The Flyers: Myths of Violence

The Philadelphia Flyers will forever be defined by The Broad Street Bullies, their championship-winning teams in the 1970s. But why has one team taken on such an outsize image in the team and city’s mythos? Why has its violent image been embraced by so many?

Philadelphians have certainly loved to celebrate their “tough-guy” image, but they don’t have a one-way relationship with violence. It doesn’t take much searching to find news articles describing residents’ lamentations on real-life violence in the city. The city’s murder rate is a constant source of angst. So, why the glorification of violence by the Flyers, even 50 years after the team last won a title?

An explanation might be found in the team’s attitude, which reflected the city’s blue-collar image:

It was the old ‘Us Against The World’ theory. The refs are trying to screw us, the league was trying to screw us, but screw them, we’ll beat them anyway.”

– Bobby Clarke, a member of the Broad Street Bullies, in a 2014 interview.