HISTORY

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HISTORY

It was sometime during the winter of 1974, the Flyers were bullying their way their first Stanley Cup & a group of kids took the first steps to becoming Collingdale Hockey Legends. The next spring the Flyers would repeat as Champions & we were hooked for good. Half the neighborhood was running around in #9 Bob Kelly jerseys & Mr. Coughlin had organized the first league any of us would play in. The sport would consume us, first were the white Phil Esposito blades & Tony Esposito masks, along with the roller skates with the metal wheels. We would wear the blade of our sticks down to the width of about an inch and a half & just destroy our black skates, when we did you just stole your sisters white ones & kept on playing. The net was usually two metal trash cans with a broken stick laid across the top, spread about four feet apart. Every big trash day meant new goalie pads and every goal was an imaginary case of Tastykakes. Starting with hardly any equipment we talked & planned who should ask for what hockey stuff for Christmas & birthdays. Before long it was the Bobby Clarke stick with the orange blade over the burner on the stove to get the curve just right & the blue Fireball skates with the rubber wheels. Those skates would last longer but you would steal you sisters eventually & the goalie masks were more like Bernie Parent’s & they would be decorated with Testors' paints or magic marker. Any day off from school meant a two net game, we would head up to St. Joe’s to our own 3 sided rink between the old school & the fence on Woodlawn Ave. We would skate up carrying one net & we used the back fence as the other. Or we would head to the tennis courts at the park unless it was cold enough for the ponds to freeze. When it was you would play until you were exhausted, walk home soaked with sweat, freezing to death & starving all the while planning to go right back down tomorrow. By this time the younger guys were playing in the streets, learning the take back rule & getting the same taste of hockey as the older guys when USA stuns the world & wins Olympic Gold. We had more heroes to look up to and added USA jerseys to our wish lists. The younger guys would be the first from the neighborhood to play in the THL at the Springfield rink where they would win scoring titles, lead the league in penalty minutes & win championships. Many of them would go on make Bonner a powerhouse for many years, win more titles including a Flyers Cup & some would go on to play in college. Meanwhile, the older guys were playing in street leagues in Upper Darby, Dek leagues in Tinicum, out back of Timlin’s or in the Value Thrift parking lot. Then it was on to The Family Fun Spot where a lot of the guys, old & young, played together & against each other using a new weapon, the Mylec Air Flow. But the young guys played a different style game, one they learned watching Wayne Gretzky & the Oilers, it still shows in their play today, they can still light it up. As the originals got older they would play for whichever bar would buy the jersey & first round after each game, some would just retire & others would start up a Tuesday night skate at the old THL rink. The young guys continued to win where ever they played, Aston or Marple, still to this day. Then comes the next generation, different cycle same result, Briarcliff & Marple roller leagues, THL @ Springfield, Skatium Sunday league, club teams, High School teams, more scoring titles, more championships. Fast forward to the Christmas holidays 2005, 3am in of all places North Wildwood, two Collingdale Legends talking over many beers about how many good hockey players came from the neighborhood. One thing leads to another & The Classic is born. The first in the spring of 2005 was the smallest, only about 16 players, but it has grown to more than 30 guys in just the third year with more skaters joining us each year.

You could read this after any given year & the same thing could be said, it’s about family & friends coming together once a year for some great hockey spread out over a couple of generations, capped off by some cold beers, old stories & lots of laughs & of course plans for next year’s game. draft