Person:John Casey (56)

Rev. John F. Casey, O.S.A., was a longtime unofficial team chaplain of the Philadelphia Flyers. He was inducted into the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame in 1991.

Asbury Park Press, Feb. 23, 1986:

When the National Hockey League announced its plans to approve a franchise for Philadelphia for the 1967-68 season, Father Casey was in heaven. He sought to find out as much as he could about the new team. He wanted to get tickets. To be in on the ground floor. "I wanted to be the first in line for ticket," said Casey. Father Casey has tickets in Section T at The Spectrum to this day. He seldom sits there, however, because, like Chicago Stadium, he has the run of the building, here, too. He says his relationship with the Flyers "was like osmosis." "I got to know Keith Allen (the first Flyers coach, now executive vice president) and his wife, Joyce. And became good friends with (Fred) Shero. And later with Pat Quinn. Then I would get invited to the Christmas parties and luncheons and things like that," he says. And then he became unofficially or officially or whatever you want to call it, he became the Flyers chaplain.

Philadelphia Inquirer, Sep. 9, 2000:

The Rev. John F. Casey, 88, an Augustinian priest whose sense of humor, wit and songs delighted the Philadelphia Flyers while he served as their unofficial chaplain for nearly 30 years, died of heart fialure Thursday at St. Thomas Monastery at Villanova University. Father Casey, who had served parishes in Chestnut Hill and Havertown, was remembered as a "character and such a likable little guy that everyone loved him," said Keith Allen, the Flyers' executive vice president and ofrmer team coach and general manager during their Stanley Cup victories in the mid-1970s. Allen said Father Casey was always upbeat and enjoyed hanging around the players, particularly off the ice and at a piano. "He played the piano darned good," Allen said, "and he knew every old-time song." When the Flyers trained years ago at a camp near Portland, Maine, the players and Father Casey would visit a nearby restaurant for dinner after practice. "After we had our dinner," Allen said, "Father Casey headed for the piano and started playing. The players would gather around and sing with him, even the beer-drinking songs. We stayed until bedtime." Father Casey would attend all home games, and team owner Ed Snider arranged to have him driven to most of the games. On playoff road games, Father Casey joined Snider on the team's chartered plane. Joe Watson, who played with the Flyers from 1967 to 1978, said Father Casey was a prolific storyteller. "Each story was better than the old one," Watson said. "and I used to kid him when he would come to the home games with beautiful young ladies. They were from Chestnut Hill Academy and they would drive him to the games." The Flyers did not have team prayers before games, but once, in 1985, player Murray Craven asked for prayers for a three-goal hat trick. Father Casey replied: "Don't be greedy. I can get you one or two, but don't ask too much." Once Father Casey arrived ath the Flyers training camp and games, "he became part of the gang," Allen said. When the franchise was organized in 1967, Father Casey purchased a season ticket. But when Flyers owner Snider heard about it, he made Father Casey a permanent guest of the team, and eventually he was adopted as the nondenominational chaplain. "He used to hang out in the locker room after games and the players would look for him," said Linda Panasci, the team's director of community relations. "He would give them high-fives as they left for the ice, and it became a ritual." In the last couple of years, Father Casey's health faltered and he had been unable to attend games. Father Casey used to bring his Boston terrier to the games, and when the pet died, the Flyers chipped in and presented him with a terrier puppy. Father Casey was born in Rosemont and graduated from Villanova University with a bachelor's degree in philosophy in 1936. He pursued his theological studies at Augustinian College in Washington, where he was ordained in 1939. His first assignment was at St. Rita's High School in Chicago. In 1953, he was transferred to St. Denis Parish in Havertown as associate pastor and assigned to the newly established Monsignor Bonner High School in Drexel Hill, where he taught music. Other assignments included Our Mother of Consolation Parish in Chestnut Hill, where he served as chaplain to the motherhouse of the Sisters of St. Joseph. In 1994, he entered St. Thomas Monastery on the Villanova campus. There are no immediate survivors. A viewing will be held at 6:30 p.m. Monday at St. Thomas Villanova church on the college campus, followed by a Funeral Mass at 8 p.m. Burial will be Tuesday in Calvary Cemetery in West Conshohocken. The procession will leave St. Thomas Church at 9 a.m.