Signed book: Bobby Orr and the Big, Bad Bruins. NY: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1969. Hardcover with dustjacket, 5.75 x 8.5, 273 pages. Signed on the inside front cover, opening two pages, last free end page and by their photos inside by thirty members of the 1969–70 Stanley Cup–winning Boston Bruins team and management. Signers include: Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito, Garnet “Ace” Bailey (killed aboard United Airlines Flight 175, which flew into the World Trade Center on 9/11), Gerry Cheevers, Derek Sanderson, John Bucyk, Ed Johnston, Pie McKenzie, Westin Adams, Jr., Ken Hodge, Harry Sinden, Wayne Cashman, Wayne Carleton, Ed Johnston, Bill Speer, Dallas Smith, Tom Johnson, Don Awrey, Ted Green, Gary Doak, Fred Stanfield, Ed Westfall, Milt Schmidt, Don Marcotte, John “Frosty” Forristall, and trainer Dan Canney. In fine condition, with some light wear to dustjacket and slight show-through from signatures on opposite pages. In the team’s golden era, the Bruins had young forwards Phil Esposito, Ken Hodge, and Fred Stanfield, obtained from Chicago in one of the most one-sided deals in history. Hodge and Stanfield became key elements in the Bruins' powerhouse, and Esposito, who centered a line with Hodge and Wayne Cashman, blossomed into the league’s top scorer, becoming the first NHL player to break the 100-point mark and setting many goal- and point-scoring records. With other stars like forwards Bucyk, John McKenzie, Derek Sanderson, and Hodge, steady defenders like Dallas Smith, and goaltender Gerry Cheevers, the “Big Bad Bruins” became one of the league’s top teams from the late 1960s through the 1970s, combining a rugged, barroom style of play with one of the greatest offensive juggernauts the NHL had ever seen. Auction LOA Steve Grad/PSA/DNA and R&R COA.
