Quick now, do you remember exactly where you were and what you were doing a week ago today? Or a month? Or a Year? If you are like me, the answers to those questions are most likely “no” unless you are also some kind of a savant. So how about 40 years ago today then -- May 19, 1974? Do you know where you were and what you were doing on that day? If you were a sports fan in Philadelphia (or even if you just lived there), however, the answer to that question today would not be "no" but instead be “hell yes”.
It certainly is for me!
On that muggy springtime Sunday afternoon at the now sadly gone Spectrum in South Philadelphia, a group of twenty rag tag Canadian born hockey players under the guidance of Fred Shero, the now Hall of Famer who was then a sometimes mysterious and often eccentric long time minor league coach from Winnipeg, Manitoba, surprisingly brought the oldest and best known trophy in professional sports in North America, the Stanley Cup, to an expansion NHL city for the first time just six years and eight months after their hockey team, the Philadelphia Flyers, had played their first ever game in October, 1967. And with that the "Broad Street Bullies" completed Philadelphia's sports metamorphosis with their home ice 1-0 shut-out of Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito, Ken Hodge and the rest of the powerhouse Boston Bruins.
Rick MacLeish scoring the Cup winning goal on May 19, 1974
How the upstart Flyers so quickly reached the summit of the hockey mountain exactly forty years ago today was an amazing story. Just two years after missing the Stanley Cup play-offs in 1972 with just 66 points and a fifth place Divisional finish, the Flyers exploded in 1973-74 to a record of 50-16-12 for 112 points -- exactly double their point total of two seasons earlier. After sweeping aside the Atlanta Flames in four straight fight filled games in the opening round of the play-offs, the Flyers were to meet the New York Rangers in the semi-finals. Although the Rangers had finished third in the Eastern Division with 94 points (19 fewer than the first place Bruins' 113) and had not won a Cup since 1940, Shero, himself a former longtime member of the Rangers’ organization as a player and minor league coach, nonetheless believed going in that the semi-final series against New York would be the toughest test his team would have to pass on its way to a Cup championship.
And in that he was proved to certainly be right.
After six games of the best-of-seven set, each team had won all three contests played on its home ice. As expected, goalies Bernie Parent of the Flyers and Ed Giacomin of the Rangers had been the stars of the series from the first shot on goal. Parent allowed just two goals in the first two games at the Spectrum, winning 4-0 and 5-2. Giacomin and the Rangers then won the next two at Madison Square Garden, 5-3 and 2-1 in overtime, after which the two teams exchanged 4-1 home-ice victories to set up the seventh and deciding game at the Spectrum on Sunday, May 5, 1974.
Clarke and Parent skate the Cup around the Spectrum ice
"The Spectrum ice is two hundred by eighty-five feet," said Ranger GM/Coach Emil Francis. "It has boards and glass. There's no reason why we can't win there." But some of Francis' troops were not so sure. "There seems to be more contact and less room for skating there," said Rod Gilbert and so there was as as the Flyers took the series in seven games which featured a memorable beat down of Ranger defenseman Dale Rolfe by Dave Schultz in the seventh game in Philadelphia which seemed to be presage their ultimate victory in the finals two weeks later.
With their semi-final series victory over the Rangers in seven games behind them, the Flyers were in the Cup finals for the first time in their seven NHL seasons. But their last opponents were to be the Boston Bruins -- winners of the Cup in 1970 and 1972 and the only team to finish with more points than the Flyers in 1973-74. And with those 113 points (one more than the Flyers' 112) the Bruins would get home ice in the finals which presented the Flyers with a major psychological obstacle. With the Flyers getting no more than three home games against the Bruins, they were going to have to win at least one game at Boston Garden where they had not tasted victory since their first ever trip to the Bruins' lair on Causeway Street some six-and-one-half years earlier on November 12, 1967, when they beat Boston, 4-2. Since then their record there was 0-17-2 while their overall career record versus the Bruins as they entered the finals was an unimpressive 4-30-4.
