May 19, 1974.
It's a date that is burned into our consciousness as Philly sports fans.
Or at least it should be.
Why? That's the day we became winners.
At 14:48 of the first period in Game Six of the Stanley Cup Finals series against the Boston Bruins, Rick MacLeish tipped in a shot form the point by Moose DuPont to give the Flyers a 1-0 lead.
Bernie Parent took care of the rest.
Parent turned away every Boston shot to preserve a 1-0 lead.
And the city exploded.
We lost a piece of that magic yesterday.
Rick MacLeish died. He was just 66.
Ironically, the game-winner that gave the Flyers the Cup did not come off MacLeish's signature move. He had won a faceoff, drew the puck perfectly back to DuPont at the point, then moved toward the net, where he got his stick on the shot and redirected it past Bruins goalie Gilles Gilbert.
The speedy center was known for zipping up the right side of the ice, breaking for the center and then snapping off one of the deadliest wrist shots in the NHL.
It's hard to understate the importance of that goal, and what the Flyers did for the Philly sports nation.
If you're my age, and discovering just how much older 60 sounds than 59, you know what we had endured in the decades before the Broad Street Bullies arrived.
In a word, we were losers.
Sometimes lovable losers. Sometimes bitter losers. Sometime simply inept losers.
We lost a lot.
The Flyers changed all that.
Before that crucial Game Six, the legendary eccentric scribbled a message on the chalkboard in the Flyers' dressing room.
"Win today and we walk together forever."
Thanks, for the memory, Rick MacLeish. You made us winners. And we will never for get it.
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