Bobby Orr
Robert Gordon Orr is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player, widely acknowledged as one of the greatest players of all time. Orr used his skating speed, scoring, and play-making abilities to revolutionize the position of defenceman. He played in the National Hockey League for 12 seasons, the first 10 with the Boston Bruins, followed by two with the Chicago Black Hawks. Orr remains the only defenceman to have won the league scoring title with two Art Ross Trophies. He holds the record for most points and assists in a single season by a defenceman. Orr won a record eight consecutive Norris Trophies as the NHL's best defenceman and three consecutive Hart Trophies as the league's most valuable player. Orr was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1979 at age 31, the youngest to be inducted at that time. In 2017, Orr was named by the National Hockey League as one of the "100 Greatest NHL Players" in history.
Orr started in organized hockey at age eight. He first played as a forward, but moved to defence and was encouraged to use his skating skills to control play. Orr's play in Ontario provincial competition attracted the notice of NHL scouts as early as age twelve. At fourteen, Orr joined the Oshawa Generals, the Bruins' junior hockey affiliate, and he was an all-star for three of his four seasons there.
In 1966, Orr joined the Boston Bruins, a team that had not won a Stanley Cup since 1941 and had not made the playoffs since 1959. With Orr, the Bruins won the Stanley Cup twice, in 1970 and 1972. Both times, Orr scored the clinching goal and was named the playoff MVP. In the final achievement of his career, he was the MVP of the 1976 Canada Cup international hockey tournament. In 1976, Orr left Boston as a free agent to join the Black Hawks, but repeated injuries had effectively destroyed his left knee, and he retired in 1978 at age 30.
Orr's first professional contract was one of the first in professional hockey to be negotiated by an agent. It made him the highest-paid player in NHL history as a rookie. His second contract was the first million-dollar contract in the NHL. However, after his retirement, Orr learned he was deeply in debt and he had to sell off most of what he owned. Orr broke with his agent Alan Eagleson and sued the Black Hawks to settle his contract. Orr and his family returned to Boston where Orr went into business to rebuild his finances. Orr aided the investigations that led to Eagleson's fraud convictions and disbarment. Orr also supported a lawsuit that challenged the NHL over its control of its pension plan.
After his hockey career, he became a scout for several professional teams. Orr entered the player agent business in 1996 and was the president of the Orr Hockey Group agency, until its acquisition by the Wasserman Media Group in 2018. Orr is also active in charitable works and in television commercials. Since 1996, Orr has coached a team of junior hockey players in the annual CHL Top Prospects Game.
Hockey career
Early life
Orr was born in the town of Parry Sound on the shores of Georgian Bay in Ontario, Canada. His grandfather, Robert Orr, was a top-tier soccer pro player who emigrated from Ballymena, Northern Ireland to Parry Sound early in the 20th century. Orr's father, Doug Orr, had once been a hockey prospect and was invited to join the Atlantic City Seagulls in 1942 but turned down the offer. Doug Orr instead joined the Royal Canadian Navy, serving during the Second World War. He returned after the war to Parry Sound and Arva Steele, whom he had married before he left for war, and to a job in the CIL dynamite factory. Doug and Arva had five children together: Patricia, Ronnie, Bobby, Penny, and Doug Jr. Bobby was born on March 20, 1948, at St. Joseph's Hospital, where his grandmother Elsie Orr was a nurse. Bobby was a sick baby at birth and his survival was tenuous.Bobby Orr displayed his hockey talents from an early age. Orr played his first organized hockey in 1953 at age five, in the "minor squirt" division, a year after getting his first skates and playing shinny. Although he was tiny and somewhat frail, he soon was able to skate faster than anyone his own age, with speed he demonstrated in races around the rink and in games. Until he was ten years old, Orr played on the wing, as a forward. His coach, former NHL player Bucko McDonald, moved Orr to defence. Although Orr played defence, McDonald encouraged Orr to use his talents as a stickhandler, skater, and scorer to make offensive rushes. According to McDonald: "I used to tell Doug the kid was in his natural position when he played defence. You didn't have to be genius to see that – honest. I don't think Doug agreed, but he accepted my decision." Orr would later credit McDonald: "Bucko taught me almost everything I know."
Orr was noticed by the Boston Bruins in the spring of 1961, playing in a youth hockey tournament in Gananoque, Ontario. The Bruins' Wren Blair described him as "a combination of Doug Harvey and Eddie Shore." The Bruins immediately pursued Orr. Blair made regular visits to the family home. In the fall of 1961, the Bruins invested to sponsor his minor hockey team. Although three other NHL teams were interested in Orr, he signed in 1962 with the Bruins. Orr explained that he signed with the Bruins because "they're a team of the future. They're rebuilding and I want to be part of that building program."
