As the countdown begins toward the 60th season of Philadelphia Flyers hockey come the 2026-27 National Hockey League campaign, a special anniversary happened this week. Exactly 60 years ago, on February 9, 1966, NHL president Clarence Campbell and the league's expansion committee, met at the St. Regis Hotel in New York City to finalize a plan to double the size of the league from the existing six franchises to 12 teams.
From what was once considered a longshot bid for an expansion franchise, Philadelphia Hockey Club, Inc., earned conditional approval for a new NHL team. It would be another year until the franchise gained final approval and announced a "name the team" contest.
When the expansion bidding process began, Philadelphia Hockey, Inc., faced a slew of major challenges. Baltimore was considered the regional favorite to get a new NHL team. Philadelphia had already had a disastrous NHL team (the Quakers) that folded after just one season as well as numerous minor league teams that failed to attract more than a small cult following.
Secondly, there was skepticism over whether the Philadelphia group could meet two make-or-break requirements for franchise approval: a $2 million franchise fee (due in March 1967) and the construction of a suitable arena that would be operational by the start of the 1967-68 season.
The franchise fee funding and new arena (the Spectrum) challenges still lay ahead after the conditional approval. Meanwhile, even to gain conditional approval, Philadelphia Hockey Club, Inc., had to stave off at least one potential local rival bidding group. Fortunately, the Philadelphia-based competitors soon fizzled out when they realized they lacked the resources to get an arena built.
The Philadelphia Hockey Club, Inc., group was represented at the St. Regis Hotel meeting by Jerry Wolman and Bill Putnam. Wolman was the former president of the Philadelphia Eagles football team. Putnam was an executive at Morgan Gauranty Bank in New York.
The original Philadelphia Hockey Club, Inc., group also included Philadelphia Eagles treasurer Ed Snider, construction company owner Jerry Schiff, and legal counsel Earl Foreman (an Eagles minority owner later the owner of the NBA's Washington Caps). Foreman was married to Ed Snider's sister, Phyllis. Schiff's wife, Dobbie, was the identical twin sister of Myrna Snider, Ed's wife.
The following year, in 1967, the Foremans attended a Broadway show with the Sniders. On their way back from Manhattan, the couples stopped for ice cream at a Howard Johnson's restaurant. It was there that Phyllis suggested the name "Flyers" for the hockey team.
Before the new team ever played a game, however, the ownership group still had to meet the franchise fee and new arena requirements. There was considerable drama in accomplishing these goals. Most notably, Wolman ran into personal financial issues that led to a dispute with the rest of the group.
Ultimately, Wolman was removed from the management group. Ed Snider's role greatly expanded and essentially saved the fledgling company from going under in its infancy. Meanwhile, Snider brought in Joe Scott, a Scott & Grauer beer distributorship executive.
Scott became a vital part of management alongside Snider. Putman remained in place through the first few years of the franchise's existence. Later, he sold a minority interest to Fitz Dixon.
Dixon held the distinction of becoming the majority owner of the Philadelphia 76ers and minority owner of the Flyers and the Philadelphia Phillies as well as the chairman of the Pennsylvania Horse Racing Commission.
