A wild hockey brawl involving players, fans, and police officers broke out during an NHL game between the Philadelphia Flyers and the St. Louis Blues on January 6, 1972, at the Spectrum in Philadelphia. TV station KSDK called the fracas "one of the worst player-fan-police fights in hockey history".
At the end of the second period with the Flyers leading 2–0, Blues head coach Al Arbour, followed by Blues defenseman Bob Plager, approached referee John Ashley on a ramp leading off the ice to complain about the officiating. While the three were on the ramp, fans began pouring beer on Arbour and pelting Ashley with trash. Then, after Plager said one fan "took a swing at [Arbour]", Plager rushed into the stands. He was quickly joined by other members of the Blues team as a large-scale brawl broke out between the fans and players.
In total, ten Blues players were involved in the fighting, including Garry Unger, who had brought his hockey stick into the stands and was swinging it with wild abandon. Meanwhile, many fans were fighting back with smaller replica hockey sticks that had been given away that night as a promotion at the Spectrum. Soon, more than a hundred police officers arrived to join the fray, adding to the two dozen already in attendance (eventually more than 200 cops would be involved) and, after about half an hour, began to restore order. Dave Moulder, a patrolman who was among the first to arrive, said, "It was the Blues' sticks against our batons. They were swinging wildly, and caught a couple of people pretty good. Our advantage was that they couldn't keep their balance on the concrete floor on their skates."
Arbour and several other players received injuries that required multiple stitches, while several police officers and many fans suffered injuries as well. According to Gary Miller, a writer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch who was present at the game, the police initially wanted to place the entire Blues team under arrest, and multiple players were placed in handcuffs. While there was some discussion on cancelling the game, eventually an agreement was reached with the referees to allow the game to finish. In the third period, the Blues rallied and scored three unanswered goals from Phil Roberto, Unger, and Gary Sabourin to beat the Flyers 3–2.
As a result of the brawl, three St. Louis players and coach Arbour were arrested on assault charges at the end of the game and taken to jail, where they were photographed and fingerprinted. No fans were arrested. The accused men were given a court date for the next time the team was in town but the NHL managed to help get the charges dropped.
