The Bruins will launch their Stanley Cup campaign for the 2013-2014 hockey season doing team building exercises, hanging out with their fans, and signing autographs.
I think this is great!
And...perhaps the greatest Bruins player of all is still Bobby Orr.
While I was growing up in Boston, Bobby Orr was considered a local legend, and is still acknowledged to be one of the greatest hockey players of all times.
Imagine my surprise when one night in the mid 80's, my husband, then a grad student at Harvard, came home from a local restaurant promotion to say,
"Hey, guess what? I just met Bobby Orr."
Orr was simply standing at the bar waiting for the event to begin and came over to introduce himself and visit a little. Just like a "regular guy".
This past Sunday, the Boston Globe did a great piece on Bobby Orr in which the writer made sure we all knew how reluctant Mr. Orr was to be the center of this attention. In the article, the reporter told story after story of Orr's selflessness and devotion to friends in need.
In a time when winning seems to be everything, Mr. Orr remembered that,
"People would come up to my father and say, 'Your kid is going to be a pro,' and my dad would come to me and say,'Go out there and have fun and see what happens.'"
I did a little research to discover Bobby Orr's "how we met story".
He met Peggy Wood, while on vacation in Fort Lauderdale, FL.
Ms. Wood, a Detroit transplant, was practicing speech therapy in the area when she became engaged to Bobby Orr on Christmas Day in 1972. They were married in September 1973 and managed to keep the ceremony private despite Orr's fame as a member of the Bruin's team. The couple has two sons and two grandchildren.
Bobby Orr continues to do his behind the scenes acts of kindness and generosity; visiting children's hospitals, helping friends, being there for family. He takes his job as role model seriously,
'If there is any way you can help a friend or someone in need, what does it take? It doesn't take much time. That's something we all should do."
I hope his example is followed by the current team...so far they're off to a great start.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Orr#Personal_life
http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2013/09/28/bobby-orr
