Centennial Stories: Seven to Seventy-Seven

BOSTON – It’s been 36 years since Ray Bourque left Phil Esposito speechless.

But as the decades have gone by, Esposito has never stopped appreciating what his fellow Hall of Famer and Bruins legend did for him on the night of December 3, 1987.

This is the story of how one of the greatest moments in Bruins history was born – and kept a secret – told by those who were involved.

To begin this story, we must go back to Nov. 7, 1975, when Phil Esposito – along with defenseman Carol Vadnais – was traded to the New York Rangers in exchange for Brad Park and Jean Ratelle. It was a trade that rocked the hockey world and was one of the bleakest moments of Esposito’s Hall of Fame career.

Esposito: “I gave up a lot to stay in Boston and was traded. It was maybe the darkest moment of my career.”

The move to ship one of the most popular athletes in Boston sports history to New York – for a rival like Park – did not go over well with Bruins fans. Nate Greenberg, the B’s longtime public relations chief, remembers how irate the fan base – and media – was in the immediate aftermath of the deal.

Greenberg: “I remember the response. There was a longtime hockey writer for the Boston Record American named D. Leo Monahan. He wrote the next day…I remember this like it was yesterday: ‘My heart says this is a terrible trade, but my head says let’s wait and see how it plays out.’ That was about the most positive thing we got. Everybody was against the trade.”

Park found that out firsthand upon his arrival to town when Greenberg took him to the WBZ Radio studios on Soldiers Field Road in Allston for an interview with Boston sports personality Guy Mainella on his ‘Calling All Sports’ program.

Greenberg: “Park came in, took the shuttle up from New York to Boston the next day…there’s three of us in the office, [general manager] Harry [Sinden], [assistant general manager] Tom [Johnson], and myself. I said, ‘I’ll go pick him up at the airport because I want to get him on WBZ AM radio.’ They had a sports show in the afternoon from like 4-6. It’s all anybody was talking about.

“We go and sit in the lobby area and we’re waiting for one of the producers to come out and bring him in. They’ve got the TV on with no sound because Ch. 4 was there, and coming over the speaker system in the room was WBZ radio which was in the building.

“When I tell you people were calling the station and absolutely blasting Park…when you were in the station lobby, you got the raw feed, so people were calling and Park is sitting there and the people are just [expletive] hammering him. You couldn’t believe it.

“I told Harry, only half-jokingly, I sat myself between Park and the door in case he decided to get up and leave. It was the most vicious, nasty stuff.

“Guy Mainella said, ‘all that stuff doesn’t make the air, we take it off.’ I don’t know if that made him feel any better, the idea that it didn’t go out over the air…but that was Park’s introduction to Boston.”

On the other side, it took time for the relationship between the Bruins and Esposito to be mended.

Ray Bourque: “I think Phil and Harry had a little something after he was traded to the Rangers. That really upset Phil and kind of damaged their relationship to a certain extent.”

Esposito recalls that his first game back at Boston Garden on Dec. 11, 1975 – a 5-1 win for the Rangers, in which he notched two assists – brought back some strange emotions.

Esposito: “I remember the first game back as a Ranger in Boston… I don’t know who it was that I was sitting beside on the bench, it might have been Walter Tkaczuk. He said, ‘you’re no longer a Bruin now, pal.’ I remember that so vividly…I remember [another game, head coach] John Ferguson punching me in the back because I was talking to Wayne Cashman on the ice.

“I was talking to Cash…I had roomed with him for eight years. One of my best friends in life still to this day. He punched me so hard it took my breath away. I said, ‘what the hell are you doing Fergy?’ He said, ‘no talking to the opposition.’”

The emotions continued several years later when Esposito had one of the best games of his career against the Bruins back on Causeway Street – a four-goal game on March 15, 1979.

Esposito: “In the first period, I scored. They cheered, boy they cheered like crazy…I scored again, then I scored a third for a hat trick, now they were starting to boo the hell out of me. When I scored the fourth one, boy did they boo me.”

Following Esposito’s departure from the B’s in November 1975, No. 7 remained officially out of circulation for only two years. On Dec. 3, 1977 – quite ironically – the Bruins issued No. 7 to forward Sean Shanahan, who wore it for a stretch of six games that month, his only six contests with the Black & Gold.

Forward Bill Bennett was the next to don No. 7, doing so for seven games (four in December and three in April) during the 1978-79 campaign.

Forward and Massachusetts native Tommy Songin also wore No. 7 during an exhibition contest in 1978, much to Esposito’s surprise. During the 1978-79 regular season, Songin switched to No. 19 and then No. 28 from 1979-81.

Esposito: “Tommy Songin wore it. We had an exhibition game at Madison Square Garden and Tommy came out, he’s skating around, and he said, ‘I didn’t ask for it Espo, I didn’t ask for it.’ I said, ‘That’s OK, Tommy, no problem.’ It bothered me. But Tom’s a good guy, a real good guy.”

Terry O’Reilly: “Tommy wouldn’t have given it up. I can say that, I’m married to his sister.”