Blair was involved with a plan to start a new Oshawa Generals franchise in a new arena in Oshawa, Ontario. Despite the Bruins already having a junior hockey franchise, the Niagara Falls Flyers, Blair convinced the Bruins to own another. He arranged a deal whereby the Bruins owned 51% of the franchise, but Orr would have to play for Oshawa. When Orr was fourteen, Blair convinced the Orr family to allow Bobby to attend the Flyers' tryout camp. When camp ended and it came time to sign with the Bruins, a meeting with Bruins' owner Weston Adams went sour and Orr headed back to Parry Sound. Blair was able to smooth over the situation and convince Arva that Bobby was old enough to leave home. To get the Orrs' signatures on a "C" Form, committing Bobby to the Bruins at age eighteen, Blair agreed to have Bobby stay in Parry Sound for his schooling, skipping Generals' practices and only driving south to play games on weekends, a three-hour trip one way. The bonus for signing was , a new car and the Bruins would pay to stucco the family home.
Orr debuted in junior hockey in the 1962–63 season for the new Generals in the new Metro Junior A League. Orr was only fourteen, competing against eighteen-, nineteen- and twenty-year-olds. The 1963–64 season brought further changes as the Metro League folded and Oshawa joined the Ontario Hockey Association. Orr moved to Oshawa, where he started attending R. S. McLaughlin high school and boarded with a local family. Orr scored 29 goals to set a junior record for goals by a defenceman and was named to the OHA's first All-Star team.
Orr's goal and point totals increased every year during his junior career, and he was named to the OHA First-All Star team every season he was in the OHA. Orr had his best season in 1965–66, his fourth season of junior. Orr scored 38 goals to increase his goal-scoring record and finished with 94 points to average two points per game for the Generals. The Generals finished fourth in the league, but won the OHA championship, the J. Ross Robertson Cup, by defeating the St. Catharines Black Hawks, the Montreal Junior Canadiens and the Kitchener Rangers. The team defeated the Northern Ontario champions North Bay Trappers and the Quebec champions Shawinigan Bruins to win a berth in the Memorial Cup Final for the junior championship of Canada.
Oshawa's hopes in the 1966 Memorial Cup Final were damaged when Orr suffered a groin injury against Shawinigan, a painful injury that weakens a player's skating ability. To promote the event, held in Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens, the Generals had advertised it would be the last chance to see Orr in junior and were anxious for him to play. Bruins' management demanded Orr not play in the Final, not wanting to risk further damage to their property. Orr and his parents, however, were adamant he be allowed to play for the national championship. As he had not signed to the Bruins, they threatened he would never play for Boston if he was held out. Blair decided to defy the Bruins' ownership and let Orr play. While Orr dressed and played some, he was not a factor and Edmonton defeated Oshawa for the Cup. Oshawa coach Bep Guidolin was fired for letting Orr play, while Blair left the organization of his own accord to join the expansion Minnesota North Stars.
Orr and Eagleson
By the time Orr turned 16 in 1964, he was still two years away from playing in the NHL and his father Doug was dissatisfied with the Bruins' treatment of the prospect. Doug had asked the Bruins' Blair for more money for Bobby and was turned down. Doug Orr met Toronto lawyer Alan Eagleson at a juvenile fastball tournament dinner in Parry Sound and asked Eagleson to help out with the situation. Eagleson agreed to work with the family for free and continued to do so for the next two years. Bobby and Eagleson developed a relationship Orr would later describe as being like brothers. The two soon became a team, discussing Bobby's future plans without his father Doug.Eagleson was determined to get Orr a top salary. When Hap Emms, the general manager of the Bruins offered a US$5,000 signing bonus and US$7,000 and US$8,000 for his first two years in the league, Eagleson countered with US$100,000 for the two years. Orr would refuse to play with the Bruins and played for Canada's national team instead, like Carl Brewer. Orr wanted desperately to play in the NHL, but he went along with Eagleson's strategy and was willing to play for the nationals. The Bruins and Orr agreed on a US$25,000 signing bonus, and a salary "less than $100,000" for the two years, a figure kept secret. Speculation has ranged on an annual salary of US$25,000 to US$40,000 at a time when the typical maximum rookie salary was US$9,000. The official signing ceremony was done on Emms' boat, the Barbara Lynn, where Eagleson and Emms had conferred during negotiations.
At the time, it made Orr the highest-paid player in league history. Beyond that, the signing became one of the most important in the history of professional hockey. Until that time, players had been forced to accept whatever NHL management paid in salaries. It was the start of the player's agent era in professional hockey. For Eagleson, it was the start of his sports business empire. Based on the Orr signing, Eagleson would become the executive director of the new National Hockey League Players' Association and started on his rise to become one of the most powerful men in the sport and business of ice hockey.