The Finals opened at Boston Garden on May 7th and amazingly the Flyers almost got the win they needed in their first try when Bill Flett hit the post in the final minutes of the third period with the score tied, 2-2. But a minute later Bobby Orr won it for Boston with just twenty-two seconds left before sudden death. As Wayne Cashman tied up Flyer defenseman Andre Dupont in the corner, Ken Hodge stole the puck and fed it to Orr who scored on a 35-foot slapshot from the top of the circle. The second game two nights later was equally tense with the Bruins holding a 2-1 lead as the final minute ticked off the Garden clock. But this time it was Dupont who got the goal with just fifty-two seconds left and Bernie Parent pulled for an extra attacker. And this time there would be overtime. For twelve minutes of "sudden death" play, the two teams flew up and down the ice with Parent and Boston goalie Gilles Gilbert making one spectacular save after another. With Boston out-shooting the Flyers, 6-5, and a little over eight minutes left in the first overtime period, Parent stopped veteran Johnny Bucyk on a breakaway for the Bruins' seventh shot.
After the Flyers moved it back up the ice, Flyer enforcer Dave Schultz (who had just jumped on the ice for his first overtime shift) controlled a rebound in the left corner and passed it to Flett near the blueline who took the pass on his backhand. With no shot of his own so, Flett passed it to captain Bob Clarke stationed in the slot. Everybody seemed to know that was going to be the Flyers' best chance to win it. "Gilbert made a good save on my first shot," Clarke said later, "but the puck came right back to me. Gilbert was down so I tried to lift it over him and the next thing I knew it was in the net." The Flyers had won, 3-2, as the puck bounced in the net off the rump of Bruin winger Terry O'Reilly who had flung himself in front of Gilbert to block Clarke's second shot. Philadelphia had earned its first victory in Boston since 1967 -- and won the one game there the club absolutely had to have if they were to capture their first Stanley Cup.
Bernie christens the Cup with champaign in the Flyers locker room...
While the Flyers had now only beaten the Bruins twice on the road in twenty-one tries, they also only had three career victories against them at the Spectrum. To win the Cup they would have to beat the Bruins in Philadelphia as many times in two weeks as they had in the previous seven seasons. They got two of those three victories in the next two games winning with relative ease, 4-1 and 4-2, on the spectacular goaltending of Parent. The Bruins then won a fight-filled game five, 5-1, in Boston to send the series back to Philadelphia for the potential clincher to be played at the Spectrum on Sunday afternoon, May 19. While only 17,007 tickets were available for the game, the Flyers could have filled Veterans Stadium across the street many times over if the game could have been played there. The millions who couldn't get in were glued to their radios and televisions from the moment the Flyers good luck charm, Kate Smith, stepped on the ice to once again sing "God Bless America" in person for the second time that year. Smith's "record" when "God Bless America" had been played was then up to 36-3-1.
The Flyers led the best-of-seven Stanley Cup final series, 3-2, but a loss to the Bruins in game six would send the series back to Boston Garden -- where the Flyers had won only twice in seven years -- for a seventh and final game. To win the Cup they knew it would have to be in thier last game in Philadelphia. As usual, the Bruins came out flying and -- aided by a pair of power plays -- had out shot the Flyers, 14-3, in the game's first dozen minutes. But Parent would let nothing past him into the 4x6 foot cage, and as the period progressed the intensity built both in the stands and on the ice. At 13:58, Terry O'Reilly hooked down Flyer left wing Bill Barber along the boards to the right of Gilbert and the Flyers would get the extra man for the first time. They almost scored twenty-four seconds later when the puck eluded Gilbert, hit the post and fell to the ice an inch outside the goal line. The great Bobby Orr dropped to the ice to help his goalie control the puck while Flyer captain Bob Clarke poked at it again and again from his knees.
