46 Years Ago Today - Bobby Orr Signs First NHL Million Dollar Deal

[BostonBob]

Geez - time flies.

from nhl.com:

Bobby Orr becomes the NHL's first million-dollar man when he signs a new contract with the Boston Bruins.

Orr, coming off a record-setting 139-point season in 1970-71, is already the League's highest-paid player. But he breaks new ground by signing a contract with the Bruins that will pay him $200,000 for each of the next five seasons.

The contract more than pays for itself; Orr helps the Bruins win the Stanley Cup in 1972 and scores at least 101 points in each of the first four seasons before knee injuries limit him to 10 games in 1975-76.

Click to read more...

 

[Killion]

... I'll say, times does fly & the older you get the faster it goes.... doesnt seem like much does it in comparison to todays salaries, really since the late 80's. Million dollar Contract sure but its spread out over 5yrs, $200K per annum. Best hockey player in the world at the time, highly marketable, Superstar.....

A year later, 3rd line checking center & teammate Derek Sanderson signs with the WHA's Philadelphia Blazers for $2.65M over 5yrs (though Sanderson never collected on all of it) which was more than double what Orr was making annually in the NHL & also making Sanderson the highest paid athlete on the planet for a brief period.... Then there was Hull of course. $2.75M over 10yrs with $1M paid up-front so "technically" hockeys 1st millionaire as he got it up-front, wasnt just on paper.

While the details a bit sketchy, Orr's contract with Chicago was reputedly worth over a million per season however being pretty much done he actually refused to collect on it, and its also "rumored" but unconfirmed that Bernie Parent had signed to a million + per annum contract with the Flyers late 70's so either he or Orr the first "true million dollar per annum players".... Wayne Gretzky didnt start making a million +, much less in fact until his trade to LA in 1988 (though with endorsements & so on earnings did exceed a million prior to 88).

 

[Fenway]

The late, great Globe columnist Bud Collins was just a little cynical in his report about the signing.

It wasn't even the biggest sports story in Boston that day. The Patriots and the Commonwealth announced a foolproof plan that there would never be a massive traffic jam in Foxborough for a Patriots game ever again.

Fans were outraged that parking would be TWO DOLLARS!!!!!!!

 

[BostonBob]

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Great article - thanks for posting it Fenway.

 

[Killion]

Great article - thanks for posting it Fenway.

... ya, ditto on that, thanks Fenway..... Whats with the journalists sarcasm, and referring to #4 as "Childe Orr" and so on? Clearly the guy was cynically bemused.... gotta love Eagleson's quote when asked about the Nixon "Wage Freeze" & whether or not it would affect the contract, a non-serious question.... goes right over his head & he answers with the understatement of the next two decades.... "I'm not too familiar with legislation in the US"..... no Al, seems you werent then nor were you for the next 20 odd years but I guess you learned real fast... when the FBI & US Justice Department came sniffing around... the extradition.... the handcuffs....

 

[Fenway]

... ya, ditto on that, thanks Fenway..... Whats with the journalists sarcasm, and referring to #4 as "Childe Orr" and so on? Clearly the guy was cynically bemused.... gotta love Eagleson's quote when asked about the Nixon "Wage Freeze" & whether or not it would affect the contract, a non-serious question.... goes right over his head & he answers with the understatement of the next two decades.... "I'm not too familiar with legislation in the US"..... no Al, seems you werent then nor were you for the next 20 odd years but I guess you learned real fast... when the FBI & US Justice Department came sniffing around... the extradition.... the handcuffs....

Killion you must be familiar with the writer and broadcaster - Bud Collins. He always called Bobby that going back to when the Bruins were promising that a 15 year old in Oshawa would save the franchise.

Bud was one of a kind.

 

[The Panther]

In Montreal this weekend, and just read Brunt's Searching for Bobby Orr book. One amazing thing, to me, was how hopelessly uninformed Orr was about his finances. I realize it was early-days of player agents and so on, but Orr really should have clued-in sooner. In addition, Brunt shows that Orr's claim not to have known about the Bruins' offer of part-ownership in 1976 is suspect, to say the least. Feel bad for the guy, but by '76 he should have been more aware.

 

[Killion]

...Feel bad for the guy, but by '76 he should have been more aware.

