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<\/p>\nWhat were the odds that the man who served as public address announcer for Game 6 of the Flyers-Bruins Stanley Cup Final back on May 19, 1974, would still be booming \u201cAnd the Flyers are going on the PECO Power Play!\u201d these days?<\/p>\n
If you guessed long, you probably don\u2019t know much about one Mr. Lou Nolan.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s because \u201cLou-u-u-u\u201d is a gamer. When he starts a job, he finishes it. Of course, we don\u2019t know when that official finish date will be yet but you can bet it will be on his own terms.<\/p>\n
Nolan, a South Philly native who now resides in Lower Merion, says one of the reasons he\u2019s still doing this night after night, year after year is because it\u2019s not a job. It\u2019s a lifestyle.<\/p>\n
And a fun one at that.<\/p>\n
He gets to watch ice hockey, something he took a liking to as a young adult and he gets to become friends with everyone from Hall of Famer Bob Clarke to the late Ed Snider to a mayor or two along the way.<\/p>\n
Hockey is the fastest moving of the four major professional sports and no two games are alike. That\u2019s part of the attraction for a fellow who joined the Flyers from Day 1 back in 1967.<\/p>\n
\u201cJoe Kadlec was our PR [public relations] guy and I told him I had a little bit of a hockey background,\u201d Nolan explained in a recent interview at Xfinity Mobile Arena. \u201cI told him if I could help him, I would.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I started out doing stats, running the press box\u00a0 [at the old Spectrum] for a few years. When the announcer left to go with the WHA [Blazers] team in Philadelphia, I said to [vice president] Lou Scheinfeld, \u2018I\u2019d like to take that.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
The rest is history.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was always making announcements on the phone, so the switch was natural,\u201d Nolan said. \u201cI remember getting hit with a bucket of pucks [accidentally] the first game I did. I guess somebody was mad at somebody.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo one thing led to another. All I wanted to do was have a second game. And I did. Now it\u2019s thousands, I guess. I\u2019ve only missed about 10.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nolan said he was introduced to the sport by a classmate at St. Barnabas School in Philadelphia when he was in eighth grade. The classmate\u2019s uncle was a goal judge for the old Philly Ramblers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always took the trolly downtown to get the NHL books that they had on sale,\u201d Nolan said, \u201cbecause you couldn\u2019t get them anywhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n
He has vivid memories of those two Stanley Cup championships, in particular that Game 6 in 1974 at the Spectrum.<\/p>\n
The Bruins tried to put a damper on the Flyers\u2019 magic by having Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito bring a bouquet of roses to anthem singer Kate Smith, who performed \u201cGod Bless America\u201d for special occasions.<\/p>\n
But the ploy didn\u2019t work. The Flyers won the game when the late Rick MacLeish tipped in a point shot from Andre \u201cMoose\u201d Dupont and went on to win 1-0. Then it was sheer bedlam.<\/p>\n
Not long after came the Flyers-Soviet Union game. The Russians were undefeated until they hit Philly. Or shall we say Philly hit them. Hard. The Russians got ticked off and headed off the ice to their locker room in protest.<\/p>\n
Snider told the visitors: No play, no pay. Soon they were back.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Russians heard my announcement of a delay of game penalty,\u201d Nolan said. \u201cThe game was fantastic and so was the drama. It was an interesting situation to say the least.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Flyers went on to win the game and some believe that accomplishment ranks right up with the two Stanley Cups.<\/p>\n
Nolan also smiles when the Flyers\u2019 fight with Ottawa is mentioned. The March 5, 2004, donnybrook wound up with an NHL record 419 combined penalty minutes, a dubious mark that stands to this day.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was amazing,\u201d said Nolan with slightly widened eyes. \u201cCrazy as can be. We couldn\u2019t get one thing out before the next thing happened. It was the only fight of [John] LeClair\u2019s career. [Coach Ken] Hitchcock sent him out there and he came through.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nolan made the move from the Spectrum over to XMA in 1996 without missing a beat.<\/p>\n
When the \u201cPECO Power Play\u201d slogan came along, he took a rather regular approach to it.<\/p>\n
But not for long.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a funny one,\u201d he said. \u201cNow it has a life of its own. It started out as \u2018And the Flyers are going on the PECO power play.\u2019 My producer said, \u2018No, no, no. Give it some juice!\u2019 It eventually became what it is now.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been great. I\u2019m asked to do it a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Photo courtesy of the Nolan family<\/p>\n
The Nolan family, from left, Lou, wife Ellen, son Jeff, son Matt and his wife, Adrienne at the 2022 celebration of Lou\u2019s 50th year behind the microphone. (Photo courtesy of the Nolan family)<\/p>\n
Nolan has received support from his wife, Ellen, and their two sons, Matt and Jeff. Matt and his wife, Adrienne, have a two-year son, Tyler, who\u2019s already getting into hockey.<\/p>\n
As if he had a choice \u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s got his own jersey,\u201d Lou said. \u201c[He\u2019s] going to a game next month. It\u2019s good, my wife, Ellen, she puts up with me as many nights as I am working. It\u2019s a lot of work. You know that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hanging out with the Broad Street Bullies sealed the deal for his commitment to a lifelong career.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I was drawn to it the way all fans are, I enjoy it,\u201d he said. \u201cI was captured by the early teams that had success. They were lunch pail guys. I still know a lot of those guys. They\u2019re still around, still great people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some believe he\u2019s a Philly icon, right up with the late Sixers great Dave Zinkoff.<\/p>\n
\u201cLittle by little, it has added up to something that everybody seems to know me,\u201d Nolan said. \u201cWhen I talk in elevators, sometimes I get the look.\u201d<\/p>\n
What\u2019s the secret to this tireless worker\u2019s longevity?<\/p>\n
\u201cI love to come here and I have great friends here,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a social event as much as it is work. It\u2019s something that you look forward to.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll plan it out at the beginning of the year when the calendars come out, I know where I gotta be. I\u00a0 know what time to be here. Sometimes I\u2019m early, sometimes I\u2019m late.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for the future, let the ice chips fall where they may.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs long as I\u2019m having fun, as long as I can do a good job at it, it will be fine,\u201d he said. \u201cI still feel really good. I can move around well. So I have no complaints.\u201d<\/p>\n
And neither do several generations of Flyers fans.<\/p>\n
Wayne Fish is a freelance writer. Follow his coverage at www.flyingfishhockey.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What were the odds that the man who served as public address announcer for Game 6 of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":503441,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5112],"tags":[1468,5,4,1467,56,5205,43,11211],"class_list":{"0":"post-503440","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-flyers","8":"tag-flyers","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-philadelphia","12":"tag-philadelphia-flyers","13":"tag-philadelphiaflyers","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-top-stories-dln"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116229086607752864","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/503441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}