Professional Hockey in Philadelphia


Book Description

Philadelphia has been a hockey town since 1897. Before and even during the Philadelphia Flyers' tenure, other teams--the Ramblers, the Quakers and the Firebirds, among others--called the city home, for better or for worse. The first of its kind, this comprehensive history covers the teams and players that graced the ice from the turn of the 20th century through the 2009 demise of the Philadelphia Phantoms. Offering something for every Philly hockey fan, the author tells the stories of the 10 pro teams that played the world's fastest game in the City of Brotherly Love.




If These Walls Could Talk: Philadelphia Flyers


Book Description

From the days of Bobby Clarke, Bernie Parent, and the Broad Street Bullies, and up to the current era with stars like Claude Giroux and Shayne Gostisbehere, Lou Nolan has lived and breathed Flyers hockey as the team's longtime public address announcer. In If These Walls Could Talk: Philadelphia Flyers, Nolan provides insight into the Flyers' inner sanctum as only he can. Featuring conversations with players past and present as well as off-the-wall anecdotes only Nolan can tell, this is your rinkside ticket to some of the most memorable moments and characters in Philadelphia hockey history.




Flyer Lives


Book Description

Stretching back to the team's birth in the National Hockey League expansion of 1967, this record follows the Philadelphia Flyers' story, starting with the rabid fan base they built during their "Broad Street Bullies" era of the 1970s. The hard-charging Bullies' back-to-back Stanley Cup victories in 1974 and 1975 are documented, and the team's status as a perennial contender is illustrated through their 34 playoff appearances. Penned by charismatic superstar and team manager Bobby Clarke's own daughter Jakki, this account reflects the personal relationships the author established with many of the team's best skaters. Drawn from up-close interviews with more than 30 of the Flyers' greats regarding their lives, playing careers, challenges, and successes, this compilation is a must-have keepsake that all Philadelphia hockey fans are sure to cherish. Players from all eras are represented--including Billy Barber, Bernie Parent, Mark Howe, Keith Primeau, and more--sharing never-before-told stories about learning to skate, playing pranks in the locker room, enjoying the fruits of victory, and overcoming crushing defeat. Containing valuable advice for both athletes and parents, this is an intimate look at a group of men who have experienced the ups and downs of a demanding sport at all levels.




Philadelphia Flyers Encyclopedia


Book Description




The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly: Philadelphia Flyers


Book Description

This monumental book about the Philadelphia Flyers not only documents all the best moments and personalities in the history of the team, but also unmasks the regrettably awful and the unflinchingly ugly. In entertaining—and unsparing—fashion, this book sparkles with Flyers highlights and lowlights, from wonderful and wacky memories to the famous and infamous. Such moments include the era of the “Broad Street Bullies” as well as the playoff drought in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Learn how visionary founding owner Ed Snider created the Flyers and sold the city of Philadelphia on the sport of hockey. Get the inside story of how the franchise built a championship squad, then repeatedly rebuilt it over the next three decades to stay at the top of the NHL—in the process compiling the league’s second-best all-time winning percentage. Enjoy classic tales about the great rivalries (especially with the Rangers, Devils, and Penguins), about the great coaches—including Fred Shero and Pat Quinn—and countless great players: Barber, Clarke, Parent, Poulin, Hextall, Primeau, and many more. Whether providing fond memories, goose bumps, or laughs, this portrait of the team and its history is sure to appeal to the fan who has been through it all. This updated edition takes readers through the 2012–13 season and features the Flyers’ trip to the 2010 Stanley Cup Finals as well as recent stars Claude Giroux, Scott Hartnell, Kimmo Timonen, and more.




Open Net


Book Description

George Plimpton takes to the ice with the Boston Bruins in this memorable portrait of the rough-and-tumble world of professional hockey, repackaged and featuring a foreword from Denis Leary and never-before-seen content from the Plimpton Archives. In Open Net, George Plimpton takes to the ice as goalie for his beloved Boston Bruins. After signing a release holding the Bruins blameless if he should meet with injury or death, he survives a harrowing, seemingly eternal five minutes in an exhibition game against the always-tough Philadelphia Flyers. With reflections on such hockey greats as Wayne Gretzky, Bobby Orr, and Eddie Shore, Open Net is at once a celebration of the thrills and grace of the greatest sport on ice and a probing meditation into the hopes and fears of every man.




