Philly athletic success. The memorable photo from 1980 reminds us how special and fleeting it can be

Pete Peeters strapped on his goalie gear and pulled on his Flyers jersey before waiting for the other players to arrive atop the art museum steps. Philadelphia’s sports scene was booming as all four teams played for the championship in a 10-month span and Life Magazine – then one of the country’s premier publications – was in town to capture it.

Joe Kadlec, the Flyers’ advertising director, rushed to see Peeters hours earlier when another player called off the photoshoot.

“With teams like this you need Brotherly Love”

Life Magazine, December 1980

Julius Erving, Tug McGraw and Ron Jaworski met on the steps later that November day in 1980 to create a portrait to be published in next month’s year-end issue of Life. The Flyers, who lost the Stanley Cup Finals earlier this year, needed someone to stand by them. So Peeters stuffed his pads in a bag and hitchhiked with Kadlec.

“All these guys started coming and I was like, ‘What am I doing here?'” said Peeters, who helped the Flyers go 35 straight games unbeaten in the 1979-1980 season. “I still look at it to this day and think the same thing, ‘What the hell am I doing among these three great athletes?’ It was pretty special. I was overwhelmed, shall we say.”

The Flyers, Sixers and Eagles all took first place that day as Gregory Heisler – one of Life’s top photographers – challenged the stars to smile in full uniform with the Benjamin Franklin Parkway at their backs. The Phillies won their first World Series weeks earlier and McGraw, just like he had after the finals were taped, raised his arms as the camera flashed. The backdrop was the skyline, still topped by William Penn.

A month after publication, the Eagles reached the Super Bowl and Philadelphia became the first city to field four teams to the championship in the same season. The 76ers and Flyers finished runners-up in May 1980, the Phillies won it all in October, and the Eagles lost the Super Bowl in January 1981.

The city’s sporting landscape has never been stronger, but the four teams wouldn’t stay at the top forever. The photo is a reminder of just how special the Philadelphia sports scene is right now — the Phillies, Eagles and Union all played for the championship in the space of 99 days — and how fleeting it all can be.

“It just shows how difficult it is to win a championship,” said Jaworski. “All four teams were there and hey, we have one of the four. It’s just hard. Success cannot be taken for granted. A championship cannot be taken for granted.”

fans of each other

Jaworski came to Philly three years ago and moved to a residential area in Voorhees where apparently every Philly athlete lived. Doug Collins was his neighbor, Garry Maddox and Mike Schmidt lived around the corner and Dave Schultz was nearby.

“We used to meet up at a bar on a Friday night and have a drink,” Jaworski said. “It was a different time where you could make friends and escape the madness of the game.”

So that evening, Jaworski not only posed with other athletes on the steps of the art museum, but he stood there with his buddies. He had season tickets for the Sixers, went to Flyers games, and shared a stadium with the Phils. The players, Jaworski said, all supported each other.

Peeters was at the vet with his wife when the Phillies won the World Series and was back three months later when the Eagles rolled over Dallas to claim their ticket to Super Bowl XV. He still remembers barefoot kicker Tony Franklin and marveling at the size of the Eagles lineman who stopped by the Flyers locker room one night. Growing up in Edmonton, Peters didn’t know much about basketball. A few courtside seats at the Spectrum gave him everything he needed to know.

“I just couldn’t believe the speed and the size,” said Peeters. “I had no idea it was so physical under the basket. That’s what really drew me to basketball. Unless you’re on the floor, you don’t see the stuff. I was just this young guy so green and clueless that I really enjoyed all the sports in Philadelphia and the city and the culture and the history. We were very fortunate to do what we did there.”

Up, but not for long

Dick Vermeil ended his last team meeting before the Super Bowl by telling the Eagles that they would be returning to the same room the following night as world champions. The Birds had won 32 of their 48 games in the past three years and advanced deeper in the playoffs each season. A Super Bowl ring seemed to follow next.

“We believed it,” said Jaworski. “We were confident. Not cocky, but confident that we would be Super Bowl champions. It did not happen. As disappointed as we were after that game, we had some confidence because we were a young team.

“We were like, ‘Hey, we’re damn good. We’re hurt now, but we’ll be back.’ We never came back.”

