Gene Hart proved once and for all that a beloved announcer is associated with a team as much as any favorite player or coach. For Gene Hart and the Philadelphia Flyers faithful, that love affair began the moment the team took to the ice in 1967. The man who became known as The Voice, calling play-by-play for more than 2,000 games, six Stanley Cup finals, five All-Star series and two NHL-Soviet All-Star series started in broadcasting more by accident than design. "When I got out of the military in 1957, I was officiating sports events in Atlantic County -- football, baseball, basketball. Just after a basketball game at Atlantic City High, I was in the Athletic Director's office and a broadcaster named Ralph Glenn said, 'Gee,I got a problem, I have to go up and do a game alone in Trenton on Tuesday.' So I said 'I'll go along.'"

That chance encounter turned him into a regular in the three-man South Jersey broadcast team of Hart, Glenn and Al Owen. Like an actor waiting for his big break, Hart kept his day jobs: teaching in the public schools, selling cars, operating a radio station, and serving as assistant public relations director for South Philadelphia's Aquarama.

When Philadelphia got an NHL franchise, Hart submitted audition tapes. Short on cash, the Flyers couldn't afford to bring in an experienced Canadian announcer like other new teams had done; they needed someone whose "real" job was flexible enough to allow him to announce Flyers games on the side.

"And," Hart explained, "they needed someone who wasn't too concerned with how much money he made or didn't make." He got the gig, for $50 a game. For Gene it was the opportunity of a lifetime.

He was grateful for the chance but figured he was an interim solution until the club could afford big time talent. It turns out HE was the big time talent. From the team's inception through the 1994-95 season he was in the broadcast booth calling every pass, every check, and of course every G-O-O-O-A-A-A-L-L-L-L!

Two years after retirement, he returned to call televised games for The Philadelphia Phantoms, the Flyers AHL affiliate, during the 1997-98 and 1998-99 seasons.

Hart's unique style and enthusiasm earned him a place in the heart of every Philadelphia sports fan and, in 1997, enshrinement in The Hockey Hall of Fame. He passed away on July 14, 1999.