Ed Snider quotes, through the years

(Ed Snider died on Monday at 83. Through the years, his was a personality as big as his accomplishments. Here are quotes, from Snider and about Snider, that hopefully reflect the man and what he meant to Philadelphia. They were compiled by Daily News staff writer Ed Barkowitz.)

"Being a member of the gang on your street was almost necessary for survival."

- Snider on his childhood neighborhood in Washington, D.C.

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"I was a sports nut, really, and I had seen a couple of hockey games, and it blew me away. Right away I thought it was the greatest spectator sport I had ever seen . . . the hitting, the magnificent skating."

- Snider on what convinced him to pursue an NHL franchise in the mid-1960s

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"Eddie has a long-term contract and I don't intend to welch out of it."

- Eagles owner Jerry Wolman after firing Snider the same night in 1967 that the Flyers played their first home game. Wolman eventually paid Snider more than $250,000 in severance (the equivalent of $1.5 million today)

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"There are plenty of things I (still) can do. I still own 60 percent of the hockey club. That gives me plenty to do. But this hurts because this was what I loved. The Philadelphia Eagles. I was so close to that. I love football. That was all I wanted to do . . . I think I'd like a hot roast beef sandwich with mashed potatoes to celebrate being fired."

- Snider after the appeal of his firing to NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle was denied

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"I did it because I believed that the Flyers and the Spectrum could not fail. I knew if I worked hard, stuck it out, that I would succeed. Thank God that's what happened."

- Snider on taking over the debt-ridden Spectrum from Wolman in 1971

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"Even Scrooge took a chicken to the guy's house."

- Jerry Wolman's reaction that Snider often gave Christmas presents to his players

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"This was a very important game and our guys blew it. It's time they find out if they belong in this league. They have the ability – they need the dedication to do it. If they don't, they'll wind up nowhere."

- Snider after the Flyers lost to the St. Louis Blues on Jan. 6, 1972, Snider's 39th birthday

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"I've made a lot of mistakes in judgment like that . . . I should have talked to Frank in our office. The trouble is I get so involved in the game. That's the great thing about hockey: it makes people do what they don't think they'd ever do."

- Snider, after vehemently complaining to Frank Udvari, NHL supervisor of officials, following a game in 1972-73

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"The worst thing in sports is trading (players). We're trying to build loyalty, then we turn around and trade somebody. It eats you up to trade a guy who's given 1,000 percent for you. It disrupts his life."

- Snider, in 1973.

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"When you get a draft pick like Bobby Clarke, it's part intelligence, part luck. The owner has to study the whole (organization) and ask 'Do I have the right people?' Right now, I feel we do."

- Snider, midway through the 1972-73 seasons, and a year before the team's first championship.

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"I say we'll be the best of those teams that started with us. We'll win the Stanley Cup before Minnesota."

- Snider after the Flyers failed to win a playoff series in their first five years of existence. They won the Cup in Year 6. In 26 years in Minnesota, the Stars never won it.

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"A lot of time, work and money has put us where we are today. Now that we are there, we must work even harder. We do not want a team that will have a fleeting moment of glory then fall by the wayside. We want a team that will reach the top and remain there. It is what you, our fans, deserve. In short, we must bid high in order to obtain and keep players who can provide the kind of exciting, winning hockey you have come to expect."

- Snider in a letter to season ticket holders announcing a $1 increase for the 1973-74 season, the first in which the Flyers would win the Stanley Cup. The letter was sent the day after the Flyers reacquired goaltender Bernie Parent. Ticket prices were upped from $4.50-$8.50 ($24-$45 today).

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"That was the second most-electrifying game in the history of this building. The first, of course, was the 1-0 win over Boston (to win the 1974 Stanley Cup). That game showed what international competition can be at its best. I think the fans got more than their money's worth. In fact, they still talk about it."

- Snider reflecting on the 1976 victory over the mighty Soviet Red Army

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"Tell 'em they're not getting paid."

- Snider to officials of the Red Army team, which walked off the Spectrum ice in the first period after a violent hit by Flyers defenseman Ed Van Impe on Soviet star Valeri Kharlamov. It was enough to make them resume playing.

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"His chin ran into my elbow and down he went."

- Van Impe on the hit

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"Anybody who's impartial knows we took a screwing today. The officials who come out of Montreal and Toronto don't want us to win . . . The problem with this league is (supervisor) Scotty Morrison. He should be shot."

