PHILADELPHIA — From Citizens Bank Park, which will be packed with fans clad in orange and black Flyers sweaters for Winter Classic weekend, to the municipal rinks where local kids play for free, this is undeniably a hockey town.

But if not for Ed Snider, the founder of the Flyers in 1967, it is possible that the passion for the sport that is everywhere here would not exist.

“Ed basically created hockey in Philadelphia,” said Peter Luukko, the Flyers president.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/31/sp...ider.html?_r=1