only the Montreal Canadiens (.589) among the NHL’s 30 currently active and dozen defunct teams in career winning percentage (.578) and is also 21 percentage points ahead of third place Boston (.557). The Flyers’ success in the 1970s ironically also served as the catalyst that finally inspired each of the city's three other long suffering major league sports franchises -- the Phillies, Eagles, and 76’ers -- to finally achieve excellence too with titles of their own in the next few years after that first Cup title.
Under Ed Snider, the Flyers continued their reign as one of the world's top performing sports franchises without interruption for almost a decade-and-a-half following that first Cup win by not only repeating as Stanley Cup champions in 1975, but reaching the finals four more times in 1976, 1980, 1985 and 1987 during the thirteen year stretch from 1974 to 1987, and returned there twice more in 1997 and 2010. And in regular season play over that same period the club finished in first place in its Division an incredible nine times, second three more times, and as low as third only twice.
Fitz Dixon, Bob Clarke, Ed Snider, Bernie Parent and Joe Scott
The Flyers most incredible feat of all during that stretch, of course, was the "Streak" in 1979-80. After splitting the first two games of the campaign, Ed Snider’s club established an unprecedented and unlikely ever to be matched all-time major league professional sports standard by not losing again for almost three months going 35 games (25-0-10) without a loss.
Although he never put on a pair of skates or took a face off, Ed Snider’s impact on the game has been felt in every city in the NHL -- and a few in the AHL as well with Flyer affiliates winning five Calder Cup titles in Maine (twice), Hershey, and with the Philadelphia Phantoms (twice) -- leading to his well deserved election to the Hockey Hall of Fame as a "Builder" in 1988.
Mr. Snider was famous for not telling those he employed how to do their jobs -- but he certainly expected those working for him to know how to do what they did. If you came up short he made sure you knew that he was not happy with the result. I felt that once myself while working as a contract writer for the Flyers doing hundreds of stories for the Flyers’ program magazines, producing a full page column called “Scoop” for the its back page, and writing material for a variety of other team publications. One of the pieces I was assigned to do was for the Flyers’ 1980-81 Yearbook: a profile about Mr. Snider which required me to spend an afternoon in his office in the bowels of the Spectrum interviewing him.
I wrote the story carefully, of course, and made sure that all my quotes were accurate and it reflected both the man and the team. The publication was to go to press in late October shortly after the season had already opened so when I arrived at the Spectrum for the Flyers’ season opener on October 16, 1980 -- which was also my 35th birthday -- against the Vancouver Canucks it was not yet out. While I thought I would just be there to see the game, as I walked past the Flyers offices I was told to come in as there was a “call” for me. I was handed the phone and was surprised to hear Mr. Snider who calling me from his limousine as he was on his way in.
He told me that the story was all wrong and to wait there because he wanted to see me about it when he arrived. I was, of course, both surprised and more than a little shaken, and asked to see the copy of the story that he had been given. To my great surprise, what I was handed had been completely changed from what I had written and was filled with errors and misstatements. Fortunately, however, I had a copy of the story the way I had originally written it with me so when I was ushered into the Director’s Lounge to see Mr. Snider I could show him what I had actually written.
After reading my copy, Mr. Snider said it was just fine and that he would have a “talk” with whomever had changed it after I turned it in. Relieved, I thanked him and mentioned it was my birthday and had been afraid that it was about to be turned into a bad one. Mr. Snider smiled, shook my hand, and invited me to stay in the Director’s Lounge for a fabulous dinner instead of heading down to the pressroom for far less fancy fare. He told the bartender to give me a big martini and anything else I wanted. Unwisely to calm my nerves I had three generous ones before heading to the pressbox for the game about which, understandably, I would remember little except that the Flyers lost, 5-2. I thought it was best to avoid Mr. Snider in the locker-room after the game.
Edward M. Snider 1933-2016
Under Ed Snider the Flyers have always been about one thing in particular: family. “Once a Flyer, always a Flyer” is more than just an expression, it is the way he always ran the organization. Having been around the club virtually since the beginning I can say that is the absolute truth from first hand experience. A few years ago I went through the list of every player who had ever put on an Orange and Black jersey or played in the organization for a blog in HockeyBuzz and counted how many had come back to the organization at least once as player, coach, manager, scout, broadcaster, executive, “ambassador”, or any other capacity. At the time that number was over 65 and now is approaching 80.
Bob Clarke, Paul Holmgren, and Ron Hextall have all come back to be the club’s GM, Holmgren, Terry Murray, Bill Barber, John Stevens and Craig Berube have all been its head coach, while Gord Murphy, Dave Brown, Ian Laperriere, John Paddock, Reggie Lemelin, Kjell Samuelsson, and others have been assistant and development coaches. Many Flyer scouts such as Al Hill, Simon Nolet, Ilkka Sinisalo, Ross Fitzpartick, and more have done the same, and Gary Dornhoefer, Bob Taylor, Keith Jones, Bill Clement, Steve Coates, Chris Therien, Brian Propp, Brian Boucher, Ed Van Impe, Orest Kindrachuk, Rick Tocchet, and others have all worked as team broadcasters. Many other Flyer alumni have served the club in other functions such as team “ambassadors” such as Bernie Parent, Bob Kelly, Joe Watson and Brad Marsh remain a visible part of the organization because of Mr. Snider and his loyalty to those who have been a Flyer in any capacity. And of course even the club’s most famous “Voice”, the late, great Gene Hart, is still represented at every game by his daughter, Lauren, singing the Nation Anthem or “God Bless America”.
Ed Snider greeting Youth Hockey participants
The impact of Ed Snider in hockey in Philadelphia also extends far beyond the Flyers with the Ed Snider Youth Hockey program which he founded ten years ago with the goal of building lives and uniting communities in the Philadelphia region’s underserved neighborhoods. As with all of his endeavors, Mr. Snider dedicated himself whole-heartedly by personally funding the charitable organization and its programs and rink projects. Today the program serves about 3,000 children in Philadelphia and Camden with plans to double its size. It is not just about hockey, however, as Snider Hockey focuses on the entire child with programs in nutrition, health screening, tutoring, life skills, mentoring as well as hockey building good students and good members of the community who are disciplined, goal-oriented individuals.
It goes without saying -- but I will say it anyway -- that no single individual, athlete or not, has had a greater impact on the success of professional sports in Philadelphia -- or probably even the nation as a whole -- than did Edward M. Snider, not only over the past half century, but in the two-and-a-half century history of both as well.
RIP Mr. Snider. You have had an amazing, historic run for 83 years. You will be dearly missed -- and not soon (if ever) replaced.
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