Honorable Mention: Kate Smith
They called it “The Philly Flu”. Teams would come to play in Philly and their best players would somehow “feel ill” and couldn’t play. Most people chalked it up to the fierce competitiveness and physicality of the Broad Street Bullies. Yeah, that was a big part of it. However, the Flyers had another ace up their sleeve.
We know the story. In the late 1960s, the Flyers would sometimes use her rendition of “God Bless America” instead of the national anthem. For whatever reason, the Flyers would win when she sang, either live or by recording. It got to the point that even after she died, the tradition continued.
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Who knows why it happened, but it did. Whenever Smith sang, the Flyers won. Her record is still an eerie 100-29-5. That seemed enough to shake and quake the opposing teams in major games. For that reason, she deserves to be on this list of scariest Flyers, even if she never actually hit the ice.