Yes, thats an interesting read, been a few years... And perhaps so Panther, that Orr should have "cottoned on quicker" however, such was the Svengali like hold Eagleson had on Orr & others. "Smartest man in the room" type dealeo. Its absolutely a cautionary tale be it business or life, as were all most often hurt, hit the hardest by those who are closest.

 

[The Panther]

Yes, thats an interesting read, been a few years... And perhaps so Panther, that Orr should have "cottoned on quicker" however, such was the Svengali like hold Eagleson had on Orr & others. "Smartest man in the room" type dealeo. Its absolutely a cautionary tale be it business or life, as were all most often hurt, hit the hardest by those who are closest.

Yes, indeed.

There are aspects of Brunt's book I didn't like, but one point that carried a ring of truth is that Orr let his pride and fear of being exposed as a bumpkin interfere with his better judgement. I personally suspect that in summer 1976 Orr was too embarrassed to make public that Eagleson was screwing him over, so he just sort of let it slide and focused on the Canada Cup. Of course all this added up and ended in Orr's misery and doing cheesy TV commercials.

 

[Fenway]

In Montreal this weekend, and just read Brunt's Searching for Bobby Orr book. One amazing thing, to me, was how hopelessly uninformed Orr was about his finances. I realize it was early-days of player agents and so on, but Orr really should have clued-in sooner. In addition, Brunt shows that Orr's claim not to have known about the Bruins' offer of part-ownership in 1976 is suspect, to say the least. Feel bad for the guy, but by '76 he should have been more aware.

Orr has said he was aware of what Frank Orr wrote in the Toronto Star but Eagleson convinced him that it was simply a story that Sinden wanted out there to make the Bruins look good.

Orr also was the victim of bad timing. Had his contract come up the following year who knows how much the WHA would have offered Orr and where Orr would play. One can make the assumption that if Orr went to the WHA the franchise that first played in Ottawa and then moved to Toronto would have perhaps started in Toronto in 1972. Perhaps Orr would have signed with the Whalers and a proposed arena housing the Whalers and Celtics would have been built. Robert Schmertz was the real owner of the Whalers at the beginning, Howard Baldwin was simply the public frontman, and he bought the Celtics in 1972. He died suddenly in 1975.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Schmertz

There was speculation at the time that Schmertz and Baldwin were very close to buying the Bruins and Boston Garden but because of their involvement in the WHA the NHL BoG told the Adams family to find another buyer and then Storer Broadcasting that owned the TV station the Bruins were on did so.

 

[Killion]

There was speculation at the time that Schmertz and Baldwin were very close to buying the Bruins and Boston Garden but because of their involvement in the WHA the NHL BoG told the Adams family to find another buyer and then Storer Broadcasting that owned the TV station the Bruins were on did so.

Schmertz? NBA interests as well. In the years that followed he wound up on Bribery Charges (pleading Not Guilty, accused on bribing the Mayor of Trenton & others on a retirement home project) in NJ at the time of his premature death was he not? Then "Swerving Irving" & Harold Lipton (who's daughter Peggy played undercover Cop Julie Barnes on the TV series the Mod Squad) wrested control of the Celtics from his estate....

 

[Fenway]

Schmertz? NBA interests as well. In the years that followed he wound up on Bribery Charges (pleading Not Guilty, accused on bribing the Mayor of Trenton & others on a retirement home project) in NJ at the time of his premature death was he not? Then "Swerving Irving" & Harold Lipton (who's daughter Peggy played undercover Cop Julie Barnes on the TV series the Mod Squad) wrested control of the Celtics from his estate....

There is this infamous picture of the Whalers drinking from the 'Avco World Trophy' and you can see Schmetz in the photo. That trophy had been purchased that morning at a Boston area mall as the real trophy hadn't been finished in time.

The sculpting of the Avco Cup, the WHA’s version of the Stanley Cup, had not been completed by Sunday afternoon, May 6, 1973, when the Whale, led by a hat trick from Lynn’s own Larry Pleau, pinned a 9-6 defeat on the Jets at the Garden to clinch the title.

“A clean and emphatic victory,†wrote the Globe’s Tom Fitzgerald, the dean of the city’s hockey scribes. Tom Webster (two), Tim Sheehy, Ricky Ley, Guy Smith, and Mike Byers banged home the other goals vs. Hull and company.

