Philadelphia Flyers

The Philadelphia Flyers jerseys have had the distinctive “Flying P” logo on the front since the team started in 1967. The Flyers were not the only team from Philadelphia to play in the NHL. Before the days of the league’s “Original Six” the Philadelphia Quakers played their one and only season in Philadelphia in 1930-1931.

Upon learning that Philadelphia had been awarded an NHL franchise, it was announced that the colors would be orange, black and white and that there would be a name-the-team contest. The choice of colors was influenced by the orange and black of the 1930 Philadelphia Quakers hockey team. The naming contest drew more than 11,000 submissions with a nine year old boy winning with the name Flyers.

The basic look and concept of the Philadelphia Flyers jersey has been maintained throughout the years, however there have been some significant tweaks and updates. The original road whites sported solid white numbers on orange sleeves and solid orange numbers on the back. The original orange home jerseys had black numbers on the white sleeves and solid white on the back.

In 1970 the NHL switched to home teams wearing white and road teams wearing the dark colors. The Flyers adopted two colored jersey numbers. Home white jerseys trimmed their sleeve numbers in black and orange and orange numbers on their back in black.

In 1972, the Philadelphia Flyers home white uniforms added names to back of jerseys and increased the size of the numbers on the arms. The font of the numbers were given distinctive designs. In 1973, the Flyers added names to their away jerseys at the request of NBC who was covering the NHL Game of the Week. Initially, they just added a white nameplate to the orange jerseys.

In 1981, the famous, or infamous, long pants were introduced by the Flyers. Not seeing knee pants and long woolen socks was jarring to hockey fans. The only difference between the home and road version was the striping on the black background. The pants were also known as Cooperalls.

1982 saw design changes in the Philadelphia Flyers uniforms. Shoulder and arm stripes were increased. The Cooperalls had the stripes removed and the logo added at the bottom of the leg. In 1983, the NHL banned Cooperalls and the team had to go back to the regular hockey pants and socks. Wider and squarer shoulder drapes and black lower sleeves gave the uniforms a clean, crisp look.

The Reebok EDGE jerseys were unveiled in 2007 featuring white shoulders with orange and black sections at the elbows with black cuffs. Roads whites have orange shoulders with black and white at the elbows with black cuffs.

The Philadelphia Flyers have two Stanley Cups under their belt, 1974 and 1975. Retired numbers include: Bernie Parnet, Jersey #1; Barry Ashbee, Jersey #2; Bill Barber, Jersey #7; Bobby Clarke, Jersey #16. Current hopes rest on scorers Dannie Briere and Mike Richards.