2024 Living Legend Team: Celebrating the 50th anniversary of Flyers first Cup win
By Wayne Fish, Allentown Morning Call
If you’re going to wax nostalgic about one of the most significant events in Flyers history, you might as well go to the gentleman who helped make it all happen.
That would be one Robert Earle “Bobby” Clarke, captain of the team’s first Stanley Cup championship on May 19, 1974.
In just a few short months it will be 50 years – yes, 50! – since Clarke and goaltender/Conn Smythe Trophy winner Bernie Parent were seen parading Lord Stanley’s precious silver chalice around the old Spectrum ice.
Whether you saw it live or, for younger folks, on videotape later, who can forget Clarke with that big toothless grin winking at the camera?
That’s a big reason why the 1973-74 Flyers are the Philadelphia Sports Writers Association’s “Living Legend Team” for 2024. Flyers greats from this historic team who will be in attendance at the 119 PSWA Banquet on Wednesday Jan. 17, 2024, at the DoubleTree by Hilton on Route 70 in Cherry Hill, NJ, include Parent, Orest Kindrachuk, Bob Kelly, Dave Schultz, Don Saleski, the Watson brothers, Joe and Jim, and team PR man Joe Kadlec. Click here for tickets and more details on other honorees such as: Humanitarian of the Year, Phillies pitcher Aaron Nola; Pro Athlete of the Year, IBF Welterweight Champion Jaron Ennis; Team of the Year, the Media (PA) Little League team that reached the Little League World Series and more.
Reached at his winter home in Florida, Clarke talked about what made that Flyers team (aka, the “Broad Street Bullies”) so special, why it won again the following season over Buffalo and how certain moments – such as that crucial Game 2 overtime win (on a goal by Clarke) at Boston Garden – have stood the test of time.
“We were a pretty confident group,” Clarke said. “We thought we could beat the Bruins. Feeling that way and doing it are obviously two different things.
“Winning that game in Boston would have been nothing if we didn’t win the Cup. The interesting thing is, other than they had (Bobby) Orr, we were better in some areas than the Bruins were. We were younger, hadn’t been there before. They didn’t have a winger as good as Bill Barber. I could play against (Phil) Esposito. And they didn’t have a second center as good as Rick MacLeish.”
The Flyers’ championship took the city by storm. A 1967 expansion team, the Flyers were the fastest (seven years) outfit to win the ultimate prize until the Vegas Golden Knights eclipsed that mark last season by doing it in six seasons.
“They (the Bruins) had Orr but we had Bernie,” Clarke said. “It should have been considered an even series but they were the Bruins and we were the Flyers.”
The genesis of the championship actually started in the spring of ’73 when the Flyers took the first game off Montreal, the ultimate Cup winner, before dropping the semifinals series in five.
“We had a meeting, just the team, in the dressing room after that series,” Clarke recalled. “We said, ‘Hey, we’re a good team and we can get better. Let’s make sure we take care of ourselves this summer, get back to camp and let’s get going.’ ”
And going they did.
“We weren’t a star-driven team but we had a good group of players,” Clarke said.
Plus, the Flyers had the Bullies. Guys like Dave “The Hammer” Schultz, Don “Big Bird” Saleski, Andre “Moose” Dupont and Bob “Hound” Kelly. In those days, you still saw fights break out in the playoffs on a regular basis.
Some believe Schultz’s beatdown of the Rangers’ Dale Rolfe was the turning point in the conference finals.
“We probably had an arrogance about us,” Clarke said with a chuckle.
Clarke said all-purpose players such as Terry Crisp (acquired in a trade) and Bill Clement played vital roles as well.
Does it feel like 50 years?
“Oh, my gosh,” Clarke said. “Where did it go, eh? We all face those questions when we get older but holy mackerel!”
The victory parade was one for the ages, with one million or perhaps two lining Broad Street to heap praise on their heroes.
One person who wasn’t surprised was coach Fred Shero, who famously wrote “Win today and we walk together forever” on his blackboard prior to Game 6.
“That’s stayed with me my whole life,” Clarke said. “We get together now and we still bug each other about things that happened 50 years ago.
“With what he wrote, he was absolutely right.”