The title game began at 1 p.m., with a crowd of 11,186 in the Garden, and it was televised across the United States on CBS (then Channel 7 in Boston). However, only those inside the Garden witnessed the celebration. CBS pulled the plug at 3:30 to carry the World Doubles Tennis Championship in Montreal.

Without an Avco Cup to high-step around the Garden with, they needed to improvise. League president Gary Davidson had to give Green, the team captain, something other than a handshake and bear hug. After all, no trophy, no glory.

“It’s the night before,†recalled Baldwin, “and we realized, heck, there’s no trophy to give out! And of course, it’s going to be in front of CBS TV. Anyway, Bill Barnes, who was a partner and did all our marketing, he’s the one who said, ‘We’ve got to get a trophy!’ So he went to a place, I think in Braintree, and bought a trophy for 29 bucks. And we’ve still got it. Someone’s got it in Connecticut, but I’ll bring it to the reunion.â€

https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/...tertainment/LHHsfCAMrZaLKaMqiB2NOL/story.html

 

[Killion]

Bud was one of a kind.

... yep, do recall.... www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWo9SNvaJZU

 

[The Panther]

Orr has said he was aware of what Frank Orr wrote in the Toronto Star but Eagleson convinced him that it was simply a story that Sinden wanted out there to make the Bruins look good.

Thanks, Fenway! Good info. I didn't know Orr had explained it that way.

Still, after ten or eleven years with Eagleson, Orr still just took him at his word...? Poor Bobby.

 

[Fenway]

Thanks, Fenway! Good info. I didn't know Orr had explained it that way.

Still, after ten or eleven years with Eagleson, Orr still just took him at his word...? Poor Bobby.

Here is where it gets murky. Did the Bruins take the contract with the ownership stake off the table after he was hurt again in the 1975-6 season? Based on Sinden's quotes at the time that might have been the case BUT . Why did Eagleson turn it down before Orr was hurt? Was it the promise he made to Wirtz in 1972 that allowed NHL players to compete against the Russians?

https://www.si.com/vault/1976/06/21/615353/byebye-boston-chicago-buys

Watching Eagleson operate, NHL President Clarence Campbell said, "It has been like a dog's breakfast from the beginning."

Predictably, Eagleson opened the Orr sweepstakes by leveling another verbal blast at Jeremy Jacobs, the Buffalo-based concessionaire whose family owns the Bruins. Boston's final contract offer to Orr—a five-year deal for more than $1.75 million—contained certain safeguards for the club in the event that Orr's rickety left knee, which has undergone five operations and is of such questionable reliability that even Lloyd's of London refuses to insure it, forced him to terminate his career before the expiration of the agreement. Still, Boston guaranteed Orr a minimum of $600,000 regardless of future disabilities.

"They insulted Bobby with the type of contract they offered him," Eagleson snapped. "I think the Bruins have indicated their conviction that Bobby is very badly damaged goods and not worth an unconditional contract." Eagleson's tember, shortly after the concessionaires had purchased the club. Anxious to sign Orr, Boston promptly offered him a five-year contract for a reported $2.5 million. "Bobby would be signed to a new Boston contract now if the owners hadn't changed the offer they made last September," Eagleson said repeatedly during the winter.

So why hadn't Eagleson accepted that offer? When that question was raised last week, Eagleson threatened to step down from his podium and "tweak" a Boston sportscaster in the nose, adding that "You give me a sweet pain in the——-." In fact, at the time of that Boston offer, Eagleson also was deeply involved in Orr negotiations with the now defunct Minnesota Fighting Saints of the WHA, who publicly were offering Orr $6.5 million for 10 years but privately were practically penniless. Then, while Eagleson was playing Boston against Minnesota in the media, Orr's left knee came undone again and he had Operation No. 4. Boston withdrew its offer and suspended negotiations until Orr joined the Bruins lineup for the first time early in November.

Orr played only 10 games before the knee locked again and sent him back to the hospital for Operation No. 5. That, as it turned out, ended his season. Obviously wary about Orr's physical condition, Boston reduced its offer to the $1.75 million for five years. Eagleson called Boston's final offer a "joke," among other things, but Managing Director Harry Sinden of the Bruins said, by Orr could do. They just followed sound business practices."

 

[Killion]

...Was it the promise he made to Wirtz in 1972 that allowed NHL players to compete against the Russians?

Absolutely it was. Had Eagleson reneged on that promise he wouldve been done, cremated, over.