- Snider following Game 6 of the 1980 Stanley Cup Finals in which the Islanders scored a goal after an offsides was missed by linesman Leon Stickle. New York went on to win the first of its four consecutive championships.

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"It was a terrible thing to say and I regret it. Haven't you ever said things like that and didn't mean them?"

- Snider, three days later

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"I will never forget walking out of the Spectrum that night. I was thinking that this was the best team we ever had. I was thinking they would be even better than the Broad Street Bullies. Pelle was the backbone of the team. The contrast between that night and the next morning was extreme."

- Snider comparing the night in November of 1985 the Flyers beat Boston to improve to 12-2 with waking up and learning that star goaltender Pelle Lindbergh had been killed in a car accident with a blood-alcohol level of .24

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"It teaches you that what's important in life is your own work, your accomplishments. In essence, a man's work is the most important thing in his life and the money you get is just the reward."

- Snider in 1985 discussing objectivism, a philosophy espoused notably by Russian-born novelist Ayn Rand (1905-1982)

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"I picked Eddie out of the gutter, brought him on board, gave him a job, bought him a house, bought him a car, gave him interests in the Flyers and the Spectrum, then he turned around and put a knife in my back. He's ruthless. He won't let anything stand in his way of financial success."

- Jerry Wolman, in 1989

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"The bottom line is: What has Wolman got to do with me today? I took the Spectrum out of bankruptcy. It was the laughingstock of the country. So the Spectrum started, as far as I'm concerned, in 1971, when I took it out of bankruptcy. No one gave me the Spectrum. No one gave me the Flyers."

- Snider's response, in 1989

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"The Lindros trade was the gutsiest move in the history of pro sports. Jay had a lot to be proud of. It's painful to me he never got the credit he deserved. I guess his big mistake was the handling of the Bob Clarke situation (when Clarke was fired as general manager in 1990). Bob was the hero and Jay became the boss's incompetent son. That's just not true, but he never recovered."

- Snider's take in 1994 on the 11 years son Jay Snider ran the Flyers

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"It will be an asset to the city that I'm sure will outlast me. That makes me very proud. But if I had known what I was getting involved in and how difficult it was going to be, I might have had second thoughts."

- Snider on building what is now the Wells Fargo Center and the difficulty negotiating with then-Sixers owner Harold Katz

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"I started the Flyers. I was involved in building the Spectrum. I built the First Union Center; put everything I had on the line to build it. When you talk about attendance records for the Sixers, it doesn't happen without the First Union Center.

"So the point is, when you ask me to give up my so-called job, I own one-third of everything I built. It's a difficult thing for me to decide when I'm going to step down. And because Pat went public with his demands, I gave an immediate answer that it was out of the question. But I still wanted him to stay on and run the Sixers. "

- Snider following the 2001 resignation of Sixers team president Pat Croce

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"His history is ancient. He's paid his dues, he was a kid. We've checked out other areas since then and they all come up nice, clean, positive in a lot of different ways."

- Snider following the 2002 acquisition of Billy Tibbetts, who eight years earlier was 17 when he was convicted of statutory rape of a 15-year-old. Three weeks later, the Flyers released Tibbetts.

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"This has been one of the hardest decisions I've ever had to make. The Spectrum is my baby. It's one of the greatest things that has ever happened to me."

- Snider on the impending closing and demolition of the Flyers' first home

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"I grew up in a rough neighborhood and we had to use our fists. Kids today are facing guns. I can't imagine how frightened I would have been each day to go to school. It's horrible. I just wanted to do what I could and doing it through hockey is the most appealing thing to me. We talk about the hockey aspect of it, but these kids have to get good grades. We help them with their homework. We teach them life skills. There's an educational component to this."

- Snider talking about the youth hockey foundation he established in 2005

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"I've never put my name on anything, but I put my name on this because I actually want this to be my legacy."

- Snider on why the Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation is named what it is

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"Everyone knows what he means to the Flyers. Without Mr. Snider, there would be no Flyers. He's obviously very passionate. If he's not the most passionate owner in the league, I'm not sure who it would be. I don't think he misses too much that goes on. Even just talking to his wife a little bit today, he watches every game and won't miss anything. She said it brings a lot of happiness to him."

- Former Flyers defenseman Luke Schenn, who still was with the team when they visited Snider this most recent New Year's Eve

@EdBarkowitz