Today, we're looking at Score! My Twenty-Five Years with the Broad Street Bullies, by Gene Hart.

Philadelphia hockey in the seventies was summed up in three words: Broad Street Bullies. They acquired a reputation for being an extremely physical team, pushing, pounding and banging every single team they faced. The team was successful to the point of winning back to back Stanley Cup titles in the mid-seventies. Colorful characters such as Dave “the Hammer” Schultz, Bob “Hound” Kelly, “Moose” Dupont, and, probably the best-known Flyer from the seventies, Bobby Clarke, who would captain the championship teams.

This book will appeal to even the non-Flyers fans, because of the depth that Gene Hart goes into with the history of the team, as well as what's happening around the league. He draws you into a story with an easy-going, yet descriptive style. I found myself wanting to focus on every word as he would describe an incident, or tell a story about a player's career. He drops humor in the same paragraphs as dead-serious prose.

The ups and downs of this 25-year period are chronicled in a manner that is almost conversational; you get the feeling that you're sitting in the living room while he tells you story after story, and in some cases, that's exactly what he's doing.

The book ends around 1990, with the firing of Bobby Clarke from his General Manager position. While time has left us the ability to see what the Flyers have done since, the book leaves us with the anticipation of what will come next.

As a final piece, there is a list of all the players that have played for the Flyers to that point, listed by jersey number. It's a fun few pages, and a nice way to finish off the book.

Even if you're not a Flyers fan, it's worth reading as a history of a hockey team with the ups and downs, through championships, the highs and lows that players can go through. Extremely well written.

Link to Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Score-Twenty-Five-Years-Street-Bullies/dp/0929387171/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1371166526&sr=8-1&keywords=score%21+my+twenty+five+years+with+the+broad+street+bullies

Link to Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/score-gene-hart/1111631416?ean=9780929387178