Broad Street Bullies
Broad Street Bullies: Two-time Stanley Cup champions (1974, 1975).
The Philadelphia Flyers are a professional ice hockey team based in Philadelphia. The Flyers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference. They are the second NHL team to represent Philadelphia, with the first team, the Philadelphia Quakers, only playing one season in 1930–31. The team plays its home games at the Wells Fargo Center in the South Philadelphia Sports Complex, an indoor arena they share with the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the Philadelphia Wings of the National Lacrosse League (NLL). Part of the 1967 NHL expansion, the Flyers are the first of the expansion teams in the post-Original Six era to win the Stanley Cup, victorious in 1974 and again in 1975. Since their two Stanley Cup victories, they have been in the Final five other times, most recently in 2010.
- Stanley Cups won
- 2 (1974, 1975)
- Primary rival
- Boston Bruins (historically Pittsburgh Penguins)
Lore & Background
The Flyers play their home games on Broad Street, first at the Spectrum from 1967 until 1996, and then at the Wells Fargo Center since 1996. Their association with Broad Street, along with the players consistently brawling with other teams, earned them the nickname 'Broad Street Bullies' during the 1970s.
In Their Own Story
The Spectrum smells like cold concrete, stale beer, and the particular ozone tang of a Zamboni that just cut the ice. It is a Tuesday in February, the kind of night where the temperature outside sits just above freezing and the crowd inside is a low, constant growl. The Flyers are down by one. The Islanders' winger is carrying the puck up the left, skating smooth, skating easy, skating like the game is a suggestion.
Dave Schultz is waiting at the blue line. He is not skating. He is *positioned*, the way a bouncer positions himself at a door. His stick is flat on the ice, his shoulders are square, and his eyes are not on the puck. They are on the skater's chest.
The hit, when it comes, does not look like a hit. It looks like a correction. The puck is gone. The skater is on the ice, and the ice is on the skater, and for a half-second the Spectrum is silent in the way a held breath is silent. Then the noise hits—thirty thousand people exhaling at once, a sound like a freight train pulling out of a tunnel. Schultz does not celebrate. He picks up his stick, skates back to the blue line, and waits for the next one.
In the front row, a kid in a too-big Flyers sweater is screaming. His mother is screaming. The kid's father is not screaming, but his knuckles are white on the railing, and he is smiling the way a man smiles when the job comes out right and the foreman nods.
This is Broad Street. This is what it means.
Reader's Guide
The Flyers won the Stanley Cup in 1974 and 1975. They have not won a Stanley Cup since 1975.
Did You Know?
- The Flyers are the first expansion team in the post-Original Six era to win the Stanley Cup.
- The team's nickname 'Broad Street Bullies' was coined by Jack Chevalier and Pete Cafone of the Philadelphia Bulletin on January 3, 1973.
- The Flyers introduced playing Kate Smith's 'God Bless America' instead of 'The Star-Spangled Banner' on December 11, 1969.
More in Broad Street Culture & Identity
Elsewhere in the Philadelphia Flyers universe
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