Happy 75TH!! Birthday, Bobby Orr!

[Noexcusesfornumber5]

You didn't run the ice before Bobby Orr as a defensive player
You couldn't find a better offensive player outside of Gretzky.
It's really a pick you're best and go with it.

 

[maust]

Another great Bobby Off story....

The St Louis Blues defenseman (Noel Picard) whose stick helped launch Orr airborne on THAT goal had a daughter who went to college in Boston. Orr looked after her and helped her thru some financial difficulties. Picard did not ask for this help. Orr just did it when he found out his daughter was there. Nobody would know about this if Picard didn't tell the story in an interview many years later.

The framed photo behind Picard in his home during that interview? Yup, a photo of that famous goal signed personally to Noel. Orr's opponents universally loved the guy.

Orr is the superstar we all wish our 'guy' to be. Williams, Russell, Bird and Brady each gave it their all while they played here and not a one of them owed us a damn thing when they said their goodbyes and rode off into the sunset. Orr not only continues to pay his blessings forward in countless unsung ways but he does it here. He isn't in Florida, LA or some gated retirement community in Arizona, he walks our streets as one of us. It's our spaghetti dinner fundraisers and youth hockey benefits he graces and our hospitals he still quietly visits. Even though he's far too nice a guy to ever be a true Masshole, he chooses to be one of us.

That is why he is OUR Bobby, THE Boston Superstar, our sports icon. The one our community loves that actually loves us back.

 

[captain stone]

Orr is the superstar we all wish our 'guy' to be. Williams, Russell, Bird and Brady each gave it their all while they played here and not a one of them owed us a damn thing when they said their goodbyes and rode off into the sunset. Orr not only continues to pay his blessings forward in countless unsung ways but he does it here. He isn't in Florida, LA or some gated retirement community in Arizona, he walks our streets as one of us. It's our spaghetti dinner fundraisers and youth hockey benefits he graces and our hospitals he still quietly visits. Even though he's far too nice a guy to ever be a true Masshole, he chooses to be one of us.

That is why he is OUR Bobby, THE Boston Superstar, our sports icon. The one our community loves that actually loves us back.

If your's is the last comment in this thread, then I can't think of a better way to end it than that.

 

[jimnance]

Growing up in Boston in the 60's, I was a huge football,basketball,baseball and boxing fan- both to watch and participate in. Hockey- not so much. Bobby Orr changed that. He  made me watch hockey. I acquired a greater appreciation for the game. Once he was gone,my interest level fell off and now I only watch the B's if they're in the playoffs.
But that shows the greatness of Orr.
And I was well-aware of how classy a human being he was. And still is.GOAT.

 

[borg]

Back around 2000, I played golf at a Dana-Farber event in FL which featured an incredible roster of Boston sports legends (Ted Williams, Yaz, Havlicek, Bill Lee, etc) and others (Otto Graham) but the only athlete who really moved the needle for me that day was Bobby Orr, who nailed me on the thigh with his errant golf shot on the chipping green. Haven't washed that thigh since.

 

[TomPatriot]

Greatest player who played all 200ft.

Beautifully.

 

[BUSTAMOVE]

My memories were when the other team would get a Powerplay.
It was game on for 4.
It looked liked the other players were standing still as Orr ragged the puck while 2-3 players chased him
Orr was so fast but he looked like it was effortlessly.
He was one tough son of a ***** too.
Keith Magneson would get his clock cleaned by Orr one fight after another. So one offseason Magneson took boxing kessons. Orr kicked his ass again

 

[maust]

He was one tough son of a ***** too.
Keith Magneson would get his clock cleaned by Orr one fight after another. So one offseason Magneson took boxing kessons. Orr kicked his ass again

The post boxing lessons fight you are talking about is on youtube.
If anyone can find the "fight" from the previous year that precipitated it online I'd appreciate the link. I can recall it vividly, Magnuson took a cheap shot on Sanderson, crosschecking him in the head while Sanderson was on one knee getting up after a whistle. The reason "fight" is in quotation marks is it only lasted 6 punches and only one guy connected. Magnuson got one off that Orr blocked, five trip hammer punches later Magnuson was on the ice with two black eyes, a couple of missing Chiclets, his nose spread halfway across his face and his conscious mind somewhere in Saskatchewan. It was a surgical demolition. Magnuson dropped to the ice like a rag doll, Orr skated over and helped Sanderson get up.

Props to Magnuson though, the guy was tough. He took some ferocious beatings, always willing to go. Unfortunately for him, he was just not very good at it.

 

[DarrylS]

God help me I do love old gin mills, dives and bike bars. Especially where the TV is the only new thing in the joint for the past 30 years and the B's are on it

When I travel always seek out old bars in better neighborhoods, nothing quite like sitting at a bar like that with my wife and having a draft, usually sports on the TV.. hit run of curling for a while.

Was in NOLA recently and there was one of those neighborhood bars nearby, saw something never saw before, the mirror behind the booze was littered with yellow "post its", asked the bartended what those were for and he told us they were "IOU's" from some of the folks who frequented the bar, then he added a couple of them belong to dead folks.

