It wasn't two weeks ago on May 19 that Flyers fans everywhere were reminded of those words cemented in Flyers lore and the biggest and greatest moment in the history of the organization.
They are the words of Fred Shero: "Win today, and we walk together forever."
It was 1974, the year that Ed Snider's vision came true. It was the team that Keith Allen constructed and that Shero led behind the bench reaching the pinnacle of the NHL, the first expansion team to stand alone at the end of a hockey season. And on that May night, it was the words of the legendary Gene Hart that rang out and still ring loud and proud in Flyers history. "The Flyers have won the Stanley Cup."
The goal that clinched it came in the first period of that game, a deflection off the stick of a cutting Rick MacLeish.
MacLeish passed away on Monday night, May 31, at age 66. As the Flyers honored his memory, posting his 1990 Flyers Hall of Fame induction speech on their website, a harsh reality set in. There was MacLeish, being enshrined alongside Shero, with Snider and Allen present and Hart serving as emcee.
As the Flyers prepare to embark on their 50th season in franchise history in 2016-17, there will be numerous celebrations of the history of the organization. They will be memorable and joyous occasions, honoring the greatest and best to ever wear the Orange and Black and represent the Flyers crest.
But there will be sadness as well, as so many of these members — the five above among the most notable — are no longer present physically to see it and to bask in the glory of an organization and the memories within that have spanned generations. But they are here, still walking together.
The Flyers have always had one of the best alumni groups in all of sports. The Alumni Game at the 2012 Winter Classic was a tremendous celebration of the histories of both the Flyers and Rangers as players from all generations took the outdoor rink at Citizens Bank Park. Among them, Bernie Parent, Bobby Clarke, Bill Barber and Reggie Leach. Again in February 2016, the Flyers Alumni arranged a game to be played at the home of the Flyers ECHL affiliate in Reading.
It doesn't matter the venue or the participants. Flyers fans flock to it and sell it out in short order.
Since that game in February, two more in the Flyers family have passed — MacLeish, who was on the bench as a coach for that game in Reading, and Snider just over six weeks earlier on April 11. Allen passed in 2014. Hart passed in 1999. Shero passed shortly after his Hall of Fame induction ceremony in November of 1990. Even the building where so many of those memories were made is a thing of the past. The Spectrum closed its door for good in October 2009 and was demolished a year later.
The sadness may be elevated by all the close calls, near misses and the treacherous road of 42 years since that first Stanley Cup and 41 years since the Cup win that followed in 1975. There is no group quite like the Broad Street Bullies that stamped their claim to fame with back-to-back Cup runs.
The years have certainly added up as the Flyers drought has grown from the days of the Broad Street Bullies to the glory days of the 1980s to the Legion of Doom in the 1990s to several lengthy playoff runs falling just short in the first decade of the 21st century. And with that kind of time passing, life takes it course. It has certainly made an impact in recent years on the greatest group of Flyers ever assembled.
MacLeish is among the first players on the 1974 Cup team to have passed. Barry Ashbee died of leukemia in 1977. His illness helped inspire the Flyers Wives Carnival, another long-standing Flyers tradition near and dear to the hearts of the Alumni Association. Winger Ross Lonsberry passed away in May 2014. "Cowboy" Bill Flett passed away in 1999.
The Flyers family is very much that, a bound, tight-knit unit that is as strong as any in sports. In most cases, when they are done playing on the ice, they don't end up too far from it somewhere in Philadelphia. Make no mistake about it, even though those great players, coaches and members of the Flyers organization are no longer present on this Earth, they are most certainly here in spirit and still walking together forever.
Kevin Durso is managing editor for Flyerdelphia. Follow him on Twitter @Kevin_Durso.