The Eagles won 10 games the next season, lost in the first round, and then finished in either fourth or fifth place for the next six seasons, averaging just 5.5 wins. The Flyers lost in the first round in 1981 and reached the Stanley Cup Finals twice more in the 1980s, but failed to recapture the magic of the Broad Street Bullies of the 1970s.

The Phillies reached the World Series in 1983 thanks to a run by the Wheeze Kids in September before missing the playoffs for nine straight years. The Sixers finally won it all in 1983 and then took almost 20 years to reach the NBA Finals again. The magic on the steps of the art museum didn’t last long.

“I look back on it now and I understand what we did. But at the time I didn’t understand it at all. I was too young,” said Peeters, who was only 22 in 1980 and had 13 seasons in the NHL. “People who come on at a young age, it’s such a great learning experience. You’re always reminded of it by guys like Bobby Clarke and Paul Holmgren and Mel Bridgman and all the guys I’ve played with. They try to explain it to you. But if I speak for myself and nobody else, you’re young.

“I don’t think I understood it when I was very young. Even if they tell me that working hard wasn’t the problem, I worked hard. But then when you get a kick at the cat for a shot at winning a championship and you’re like, “Well, that’s easy.” No, it’s not that easy. You try to do it again, and the older you get, the more you realize that some of the chances you’ve had aren’t because you didn’t try, it’s because things have to fall into place, so be it to be succesfull.”

optimism of today

It’s easy to be optimistic about the current scene after three teams have reached the final stage. even dr J said he remembered 1980 and Bryce Harper posted on Instagram last year that he would like to recreate the photo.

The Sixers ended the month with the third-best first-half record in the Eastern Conference and should enter the postseason in April as title contenders. The Phillies added Trea Turner – one of baseball’s best players – to a lineup that was two wins short of a championship.

The NFC Champion Eagles were set to return most of their starters and appear to have finally found their franchise QB. Union started the season as clear favorites to repeat the Eastern Conference title and have built one of the best academy systems in MLS. The Flyers are on their way to their second straight losing season — something they haven’t done in nearly 30 years — and don’t seem to have a clear direction, but there are some players to dream about.

» READ MORE: Don’t let the Eagles’ loss in the Super Bowl fester like previous disappointments in Philadelphia

If the Sixers reach the Finals, four teams in Philadelphia will be playing for a championship in eight months. All Philly is missing is a Life Magazine profile, which was discontinued in 2000, and a championship.

“It turned out absolutely amazing,” Kadlec said of the photo. “One of our greatest pictures of Philadelphia ever. A great photo.”

“It happened yesterday”

Heisler has included portraits of Bruce Springsteen, Bill Clinton, U2 and Michael Phelps. But his night in Philadelphia was still memorable. He was 26 years old and just beginning a prolific career behind the lens.

“It was a million years ago and I was a baby, but everyone was super excited,” said Heisler, who now teaches in Syracuse. “You can see it. You meet these people all the time. Sometimes they’re in a good mood, sometimes they’re not. I think everyone was super into it because of what it was. It wasn’t Sports Illustrated, it wasn’t normal. They were like, ‘Oh, life. That’s kinda cool.’ It was a different idea and everyone really loved it.”

For the athletes, the photo in Life meant something. The full-page portrait accompanied by a short caption instead of an article captured a special but fleeting time. Jaworski hung the portrait on his office wall while working at NFL Films.

“Pete Peeters was kind of the surprise man in this photo,” Jaworski said. “A lot of people think it was Bernie Parent, but Pete Peeters was having a hell of a year with the Flyers this year and that’s why he was in the photo.”

Peeters framed a copy at his home in Canada. It’s impossible for the guy in the goalie pads not to remember the time he hitchhiked to the art museum and how high the city was.

“It’s like it happened yesterday,” Peeters said. “It’s one of those special events in your life. To be involved in this is just insane. You think ‘why me?’ God must have been watching over me that day. He said, ‘Okay, Pete, you get to hang out with these guys for an hour.’

“Those moments of winning should be cherished because it may never happen. It doesn’t matter what situation you are in, there are always sacrifices and even though you make them, sometimes your dreams don’t come true. But it doesn’t diminish who you are or what you’ve achieved.”