And the man captured flying through the air, stick firmly in his right hand and raised to the sky, while screaming in celebration, is one of Palm Beach County’s most legendary figures.
Bobby Orr, a longtime resident of Jupiter, once said of the area: “It’s heaven down here.” And as the area has become home to a long list of sports icons and Hall of Famers, few are as accomplished and revered as No. 4.
Orr’s goal – scored on May 10, 1970, which also was Mother’s Day – came 40 seconds into overtime of Game 4 of the 1970 Stanley Cup Finals, giving the Boston Bruins their first title in 29 years. Orr was in his fourth season and had established himself as the best player in the game, winning the first of his three consecutive Hart Trophies as the league’s MVP.
Now, he remains a member of Jupiter Hills Club and at one time carried at 7-handicap.
Still, Orr had not had what college football now calls a “Heisman Moment,” one frozen in time that forever preserves greatness. A moment that defined a generation and produced statues and one of the most iconic photos in sports history.
Orr, whose style as an attacking defenseman revolutionized the game, picked up the puck along the boards and passed it to Derek Sanderson, who was stationed behind St. Louis Blues goalie Glenn Hall. Orr raced to the net, Sanderson spotted him, and Orr fired the puck to the Hall’s far side. What distinguished the photo, taken by Ray Lussier of the Boston Record American, was the stick of Blues defenseman Noel Picard hooking Orr’s left ankle and Picard picking up the stick, allowing Orr to fly through the air.
Orr, 72, recently spoke to several media members via video conferencing. He was asked if his going airborne was the result of Picard’s stick or him celebrating.
“Both,” he said. “I did see the puck go in and I was jumping. Noel Picard … did lift me. But I saw it go in and I was also jumping with joy.”
Heaven can’t wait
The title, “greatest ever,” is subjective in most professions. Even if you want to start a water cooler argument (while social distancing off course), those lists are short: Jack Nicklaus (golf), Michael Jordan (basketball), Serena Williams (women’s tennis) and Bobby Orr (hockey) certainly are near, if not at, the top of their sports.
All are either full- or part-time residents of Palm Beach County.
Although bad knees cut Orr’s career to nine full years – he played just 36 games his final three years, including his final two in Chicago – he’s at the least on the NHL’s Mount Rushmore and undoubtedly the greatest defenseman of all-time. When it comes to the royalty of his sport, he’s in the top 3 along with Wayne Gretzky and Gordie Howe.
“I don’t think a lot about being the greatest,” Orr said.
In 1979, at the age of 31, Orr became the youngest player in NHL history to be selected for the Hockey Hall of Fame, which waived its usual three-year waiting period to induct him in the hall that sits in Toronto, just outside his hometown of Parry Sound. A seven-time All-Star, he remains the last defenseman to lead the NHL in scoring.
In the late 1980s, about 10 years after retiring, Orr and his wife, Peggy, wound up in Jupiter, splitting their time between South Florida and their home in the Boston area. This gave Orr an opportunity to take up another sport, golf.
Now, he remains a member of Jupiter Hills Club and at one time carried at 7-handicap.
“I didn’t play much golf when I was playing hockey,” Orr once said at a charity event he played along with Nicklaus. “I wasn’t really into it.”
Orr is paying the price for his aggressive, hard-nosed style of hockey with two knee surgeries, shoulder surgery and a hip replacement in the last 18 months. He says he’s feeling good but has “some aches” and will “creak” a little bit.
“I played a tough game,” he said. “I played a different style. Surgeons, they put me back together.”
Besides golf, Orr added walking four to five times a week, fishing and playing with his grandkids as activities he enjoys even though the coronavirus pandemic has curtailed some of those. The Orrs have two sons. Brent lives in Jupiter, while Darren lives in the Boston area and is an agent working at Orr Hockey Group.
Unlike that Mother’s Day 50 years ago.
Last month, Orr sent a moving message to the healthcare workers who are treating coronavirus patients at Mass General Hospital, calling them “true heroes,” telling them he looks up to them and they are constantly in his mind.
“We’re celebrating a sporting event,” he said during his video call. “But with everything that’s going on I think it’s a good time to celebrate and thank all the front-line workers, first responders … all the different organizations that are assisting in health care, health-care providers. These people go to work every day making huge sacrifices. They’re saving lives and comforting so many people.
“I played a game. They call us heroes … I don’t think so. It’s not a game for these health care workers, these front liners. It’s real life. We do owe them so much. I say thank you. It’s a time we should be celebrating and thanking them.”
The Boston Bruins Foundation is raffling off a replica of the 800-pound, bronze statue of ‘The Goal’ that was unveiled May 10, 2010, outside the TD Garden to raise money for those involved in fighting COVID-19. Orr will call the winner Sunday.
Who let the cat in the bag?
Bobby Orr still has the puck and stick from that Stanley Cup-winning goal. As far as his gloves, skates and other equipment he was wearing that day … blame the cat.
After retiring in 1978, Orr stuck all his equipment in a duffel bag and stored it in the basement of his home. The Orrs had a babysitter who owned a cat.
One day, Orr decided to play in an old-timers game and asked Peggy if she could air out the bag. She found the bag, and a smell far worse than any hockey locker room.
“The cat had been using it as a litter box,” Orr said. “The equipment … all gone.”
An imperfect ending to some of the greatest artifacts in hockey history.
Tom D’Angelo is a staffer for the Palm Bech Post, part of the USA Today Network. Contact him at tom_dangelo@pbpost.com and follow him on Twitter @tomdangelo44.