I have a great story about Ed Snider. A good friend of mine is a huge Philadelphia sports fan. He and some buddies went down to the Spectrum to see this young kid just out of high school, Darryl Dawkins, play against Spencer Haywood. Dawkins owned him that night. The guys stuck around after the game to see the basketball floor lifted for the ice rink to get ready for the Flyers that same night who were playing the Canadiens. Of course they were kicked out so they went down to that store in the old Spectrum where the players had to walk through to get to the locker rooms.
Now, Ed Snider never knew what city he was born in. The story was that he threw a dart at a map of PA, and it hit Mahanoy City.
So here comes Ed Snyder walking through the store and my friend yells, "Ed, can you do anything for some guys from Mahanoy City ?" No reaction.
Five minutes later a staffer comes out screaming, "Where are the people from Mahanoy City ?" The guys all volunteered. All the guys were escorted back to
meet Ed, and he gave them tickets for the game that night. My friend sent a thank you note to Ed, and he responded. Every year my friend would ask Ed for
tickets (he paid for them), and Ed would oblige. When my friend finally had a child of his own, he wanted to take him to a special game. He asked Ed, and of course,
he got four tickets to a Rangers game. But Ed left a note for my friend, he said "you can have these tickets for free on one condition, bring your son to meet me
before the game....."
