South Jersey Author Brings to Life the Flyers From Their Glory Years in Bullies

by Marc Narducci | Dec 10, 2025

One of the greatest runs in Philadelphia professional sports history was accomplished by the Philadelphia Flyers from the 1973-74 through 1975-76 seasons. The Flyers won the Stanley Cup in only their seventh year of existence in 1974 against the Boston Bruins. They repeated as champions the next season against the Buffalo Sabres, and then advanced to the Stanley Cup finals a third straight year before seeing their streak ended by the Montreal Canadians.

Known as the Broad Street Bullies due to their take-no-prisoners fighting style for a team that played at the Spectrum located on Broad Street, the Flyers were entertaining both on and off the ice.

When Sam Carchidi was a youngster, he passionately followed the team. Now he is telling their story during their glory years in a unique way.

Carchidi, a South Jersey resident and graduate of Sterling High and Glassboro State College (now Rowan University), has co-authored the book BULLIES with Jeff Hare, a television director and writer based in Los Angeles.

Published by Triumph Books, BULLIES is available at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and other bookstores.

“We touch on hockey, but 75% of the book is off-the-ice lives and things that happened away from the rink and stories nobody knows about we uncovered,” said Carchidi, who was the Flyers beat writer for 15 seasons at the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Both Carchidi and Hare are also working on getting a television series (not a documentary) on the Flyers based on their inception in 1969 through the third straight Stanley Cup appearance in 1976.

The book provides a great resource for the television project.

How did the authors get so many unknown stories?

They talked to virtually all of the key players and their families from those Stanley Cup champion teams.

Dave Schultz, the pugilistic winger who set an NHL single-season penalty minutes record of 472 during the second Stanley Cup winning season of 1974-75 that still stands, wrote the forward for the book.

“We interviewed most of the players and have 1,000 pages of transcripts,” Carchidi said, who covers the Flyers and the NHL for the Hockey News. “We talked to wives, ex-wives and learned a lot about the players.”

Following the Flyers has been a lifelong passion for Carchidi.

“I was 12 when it started,” he said, referring to the Flyers' inaugural season in 1967-68. “I feel like I have been on the ground floor.”

His knowledge of the team and connections made throughout the years, certainly is evident by the stories in Bullies.

For Carchidi, this is the sixth book that he has authored, writing about a subject that is dear to his heart. What is also impressive is how revered the players from more than 50 years ago are in the Philadelphia area. (The Flyers weren’t exactly the most liked team outside of Philadelphia during their heyday.).

“To this day, these guys are beloved wherever they go,” Carchidi said.

This book gives many examples of why that is so, a comprehensive look at players who were part of a team that remains beloved more than five decades after their impressive three-year Stanley Cup finals run.

Photo: Author Sam Carchidi

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Author: Marc Narducci

South Jersey Author Brings to Life the Flyers From Their Glory Years in Bullies

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