Searching for Bobby Orr

Ian A. Andrews is a high-school social sciences teacher and editor of the New Brunswick Teachers’ Association’s Focus.

Stephen Brunt is arguably one of the foremost Canadian sports
journalists. He has written extensively as a columnist for The Globe and
Mail on boxing, baseball, and soccer, but with this biography of hockey
icon Bobby Orr, Brunt has taken on a formidable task.

Orr has been an elusive subject, secretive to a fault. As one of the
greatest players, if not the greatest hockey player of all time, Orr has
been reluctant to reveal much of his personal life—or comment on his
hockey career. Brunt approached Orr for input into this biography, but
Orr declined, requesting that Brunt not interview any family members in
his research. As a result, Searching for Bobby Orr is an unauthorized
biography. However, this did not prevent Brunt from producing an
entertaining and informative look at Number 4, one of the smoothest
skaters ever.

Using published articles, newspaper accounts, and interviews with
willing Orr associates, Brunt analyses the boy who spent his youth in
rural Ontario, reluctantly left home for the dictatorship of junior
hockey in Oshawa, and blossomed as an offensive star with the Boston
Bruins, revolutionizing the role of a defenceman in an age of hockey
expansion. A protective mother and a supportive but hard-drinking father
produced a shy, reserved boy, whose seemingly naive persona was
interpreted by many as a “hick” image, one that Orr tried to dispel
as he gained fame in the Boston metropolis.

Brunt questions whether this naпveté really allowed agent Alan
Eagleson to take advantage of his prime client, whose injury-plagued
career may also have been compromised by questionable medical treatment.
Brunt also questions the accuracy of Orr’s “pure farm-boy image”
with respect to his personal life.

Searching for Bobby Orr opens topics and hints at answers, providing
the reader with a preliminary look at a hockey icon who is now a player
agent. But as Brunt will no doubt agree, much remains to be known about
this fiercely private man whose children have never even learned to
skate.