 

[captain stone]

Just wanted to add, before the thread fades/is moved to the Bruins forum, how disappointed I was in the NHLN's non-coverage of Bobby's 75th on its NHL Now programme yesterday afternoon from 4-6pm, which I DVRed & watched later... Even during a long tele-interview with Phil Esposito no less, Orr's name was brought-up only when comparing his skating ability with Conor McDavid's; and his birthday wasn't mentioned At All until they were literally walking off the set at 6:00, yet someone's 3-year-old kid's birthday was given face time right before then...

I feel like further commentary is needed, but I'm going to leave it at that... Sad.

 

[State]

This thread helped me realize how unparalleled Bobby Orr was and is. Hockey player and human. One of a kind.

Maybe Bob Cousy, who is still with us at 94, is a close second.

Superstars now are so isolated. They need to be. Social media sucks.

 

[State]

The kind and classy gesture by the Guys giving flowers to all the expectant mothers has Bobby Orr’s approval. Sounds like a move a hockey player would make.

Did Lawrence Guy play hockey as a youth like Sidy Sow?

 

[Triumph]

No ****. Anybody and everybody knew the value of having Orr on defense. Orr would have destroyed Gretzky in their primes.
Orr redifined the game. Gretzky took benefit for it.

Orr could have played any position but Goalie.

What a great Defenseman. Teddy Green was still on the team and was never the same after his injury. As long as Teddy was playing with Orr it didnt matter.

 

[Triumph]

No ****. Anybody and everybody knew the value of having Orr on defense. Orr would have destroyed Gretzky in their primes.
Orr redifined the game. Gretzky took benefit for it.

I posted this in the Bruins forum.

Grestky told this story that whenever he would do autograph signings that more than a few times some fan would come up to him and say "You know, you're not the great one"

Gretsky would always reply 'You're from Boston aren't you?'

 

[RedSleevesPinkStripes]

Whenever someone asks me my birthday, I always say the same thing.. "March 20th, same day as Bobby Orr!"

 

[DarrylS]

Orr was not only a one man intervention squad for Derek Sanderson but he paid for multiple rehab stints for Bruins trainer John "Frosty" Forrestal. When Forrestal was homeless and dying of brain cancer, Orr took him in and turned his own home into Frosty's hospice for the last year of his life.

Orr never tells those stories but Sanderson sure does, every chance he gets he tells anyone that'll listen "Bobby saved my life"

I named my first son born in 1973, Derek.. homage to that great player.

 

[1960Pats]

G. O. A. T.


The long version:




The short version:

youtube bobby orr

It took me two days to get through it but I had to watch the long version. I was especially interested in a highlight that I was sure would be there of Orr sliding on his butt just across the blue line and backhanding a pass to the Chief for a goal. I was sitting right along the glass and Orr was sliding right towards me on the play.

 

[1960Pats]

On some documentary some years ago, I believe it was Gerry Cheevers who recalled that after playing a poor game the night before, he was feeling bummed during the following day's practice so Orr came up to him in the locker room afterwards and said: C'mon let's go visit some kids... And off they went, just like that...Can you imagine anyone ass-ociated with the Dead Sux or Smeltics doing that today?

Orr was as great a human being as he was a hockey player. We used to go up to Montreal and stay at the same hotel as the Bruins and got to see them all up close.

I'm sure that there are athletes in all pro sports who appreciate how lucky they've been to avoid illness and injuries and will visit sick kids. You know the saying, there's good and bad in everything.

Yes, there are plenty of good people but Bobby just seemed a cut above the rest, just like he was in hockey.

 

[1960Pats]

Also checked a broke and broken Derek Sanderson into rehab and saved his life!

Another one who should have NEVER left Boston!

Greatest EVAH!

Happy Bday Bobby

and for those of you who used to watch the B's on Channel 38......

Ahh the good old days.

Seeing the comment about Orr being another who shouldn't have left makes me think about starting a thread about greats who left or stayed and why. Orr, Russell, Bird, Brady, Gronk, Clemens, etc all have different stories. It might be interesting.

 

[1960Pats]

Growing up in Boston in the 60's, I was a huge football,basketball,baseball and boxing fan- both to watch and participate in. Hockey- not so much. Bobby Orr changed that. He  made me watch hockey. I acquired a greater appreciation for the game. Once he was gone,my interest level fell off and now I only watch the B's if they're in the playoffs.
But that shows the greatness of Orr.
And I was well-aware of how classy a human being he was. And still is.GOAT.

My memory of those years was that Boston was more of a hockey town but I was like you and enjoyed basketball more. That lack of interest kind of helped me get into games.

But since you mentioned boxing, I used to play golf with an older man whose father was the man who drove the Zamboni for Bruins games and would take his hat off and wave at the crowd as he went out. The older man I played with was his son and had all sorts of memories of resting his arms on the ring's canvas and watching Joe Lewis box. When we did a golf tourney with the kids I used to team up with the man and make sure my neighbor's son would come just to hear the man's stories.