Nostalgic Jay Snider recalls Ed Snider, family man

Jay Snider said he and his five siblings have been amazed by the love and support they have received since their father, Ed, died April 11 after a two-year battle with bladder cancer.

"It's been overwhelming," Snider, 58, said this week.

Ed Snider, 83, was the Flyers' chairman and cofounder. He brought the Flyers to Philadelphia 50 years ago and introduced millions of people to what, at the time, seemed like a foreign sport. They embraced the game and the man who cared about winning more than the fans in the nosebleed seats.

"His passion about his team and his players was [unparalleled]," Jay Snider said. "He would defend any of them to the death."

A private family service was held April 14, and Snider was buried at West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd. There was also a gathering at the Union League of Philadelphia, and the family sat shiva at one of his children's homes.

By Jay Snider's estimate, about 1,000 relatives and close friends paid respects to his father during those private events.

A public celebration of Snider's life was held Thursday at 1 p.m. at the Wells Fargo Center, where Jay Snider, Flyers icon Bob Clarke, and others were among the speakers. It was televised live by Comcast SportsNet and streamed on the Flyers' website.

Snider, who served as the Flyers' president from 1983 to 1994 and is now a successful businessman who lives in Los Angeles with his wife, said earlier that Thursday's service was going to be an emotional and difficult day for the family. Afterward, he and his three sons were to head to their vacation home in Maine - where Ed Snider used to take his children - and rehash the memories.

Sometime next week, the Snider family will sort through the complicated legal matters that surround their father's estate.

"It's an emotional time. No. 1, of course, by far, is losing our dad and what he meant to all of us," Snider said. "And then, secondarily, this team was part of our family since 1966, when the franchise was awarded."

In a wide-ranging 90-minute interview Monday afternoon at the Rittenhouse Hotel, Snider said his family would like to remain involved with the Flyers in some capacity.

"I think it would be very emotionally difficult for my family, after 50 years, to be completely estranged and not to be involved in some way - ownership-wise or otherwise. I know that for sure," he said.

Ed Snider owned 24 percent of Comcast-Spectacor, the Flyers' parent company.

"I was 8 or 9, my brother was 11, my sisters were probably 7, 6, and 5 when all this started, and it's such a big part of our lives," said Snider, who keeps close tabs on the league and watches Flyers games via the NHL package. "In so many ways, our family life centered around that team. It's a very emotional thing. I know that everybody in my family would like to maintain an involvement, and I think we'll have that option. Whether that option makes sense for us or not, we have to decide. That will take a little time to sort through."

Snider is busy running other businesses, including Airsoft Megastore, a Southern California online retailer that specializes in air guns for sport.

"I moved on to do other things a long time ago," he said, adding he wouldn't want to be involved with the Flyers "in a different way than my siblings."

Like the Snider family, Comcast said it doesn't want to look at the business relationship with Snider's estate until down the road.

"We want to go through the celebration of Ed's life before we go into the next steps on the business end," John Demming, vice president of corporate communications for the Comcast Corp., said Wednesday.

Though the Flyers became known for their roughhouse tactics during the Broad Street Bullies era in the 1970s, Jay Snider said his father wasn't a fan of fighting in hockey.

Snider said his father wanted the Flyers to become a tough team only after they were pushed around in the early years, especially by St. Louis.

"When he saw that, he said, 'If that's what it takes, I'm going to have the meanest, toughest team there is. My teams aren't going to get beat up again,' " Snider said. "It wasn't like that's what he desired; it's what he reacted to. That was keeping with his character. No one was going to mess with his players."

Growing up in Washington, Ed Snider got into scraps at a young age, his son said, because he would get picked on by kids who belittled his Jewish heritage.

"My dad was strong. Really strong," Snider said. "With what he endured, right to the end, his heart, his lungs and all his vital signs were fabulous. Without cancer, my father would have lived a long time - and a healthy long time. And you know how energetic he was before he got sick. His sister is the same way. She's 88 and sharp as a tack."

Over the years, Jay Snider said, his father "reached out and supported" many of his relatives and friends. "He took care of so many people. I guarantee you that when he passed away, there were dozens of people he was either supporting or had lent money to," Snider said. "It's astounding. I keep hearing from people now. If people came to him, he helped them. I never asked him about it because it's his personal stuff, but I end up hearing about it and finding out about it randomly.

