Phila. is a DISGRACE.
The only city in the NHL that DOES NOT PLAY THE ANTHEM before a game. Curse that city.
When I was a kid, Kate Smith would sing God Bless America before some games, and then in the '74 playoffs she became a lucky charm of sorts, with the Flyers winning when she sang. I distinctly remember being disappointed when she was not available to sing, and those times the national anthem was sung. God Bless America is plenty patriotic, and honestly a hell of a lot easier to sing than the anthem.
The really isn't a long history of the Anthem being sung at sporting events or anywhere. The United States didn't have an Anthem until 1931. It took sports to make the anthem popular, but that happened much later than 1931. There's plenty of people around that recall going to sporting events and there was no anthem played. I'm not that old, but I recognize history before me. Pro football is celebrating 100 years and college football 150. I'm not going to call either a disgrace because they didn't play the anthem until relatively recently. However, there's plenty of real reasons to curse both.