November 21, 2009

Orange Black and Blue by Chuck Gormley

Chuck Gormley's Orange, Black & Blue: The Greatest Philadelphia Flyers Stories Never Told represents a life time of work.

Award-winning beat reporter Chuck Gormley has been following the Philadelphia Flyers for over two decades, and has followed them for as long as he can remember. Now he's put the best of the best into his new book.

He takes you down Broad Street for the Flyers’ victory parades; guides you through the tumultuous Mike Keenan Era; and allows you to be the judge and jury in the heated confrontations between Eric Lindros and Bob Clarke. All the while, he takes you into the hearts, minds and souls of some of the most colorful characters in NHL history.

Buy The Book - Amazon.ca - Chapters - Amazon.com
Author's Website - http://www.chuckspuck.com

What a fantastic book! Gormley pieces together the Flyers' colorful history through countless short stories from each era. Some of the stories you may have heard before, many you definitely will not have, and all are entertaining.

My favorite so far - the story of the Flyers very first parade in the city of Philadelphia. No, not their Stanley Cup parades, but their "Welcome Parade" prior to their inaugural season, introducing the players and the team to the city.

"We were all in convertibles and there was no one at the parade except us," Flyers owner Ed Snider tells Gormley.

"There were more people in the parade than there were watching," added original Flyer Joe Watson.

From that inauspicious beginning the Flyers turned Philadelphia into one of the greatest hockey towns in the world!

Everything is covered through Gormley's "greatest Flyers stories never told," from Bobby Clarke's tenacity to Ron Hextall's exuberance to Kate Smith's warbling to Stanley Cup championships to near misses decades later. It is a uniquely done, highly entertaining chronicle of one of the most storied franchises in team sports.

If you are a Flyers fan, there is no debate - you must own this book. You can not bleed Flyers' orange and not have it. It's that good!

1 comments:

Unknown November 25, 2009 at 3:49 PM  

May dad took me to the old Chicago Stadium to see Philadelphia in the mid 70s. Dad and I waited outside the Flyers locker room after the game to get some autographs on my Goal Magazine. Nice guys. I got Barber, Leach, Clarke and Holmgren. But I mostly remember Holmgren in his knee-length brown leather coat and fresh, still bloody scars on his face staring down at me with a smile. Nothing said Broad Street Bullies more than that face.

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