As the whistle blew Orr threw his glove in Clarke's face and the Flyer center took a punch at the game's greatest defenseman. Referee Art Skov whistled both these Hall of Famers off for roughing giving the Flyers a four-on-three advantage. Shortly after play resumed Gilbert made another great save setting up a face-off between Rick MacLeish and Gregg Sheppard to the goalie's left which MacLeish won and fed to Andre Dupont stationed at the blueline. As MacLeish -- who four years earlier had been a first round draft pick of the Bruins -- cut for the net, Dupont lofted a shot toward Gilbert which deflected off the toe of Boston defenseman Carol Vadnais' skate, caught the heel of MacLeish's stick, and flew into the Bruin net for a goal. The crowd exploded, but at that moment few expected that this would be the only goal scored that day.
...where I got to drink from it a short time later.
As the final minutes of the third period ticked off the scoreboard clock, however, it still read 1-0. But the Bruins kept the pressure on and with just over two-and-a-half minutes to play, Ken Hodge blasted a rocket in full flight from the right point which was ticketed for the far post. But Parent calmly kicked it aside as he had every other Bruin try that afternoon. The Flyers controlled the puck and got it to Clarke who broke in over the blueline on Gilbert. The only man back was Orr who grabbed Clarke and pulled him to the ice -- and with just 2:22 to go in regulation play, Orr was assessed two minutes for holding. As MacLeish's goal would prove to be the last of the 1973-74 season, so too would Orr's penalty.
Parent earned both a shut-out and the Conn Smythe Trophy as the 1974 play-off MVP. But more importantly, the Flyers had won the Stanley Cup after just seven seasons in the NHL. And the next day those millions -- literally -- who could not get into the Spectrum were in the streets of Philadelphia as the Flyers carried the Stanley Cup down Broad Street for what has simply been known ever since as "The Parade." "When I arrived at the Spectrum the next morning, people were talking about a turnout of maybe 350,000," said Flyer captain Bobby Clarke. "I wondered what that many people would look like. Most of us came from small towns in Canada where such a crowd would be unheard of. But TWO MILLION! It was just unbelievable." The parade started at the Spectrum at mid-morning and took almost three hours to move the three-and-a-half miles up Broad Street and out Market to Independence Mall. There were people everywhere -- hanging from trees, traffic lights, and street signs, sitting on statues, dangling from windows, standing on rooftops. And they filled the streets and sidewalks from side to side giving way -- reluctantly -- only for the passage of the parade.
Some two million attended the parade past City Hall
The parade exceeded every other celebration in the city's history. The end of WWII paled in comparison. New Year's Day and the Mummers parade were a nice cozy family party next to that Monday afternoon in May. New Orleans' Mardi Gras was just a costume party. This was a celebration that was on the news and front pages all over the country. For some of the Flyers, the celebration was more trying than the club's seven year quest for the Cup. Coach Fred Shero suffered a broken thumb and lost his championship ring from the AHL Buffalo Bisons shaking hands with thousands of well wishers. Joe Watson's wife visited the powder room and didn't find her husband again until supper. Ed Van Impe and Clarke dropped from the parade when their cars were overwhelmed by the sea of humanity.
When the Flyers finally reached Independence Mall they were greeted by a sea of people stretching as far as the eye could see. Kate Smith started the ceremonies off as she had the game twenty-four hours earlier by singing "God Bless America" -- six times. There were speeches by the Mayor, the coach, the players, and others but nobody heard the words. It didn't matter. This was a "happening" which the people were not attending but experiencing. The day after the Flyers won the Stanley Cup was an impromptu holiday in Philadelphia. Banks were open and so were schools but nobody deposited checks or went to class. If they had they would have had a hard time finding a teller or a teacher. Sometimes there are things more important to a city than mere commerce or education -- at least for a day. And May 20, 1974, was such a day in Philadelphia.
The front page of the June, 1974. HOCKEY NEWS (That's me behind Dave Schultz!)
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