I was stumbling around on YouTube earlier this morning when I found myself listening to Bob Galderstein, an old studio host on PRISM Network, talking about such recent events as the 35-game unbeaten streak and that first Cup-winning season, just a decade ago.
That's the first game from the 83-84 season, and the television intro that went along with it. Pretty darn cool to see these things again, wouldn't you say? So I poked around on YouTube some more and discovered about 20 more of these things, spanning from the 70s to the 2000s. Some of them feature familiar faces, while some of them feature people most of us have never heard of.
Either way, I find them pretty damn cool.
I'm going to post all of the intros I found in chronological order. The first comes from April 11, 1978, a playoff game in which the Flyers beat the Colorado Rockies 3-2 in overtime. Are you ready for some incredible 70s tunes?
Did you know that Mike Emrick was a Flyers broadcaster at one point? He called this, the second game of the 1981 season, an 8-2 Flyers win over Pittsburgh, and that clip is here.
More Emrick, a 1982 season-opener -- "they've set their sights on the other 20 teams in the NHL" -- and a clip with some Cooperalls in it. The Flyers beat the Quebec Nordiques 9-5 on this night.
This clip features some now-vanished sponsors, and the first sighting of Gene Hart in these videos.
This one is a pretty special one: Bobby Clarke Night, November 1984. The Flyers kicked some Hartford ass that evening, by a score of 6-1.
The Stanley Cup Finals were broadcast by local TV crews back in these days, and that was the case in 1985 when the Flyers took on the Oilers. The Flyers lost this game, 3-1, on their way to losing the series (of course), but this clip mostly shows the great highlights from Game 1.
October 19, 1985: Flyers 7, North Stars 3 on PRISM -- with Gene Hart and Bobby Taylor
March 26, 1987: Flyers 3, Nordiques 2 on PRISM -- with Bobby Taylor, Mike Keenan, Gene Hart and Ed Van Impe
Old school HNIC here, in French with broadcaster Jean Page. The Wales Conference Finals between the Flyers and Habs in 1989. Pat Burns has a pretty amazing mustache if you stick with this one until the end.
PRISM gets some halfway decent graphics by 1990. And Mike Emrick (holy glasses) and Bill Clement are your commentators. The Flyers opened the season with six straight wins, as Doc points out in the clip, but they'd stop there, losing to the Caps 6-2 on this night.
The Flyers were already out of the postseason as they took on the Rangers on April 12, 1993. But any win where you end the Rangers season, too, is always fun. Emrick brings the New York hate on this one, and that's pretty incredible to see.
"Real Stories of the Highway Patrol will not be seen until 10:30." The Flyers were too busy beating the life out of the Sabres, 7-4, on WPHL.
The final game of a frustrating 1994 season was a win, a 4-2 one over the Devils. Here's the pre-game show with Ken Adelberger.
Pre-game ceremonies with Gene Hart handing out team awards at the end of the (successful, playoffs!) 1994-1995 season.
Our first JJ sighting comes from this 1997 clip. It's the last one we have on YouTube from the network, which went down the drain after this season. CSN took its place to start the 97-98 season.
The HNIC intro from Game 4 of the 1997 Finals. View at your own peril.
From the first season of CSN, this in April of 1998. Alexandre Daigle highlights?! The Flyes would beat the Leafs 4-1 on this night. And we get some "And stop it right there!" from Dorny.
Finally, two clips from ESPN in 2000.
So these aren't exactly hockey, but watching all of these clips certainly gave me my hockey fix today. Hope it did the same for you.