In Search of Bobby Orr by Stephen Brunt
Just finished reading this book today. It doesn’t delve too deeply into Bobby’s personal life, but rather tells the fantastic story of Bobby Orr, the best player to ever play hockey. Before this book I really didn’t know a lot about Orr, other than that he was one of the greatest players to ever play, and that his career was cut short due to knee injuries. This book could be separated into two halves. The first half which tells the story from when he was a child playing in Parry Sound, how he got discovered by the Bruins, and the lengths that a one Wren Blair took to get Bobby to choose the Bruins over the other 5 teams in the league (back then there wasn’t an amateur draft). Then into the second half which starts with the relationship formed between Allen Eagleson and Bobby Orr, and how the relationship between the two of them changed the NHL forever.
After reading the book I have a bit of a bittersweet feeling towards Eagleson. The changes that came from a lot of what he did were very positive and gave the players a lot more respect and power. However Eagleson also abused the power he was given by the players and in the end betrayed them all; none so much as he betrayed Bobby Orr. I couldn’t believe that Eagleson didn’t even tell Orr about the deal from Boston that would have given Orr 18 percent in the team after his playing career was over, and that he convinced Bobby to sign in Chicago instead (The fact that Orr actually played in Chicago was news to me). It is really too bad that Eagleson didn’t get more than a little slap on the wrist for all the bad deeds he did.
This book is a great read, and one that every hockey fan should read.
6 comments
I’m glad to see you’ve finished the book. It really is a crazy story. I think the real story of the book is that there is no story behind the story, because Orr never wanted there to be a story. Such an enigma.
And, yeah, as a human being, Eagleson was/is a piece of shit.
I couldn’t believe that Orr’s children never once have skated, or played hockey for that matter…
Just the crazy little things, like the fact that there are no known photographs of his wife. Or the fact that he went into the exact same profession that fucked him over.
Yeah that is so weird. From wikipedia, it says he represents these players:
“The group represents such surging young talent as Jason Spezza, Eric Staal, Rick DiPietro, Nathan Horton, Jeff Carter, Anthony Stewart and Brian Boyle.”
Not a bad crop of young talent if you ask me.
Here’s something really disgusting. Look what Eagleson’s auctioning off for PROFIT! Keep in mind all of this stuff was given to him as gifts as thanks for all of the ‘good’ stuff he did.
http://www.classicauctions.net/cgi-bin/site/list.cgi?op=viewcat&categorynumber=1
Alan Eagleson was/is an awful human being – but what would you expect from a lawyer with political aspirations? Anyway, Bobby is partly to blame (and yeah, I think he is the greatest of all time, too) for allowing Eagleson to assume such control over his life and finances off the ice. Orr’s naivete, maybe even his laziness, allowed a piece of filth like Alan Eagleson to do his dirty deeds and that needs to be borne in mind.
The book is a great cautionary tale for young players.
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