The Champions of Philadelphia


Book Description

Since the start of the twentieth century, Philadelphia’s professional teams in four major sports have won a combined total of seventeen championships. All of Philadelphia’s current teams—the Phillies in baseball, the Eagles in football, the Flyers in ice hockey, and the 76ers in basketball—have won championships. The list of champs also includes long-gone teams such as the Athletics in baseball, the Warriors in basketball, and the Frankford Yellow Jackets in football. In Rich Westcott’s The Champions of Philadelphia, each of these teams earns a chapter devoted to its championship season. There are detailed descriptions of the games and players, plus noteworthy interviews. Starting with teams from the 1940s, Westcott has interviewed more than fifty players, managers, coaches, and others, including luminaries such as Mike Schmidt, Chuck Bednarik, and Bobby Clarke. The City of Brotherly Love is also a city that loves its champions. Westcott’s in-depth account of Philadelphia’s athletic triumphs will attract fans of each of the four active professional teams. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Sports Publishing imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in sports—books about baseball, pro football, college football, pro and college basketball, hockey, or soccer, we have a book about your sport or your team. Whether you are a New York Yankees fan or hail from Red Sox nation; whether you are a die-hard Green Bay Packers or Dallas Cowboys fan; whether you root for the Kentucky Wildcats, Louisville Cardinals, UCLA Bruins, or Kansas Jayhawks; whether you route for the Boston Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens, or Los Angeles Kings; we have a book for you. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to publishing books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked by other publishers and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.




We Want Fish Sticks


Book Description

The NHL’s New York Islanders were struggling. After winning four straight Stanley Cups in the early 1980s, the Islanders had suffered an embarrassing sweep by their geographic rivals, the New York Rangers, in the first round of the 1994 playoffs. Hoping for a new start, the Islanders swapped out their distinctive logo, which featured the letters NY and a map of Long Island, for a cartoon fisherman wearing a rain slicker and gripping a hockey stick. The new logo immediately drew comparisons to the mascot for Gorton’s frozen seafood, and opposing fans taunted the team with chants of “We want fish sticks!” During a rebranding process that lasted three torturous seasons, the Islanders unveiled a new mascot, new uniforms, new players, a new coach, and a new owner that were supposed to signal a return to championship glory. Instead, the team and its fans endured a twenty-eight-month span more humiliating than what most franchises witness over twenty-eight years. The Islanders thought they had traded for a star player to inaugurate the fisherman era, but he initially refused to report and sulked until the general manager banished him. Fans beat up the new mascot in the stands. The new coach shoved and spit at players. The Islanders were sold to a supposed billionaire who promised to buy elite players; he turned out to be a con artist and was sent to prison. We Want Fish Sticks examines this era through period sources and interviews with the people who lived it.




The Rebel League


Book Description

The wildest seven years in the history of hockey The Rebel League celebrates the good, the bad, and the ugly of the fabled WHA. It is filled with hilarious anecdotes, behind the scenes dealing, and simply great hockey. It tells the story of Bobby Hull’ s astonishing million-dollar signing, which helped launch the league, and how he lost his toupee in an on-ice scrap. It explains how a team of naked Birmingham Bulls ended up in an arena concourse spoiling for a brawl. How the Oilers had to smuggle fugitive forward Frankie “Seldom” Beaton out of their dressing room in an equipment bag. And how Mark Howe sometimes forgot not to yell “Dad!” when he called for his teammate father, Gordie, to pass. There’s the making of Slap Shot, that classic of modern cinema, and the making of the virtuoso line of Hull, Anders Hedberg, and Ulf Nilsson. It began as the moneymaking scheme of two California lawyers. They didn’ t know much about hockey, but they sure knew how to shake things up. The upstart WHA introduced to the world 27 new hockey franchises, a trail of bounced cheques, fractious lawsuits, and folded teams. It introduced the crackpots, goons, and crazies that are so well remembered as the league’s bizarre legacy. But the hit-and-miss league was much more than a travelling circus of the weird and wonderful. It was the vanguard that drove hockey into the modern age. It ended the NHL’s monopoly, freed players from the reserve clause, ushered in the 18-year-old draft, moved the game into the Sun Belt, and put European players on the ice in numbers previously unimagined. The rebel league of the WHA gave shining stars their big-league debut and others their swan song, and provided high-octane fuel for some spectacular flameouts. By the end of its seven years, there were just six teams left standing, four of which—the Winnipeg Jets, Quebec Nordiques, Edmonton Oilers, and Hartford Whalers—would wind up in the expanded NHL.




Hartnelldown


Book Description

A children's book about NHL player Scott Hartnell and his life story about falling down and getting back up.