Reds

Thirty years ago, I was merely a boy- about to be caught up in a world wide drama.

Did I love the Philadelphia Flyers? Oh yes. They had just come off two successful straight Stanley Cup runs. The Broad Street Bullies were an invincible physical force- and I loved them. And thirty years ago today- they played the wicked Red Army in Philadelphia.

This was no replay of the Lake Placid miracle- unlike the US Olympic Hockey Team, the Flyers on paper and certainly on ice had lots of ways to “defend” themselves. The game was the last of eight played by a pair of Russian teams- the Wings and the Red Army. The NHL was being embarrassed, down 1-5-1, and the Soviet Army was undefeated. Prior to Lake Placid, it was the biggest hockey game ever played in the USA. This link has a variety of newspaper articles and photos about the match.

The Flyers had a terrible reputation for on ice violence- probably the worst rep ever in sports- probably a little deserved. Philadelphia featured a marvelous collection of Hall-of-Fame hockey talent mixed with bruisers and villains straight from central casting. Of course, it was the Big Bad Bruins and the Plager brothers who taught the Flyers to play that way- beating on guys like Simon Nolet. The Canadian press just got mad because the Flyers perfected intimidation.

I love the cartoon to the left- apparently it ran in Pravda- the wonderful image of the Flyers in the popular Russian imagination. Gene Hart has a wonderful recount of the pre-game lunch in his book “Score!” The biggest stir from the Russians was to see The Hammer: Dave Schultz- hands down the baddest man to ever play anything (he also scored 79 goals in 535 games by the way- not too bad). One of their officials proclaimed, “We are not timid. We have our own bad man like Dave Schultz. Ivan have already forty penalty minutes.” Hart says he lacked the will to tell him Schultz frequently accumulated that in a period.

The fine people of Philadelphia never liked the Reds. We never will. The Flyers’ fan base at the time was very blue-collar- probably the last people in America to still be confident in their country during the mid-70’s malaise. And they were in fine form- angerly pouring blood on the steps of the Spectrum, the great Arena- and festooning the interior with signs like “Lenin was a fag”. In Russian no less.

In the first period, gritty defensemen Ed Van Impe leveled Valerie Kharlomov- who unfortunately had his ankle broken by Flyers’ captain Bobby Clarke a few years earlier in the Canada-USSR Challenge Cup. The Russians responded by leaving the ice and refusing to compete- returning only when informed they would not be paid, if they did not play. The Soviet coach had protested “the Flyers make it damage on our players!”- but after seeing the check proclaimed “We play. With all the money we fix the damage.”

The Flyers then proceeded to bury them 4-1, outshooting the invincible Red Army 49 to 13. A sign read: Bring on Mars!

Hard to believe it was thirty years ago.