"He had a big roar and a very soft heart."

While running many businesses, Ed Snider kept track of his six children and 15 grandchildren "and always knew what was going on in our lives," Jay Snider said. He said his father was "no teddy bear - when I was growing up, I was scared of getting him mad at me" - and not a doting grandfather, "but he loved them all."

At his private graveside funeral on April 14, Snider said, "one of my sisters said that Dad was always tracking us, and that's a really apt description. We didn't talk to him all the time, and he and I only had short conversations because we understood each other so well. We never had to have long conversations, but somehow he knew and had a handle on where everyone was in their lives - emotionally, or whatever it might be."

As far as his business ventures, "Dad knew who he was. He always said he wanted to be a big fish in a small pond, and he wanted to sleep in his own bed at night," Snider said. "So when we were growing up, he didn't travel very often. At the same time, he wasn't a Little League dad. He came to some of my hockey games, but for the most part, he was building his businesses. He often came home late at night, particularly with all these games, and because he was out late, he tended to sleep in during the mornings, so we'd go to school without seeing him. But he was always there; he was always a presence. And when my parents did travel, it was always him calling to check on the kids."

At the time of his death, Snider was worth an estimated $2.5 billion, according to celebritynetworth.com.

"He slept in his own bed. He didn't travel for business," Snider said. "As successful as he was financially, through his business endeavors, he could have been that much larger if he had decided to run national businesses. For example, when he had Prism, he was the first to think of mixing sports and movies and have a cable business. He could have expanded that all over the country, but he didn't want to. He wanted to be home, and being home, he tracked us, and ultimately, he was a family guy."

There was excitement in Snider's voice when he recalled long-ago summer vacations the family took to a lake in Monmouth, Maine.

"For all of us growing up, we loved it," Snider said. "It was a very low-key lifestyle, and over time, we bought up some land there. The family now has five homes there, and he saw that it happened for the family because we all go there. All the kids can drive golf carts and the cousins visit each other. It's our favorite place, all of us.

"My dad saw into the future. He wanted to make sure he provided something for his whole family to stay together."

Snider said his father was loyal to his children.

"Even if you were having issues in your relationship with him - and luckily I had very few - but you always knew as a dad, if you needed him, he'd be there. Even if you had a knock-down-drag-out argument with him on Thursday night and you called him Friday morning because you needed something, he'd change his schedule" for you. "Just like that. He was always there if you needed him for advice. He would do anything for any of us."

Snider was just as loyal to his players, many of whom worked for the organization after they retired. In a way, he ran the Flyers like a mom-and-pop store.

In 1996, Snider merged the management company Spectacor with the Comcast Corp. to form Comcast-Spectacor.

Comcast was "very hands-off with my dad," Jay Snider said. "They were there to provide whatever he asked for. They didn't interfere. They allowed him to continue as if nothing had changed, so to maintain that type of family-business [atmosphere]. He was never really bottom-line-oriented [with the Flyers]. In other businesses he was, but that one for him never was."

Snider said his father was pleased with the people running the Flyers and the business side - he mentioned Paul Holmgren, Ron Hextall. and Dave Hakstol on the team side, and Shawn Tilger and Dave Scott on the business end - and felt content that the franchise would run smoothly after he passed.

"He knew he was dying," said Snider, his voice tinged with sadness, "and he knew he was leaving the organization in really good shape."

Snider said his father was friendly with a group of men who lived near him in Montecito, Calif. They hung out together, and Ed called it his "boys club." They traveled sometimes and met every Sunday during football season for breakfast at Lucky's. "These were his buddies," said Jay Snider, who attended Episcopal Academy and later made the hockey team at Penn as a walk-on backup goalie.

Snider said that the men would place bets on the NFL games, and that two of his sons, Jamie and Cody, got involved and would talk a few times each week with their grandfather on their strategy for picking the winning teams.

"When they had good years, the two boys got a check," Snider said. "All the winnings went to them. They said it was a pretty good deal because if they lost, granddad absorbed all the losses."

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