It has been more than a decade since Reggie Leach attended a Flyers Wives Fight for Lives Carnival.
Ahh, but The Rifle has returned fully cocked and loaded for Sundays special 35th Anniversary Carnival at the Wells Fargo Center.
The famed LCB line with Leach-Clarke-Barber will be signing autographs as a unit, and also penning their names to a special Winter Classic pictures that will be auctioned off.
I was here when they started it 35 years ago and I think its a wonderful thing, Leach said. The Flyers organization has kept it up and kept everyone interested in hockey. Theyve done a great job.
Memories of his first Carnival? How about getting wet.
I remember when the wives first got it started we were a bunch of young guys at the time, he said. I was always stuck in the dunk tank. I always liked being in there first because you can get it over with and leave.
Everything was great back then. It was like a big fundraiser. I didnt think it would become as big as today. Over the years, it just grew and grew.
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Leach said it was wonderful to play again with his former teammates during the Winter Classic.
I had not seen them for a long time, he said. We actually spent New Years Eve together after all these years with our families. Which was wonderful.
The roots of the Carnival go back to Barry Ashbees battle with leukemia in 1977. A picture of Ashbee still hangs in Clarkes office at Voorhees Skate Zone.
The family thing is very true with Mr. Snider bringing all these guys back, Leach said. They brought all these guys back for Winter Classic representing different decades as Flyers. I thought it was the greatest thing they ever did.
Leach said the death of Ashbee lingered for a very long time within the organization after 1977,
It was devastating for us at the time but I am very happy they started this Carnival for him, said Leach, who never actually played with Ashbee as a Flyer.
Leach, who is of Indian descent, lives on Manitoulin Island in the Lake Huran area. He lectures First Nation people about drug and alcohol abuse and also does motivational speaking.
Thats what I dedicate myself, too today, he said proudly.
E-mail Tim Panaccio at tpanotch@comcast.net