Power Play: The Memoirs of Hockey Czar Alan Eagleson

Toronto: McClelland & Stewart Inc. BOOK: Previous Owner Markings (Gift Inscription Neatly Inked to Front Free Endpaper); Repaired (Tear Taped); Spine, Boards Bumped; Light Shelf Rub to Boards; Edges Lightly Soiled. DUST JACKET: Lightly Creased; Lightly Chipped; Light Moisture Damage (Staining); In Archival Quality Jacket Cover. JACKET PHOTOGRAPH: James Lipa. CONTENTS: ONE An Oppression of Hockey Players TWO Involvements THREE Early Days with Orr FOUR Politics FIVE The Road to the 1972 Series SIX Four in Canada, Four in Moscow SEVEN Life and Death of the WHA EIGHT The Canada Cup NINE Another Side of the Coin TEN Bobby Orr--The Breakup ELEVEN The Uprisings TWELVE Exoneration THIRTEEN The Break with Orr--Part II FOURTEEN Hockey People FIFTEEN One Man's Trouble with Drugs SIXTEEN The Wave of the Future SEVENTEEN The Hockey Business; Index. SYNOPSIS: Dictatorial. Rude. Dedicated. Loyal. Crude. Gentlemanly. Over the years, all those descriptions and more have been applied to Alan Eagleson. Critics and fans alike will find supporting evidence here in the only firsthand account of the life, so far, of a remarkable Canadian. As honest memoirs tend to be, in some ways this is a disturbing book. The quarter-century and more of headlines featuring Alan Eagleson have built up a controversial public persona for him in hockey, law, and politics. Until now, however, the man behind the image has remained unknown. This book covers, from the inside, many of the best-known events of Eagleson's life in a manner that no outside observer can match. The bombshell of his 1979 split with Bobby Orr is part of it, a split that widened into a painful twelve years of animosity between two men once thought to be inseparable--all while, Eagleson confesses, he never stopped regarding Orr as the best hockey player he ever saw. Orr's accusations are covered here in detail, along with Eagleson's eventual decision to defend himself, even though Nancy, his wife, told him he could not successfully attack a legend. The irony is that Orr's skills on the ice and Eagleson's skills in negotiating record-breaking contracts had together created the legend in the first place. There is fun and drama in Eagleson's recollections of the early years when he secretly formed the National Hockey League Players Association and became its executive director. He tells the inside story of how the historic 1972 hockey series between the best Canadians and the best of the Soviets came about, and gives his own formula for successful negotiations with Soviet officials. He tells, too, of how close the team was to disaster before three consecutive Canadian wins in Moscow gave them victory and a happy flight home to a thunderous welcome. The mid-1970s beginnings of the Canada Cup, the gradual erosion in the 1980s of his once-unanimous NHLPA support, the Eagleson side of the 1989 attempt to out him--it's all here--along with telling anecdotes about his warm family life and the good and the bad about some of the most famous names in hockey. Alan Eagleson was born in St. Catharines in 1933 (his father later was a union steward), attended the University of Toronto, graduated in law in 1957, sat in the Ontario Legislature from 1963 to 1967. He married Nancy Elizabeth Fisk of Collingwood, Ontario, on April 16, 1960, and they are the parents of Allen (1961) and Jill (1964), both lawyers. Alan refers to Nancy as his most important adviser and his best friend. Among his many honours, he is an Officer of the Order of Canada and a member of the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame and Hockey Hall of Fame. Scott Young was born in Manitoba in 1918. He began writing sports at eighteen with the Winnipeg Free Press, and during stints as a columnist with the Globe and Mail and as sports editor of the Toronto Telegram, has written many books of fiction and non-fiction, including novels, books for children, and the memoirs of Punch Imlach and Conn Smythe. His honours include membership in the Hockey Hall of Fame, the CBC Wilderness Award for a TV script, and the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters from Trent University.. Hard Cover. Very Good/Very Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.