Originally aired in 1999. This was the 30-minute version that aired as part of the SportsCentury countdown. Subsequent airings have been the one hour documentary version.
Watching Bobby Orr on a rink-long rush and scoring created the same emotional intensity that Secretariat instilled winning the Belmont . The feeling is beyond words .....
Orr weighed like 130 pounds when he was a 15 year old playing junior hockey. It's a minor miracle that he even survived those early years on the ice to make it to the NHL.
In Bobby Orr’s day a 2 line pass was offside. Imagine how many points he could score today since a two line pass is no longer offside! Any way you look at it he is the greatest of all time!
Geordie How is 21, Wayne Gretzky is 5. These guys were great hockey players, but In my opinion Bobby Orr was head and shoulders above them. No other hockey player is remotely close to being as good as he was. For the most part players of the past that were great in their day, but would struggle in todays game due to changes in fitness and how the game is played. However, watching old videos of Bobby Orr, I think the 1968 Bobby would still be the best layer on the ice today.
Say what you want about DiMaggio and his hitting streak or any other record deemed unreachable in sports. There is one record that stands alone at the top that is never talked about. Bobby Orr won all 4 major awards in Hockey in '70/'71 including the scoring title while being voted the best defenseman in the NHL. That is impossible, improbable and illogical….but that's what he did and he did it at 22 years old. That record will never be approached, never mind broken. The best hockey player to ever live or ever will live and an even better human being.
The only correction is that Orr did it in the 1969-70 season. The trophy’s he is referring to is; 1)Norris Trophy-Best defenseman (Orr won it 8 years in a row), 2) The Hart Trophy-Most valuable player to his team (Orr won it twice 5)The Stanley Cup!!
@@davidthompson62 Too lazy to look it up, but ORR, in terms of +/-, was like +124 or some crazy thing, One Year... Nobody, in the history of the game, or indeed any team sport, has ever had a stat comparable to that...Think about it... He's like one and a half goals, better than the opposition, every game he plays... And he did it on one good leg??? When I was a kid, Orr was in his prime, and the old timers, who had seen all the greats, all agreed, and so did players like Gordie Howe and Bobby Hull, that nobody had ever seen anyone like Orr... BEFORE or SINCE... In his prime, certainly the most talented hockey player, and arguably, the most talented athlete, in terms of team sports... who ever lived xxx P.S.: Think about this.... most D-men reach their peak around age 28... Orr's knees were already gone at that point... His last hurrah was the 1976 Canada Cup where Orr, again playing on one leg, was better than the rest of the planet, playing on two... Orr WAS tourney MVP... and don't give me this BS, that Denis Potvin (who I always say was the 2nd best D-man I ever saw play) was better in that tourney... I saw every game Canada played & he WASN'T!... That myth was started by a Post Canada Cup interview, done in a Canadian national magazine, where a young, brash & still immature Potvin was allowed to vent (sells magazines dontcha know), much to Denis', I suspect, ever-lasting regret... ...Some hockey pundits, who were doubtless in diapers at the time, for some strange reason, later took it as fact, that ORR, in terms of that Canada Cup tourney MVP voting, had benefited from some sort of nostalgia-vote...Revisionist History at its finest... ORR WAS MVP of that tourney.... SANS DOUBT...
@@berryscott3590 Orr’s +124 +\- rating should remind folks just how good a defenseman Orr was. He was fearless blocking shots and often broke up 2 on ones before a shot on net. His knees slowed him down a bit around 1974, but he still was the best on the ice. He’d often play in pain and never said a word as he loved the game.
#31 on the list is blasphemous!!! If you took the best player ever from the four major sports, and placed the second best ever against the best, the difference between their talent would be negligible. Jordan vs Lebron, or Kobe, Bonds or Ruth or Aaron, Brady vs Manning or Montana. Arguments for any of those listed would be valid. But when it comes to hockey, Orr was head and shoulders above anyone he played against. TWICE he won the scoring title as a DEFENSEMAN. Won ALL FOUR awards hockey gives out in the same SEASON!! Wayne Gretzky was probably the greatest scorer, skated well, but not like Orr and couldnt play defense, Gordie Howe was tough as nails, played a long time, utterly respected, Mario Lemieux was a great all around star. Ask the players, who know more than any fan or writer or analyst, they will to a man, tell you Orr was the best ever.
The scoring record for a defenseman was 59 points....when Orr broke the record he scored 139 points and still won best defenseman in the NHL the same year. Think about that for a while... and then consider the fact that he won the scoring title twice...while still winning the best defenseman award in the NHL the same year he won the scoring title. And last, at 22 years old, he won all 4 major NHL awards at seasons end. That had never been done before and 50+ years later, that has never been duplicated. There is no conversation or debate...no other opinions that are valid....there is only one Bobby Orr...and there will never be another. The best the game has ever seen or ever will see.
"My life is a disappointment because I didn't turn out to be the next Bobby Orr." (Howie Long) ... If that doesn't tell you that Bobby Orr belongs much higher than #31 on this list, then I don't know what evidence you'd need.
I had to put this on one of the videos and it just happened to be this one. I was 6 time world pinball champion and two time world youth mini-putt champion. They didn't even consider me for the list.
I’m not sure how this vote was determined. It’s both ludicrous and disrespectful for Orr to be 31. I was fortunate to watch him play in most games. The Boston-metro area would stop to watch him play. Every kid wanted to be him. He did for hockey what Ruth did for Baseball. I love Larry Bird who was great in his own right. He should not be ahead of Orr. He changed a sport in a way that I’ve never seen.
At the Maple Leaf Gardens they always booed Bobby Orr. To this day I'll never know why? That's Leaf fans for you. Orr should have been ranked in the top 20. Or at least higher than that bum Jim Thorpe who was a professional competing with amateurs that criminal...
That move that Rod Gilbert said Orr had invented it,no one had ever done it before,well Mr .Gilbert is wrong about that.i was watching a game from the 60s and I saw Doug Harvey do the exact same move to a player approaching him out by the blue line.his number was #4 although I must admit Bobby Orr made the move look much faster and smoother..
Come on Smith! Orr played only against NHL players from Canada only! Today under 60% of the NHL players from Canada! The Soccer game have 250 million players! Orr's Canada only 650000 hockey players! That means The Soccer All Stars would beat Orr easily 100 game Series 93-7! Soccer have 4 Bulliin fans around the world! Cricket 2 billion fans! Gretzky played In 1980s when 90% of the NHL players were from Canada! Gretzky can not be the greatest! Orr played goon fighters no talent no skating skills no stick handling ERA so Orr is greatest only In Canada! Sadaharu Oh hit 868 home runs In Japan and No-one is claiming he is the greatest because weaker pitching than Majors MLB! Orr not the Best whole world!!
Honestly, I can't reply in depth to someone who clearly never saw Orr play and to senseless comments that are actually embarrassing to yourself and laughable. @@RaineriHakkarainen
