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The Bobby Orr Page |
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Famous people links
(me included)
I feel very fortunate to have worked in Parry Sound at the time of those skate-a-thons. Our favourite team was the Boston Bruins because my father's parents lived in Parry Sound. In fact, when my grandparents bought a house on George Street back in the '40s, they in effect evicted the Orr family. The Orrs moved just down the street, and it was that new home of theirs that the Boston Bruins paid for exterior renovations as part of their bid to get Bobby to join the Bruins. Another time, the NHL Oldtimers were coming to town to play a local team - coaching the locals was Bobby's dad and coaching the NHL Oldtimers was Wayne Gretzky's dad Walter. I had the awesome assignment of taking a head and shoulder photo of Bobby's dad Doug for our story. I went to his place, and to my total thrill, he had a lot of memorabilia from Bobby's playing days. I saw various awards of course, but I also saw the skates Bobby was wearing and the puck that went into the net when he scored the cup winner in '70 (against the Blues). He also told me about Bobby's knee problems, and really how bad his left knee was. Blocking pucks travelling upwards of 100 miles an hour will do that. I just found it really neat that on my way to work every day I could drive by Bobby's parents' house (it is located at 104 Gibson Avenue). And Bobby's brother Ron used to own Orr's Men's Wear, but that folded several years ago now. I think he is now the manager of the Bobby Orr Community Center (and arena). |  With Reporter Brian Tracy, Don Cherry, and Bobby Orr (first-year shot).
Bobby Orr had been holding his Easter Seals Skate-a-thon in Toronto for many years before he announced, to every Parry Sounder's joy, he was bringing it to Parry Sound. This made total sense - he grew up in Parry Sound, started playing hockey there, and his parents and brother still lived there - and, the arena was named after him. Once we heard, at the newspaper, we were ecstatic. One year I even staked out his parents house when I knew he was arriving. Sure enough, a limo pulled in, then pulled out. I tailed that limo from Bobby's parents' house right to the arena. The highlight for us at the newspaper every year was the skate-a-thon. Any requests for photo copies or comments can be directed to the Webmaster at [email protected].
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