When Bourque – who was wearing No. 29 during training camp – made the Opening Night roster in 1979, he found a new sweater in his stall.

Bourque: “I wore No. 29 in training camp…had a great camp, not expecting to see anything different in my stall. I got to the first game and No. 7 was there. I knew who wore No. 7 with the Bruins. I was a big Montreal Canadiens fan and I saw them meet up so many times, so I knew exactly who Phil was, all his accomplishments in Boston. Just got dressed and put the number on.

“Before I went on, Bobby Schmautz, a veteran, tells me if I hear heckles or anything, just play my game and don’t worry about it. I never heard nothing about wearing the number other than every once in a while, the press would ask me what I thought about the number being retired.

“I always said that Phil was a legend in Boston, everything he accomplished here, certainly that the number should be up in the rafters.”

That moment finally came on Dec. 3, 1987 – six years after Esposito’s retirement from the NHL – when the Bruins hosted the New York Rangers at Boston Garden.

Sinden: “He went to the Rangers, he was no longer a Bruin. But when he retired, he returned to being a Bruin as far as we were concerned and as far as the Garden fans were concerned. That was the apt time to do it. You couldn’t do it while he was wearing a Rangers jersey. We had to wait until he retired which we did.”

Esposito: “I remember when Harry called me and he said, ‘Listen, we’re gonna retire your number, put it up there, and when Bourquey retires, we’re gonna put his name too.’ I said, ‘No problem, that’s great.' Why not? Raymond is one of the good guys and one of the top players in the league.’’

Esposito, then New York’s general manager, was slightly hesitant, however, to have his number retired on a night when the Rangers were in town.

Esposito: “I remember asking Harry, ‘can we not do it on a night that the Rangers are in town?’ I had just gotten the general manager’s job that I really didn’t want, but they made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. Either work as a GM or don’t work for Madison Square Garden, so you take the job.

“But I didn’t want it [against the Rangers] because I had mixed emotions, big-time mixed emotions. [If] we lost, the Bruins beat us, how the hell am I going to celebrate? If we won, I still really didn’t feel like celebrating because I was still a Boston Bruin in my mind. I still am. I still consider that.”

The Bruins had a strong plan in place for the program, but there was one very awkward situation remaining – the number was still in circulation with Bourque, who by that time was already on his way to a Hall of Fame career, donning No. 7.

The night before the ceremony, the Bruins were in Hartford for a 5-3 win over the Whalers. Sinden, Tom Johnson, and Greenberg made the late-night drive back to Boston separate from the team and came up with a plan during the car ride: during the ceremony, Bourque would surprise Esposito – and the hockey world – by switching to No. 77.

Greenberg: “Truth be known, Harry and I and Tom Johnson were driving back from Hartford after one of the Bruins’ games and basically kicked it around in the car…it was really a spur of the moment thing.”

Sinden: “We were coming back from a game and we were thinking about the jersey number to be retired and that Ray was wearing it and that it was kind of awkward. I came up with the idea that we retire 7 and give Ray 77…we thought that would be an ideal way to cover an awkward situation.”

The next step was getting Bourque’s approval. Naturally, that part was not an issue.

Sinden: “I said, ‘I’ll call Ray and make sure he’s OK with that because it’s his number.’ Which I did. Ray was all for it, whatever we wanted to do. He was a very cooperative player.”

Greenberg: “Harry [called]…I think I heard the conversation. I don’t remember exactly. [Bourque] needed a nanosecond to go along with it. He’s a terrific guy. There wasn’t the slightest bit of hesitation to agree with it. We told him what we were gonna do, is have both jerseys on and just take the other one off and give it to Phil. Once the idea was hatched, it didn’t take very long. You want Bourque’s blessing and we got it without any hesitation whatsoever.”

Bourque remembers the call coming from Sinden and O’Reilly, who was then the Bruins’ head coach, the day of the game.

Bourque: “It took them a while to decide to retire the number and they decided to retire it December 3, 1987, and nothing was ever said what was gonna happen with the number until I got a call from [Sinden and O'Reilly, who said], ‘we got to talking about what we we’re gonna do with the number and we came up with the idea,’ that I was gonna go out for warmups with No. 7 and come in after warmup, go in the trainers’ room, go in the back, and put No. 77 underneath and go out and call Phil up and reveal No. 77.”

Once Bourque gave his blessing, Sinden had to scramble to let the equipment managers – Larry Ness and the late Bobby Crocker – know so a new No. 77 jersey could be made.

Crocker called Rick Cavallaro from Custom Crafted Sports, the North Attleboro, Mass., company that began lettering and stitching the Bruins’ jerseys just that season – and still does to this day.

Cavallaro: “My contact was Bobby Crocker. He contacted me and said, ‘We need a No. 77 for Ray, we’re gonna have a number change.’ I’m like, ‘Oh, OK.’ He did ask me not to say anything. I’m like, ‘OK, that’s fine - I understand my role, I can’t leak anything…you tell me I can’t say anything, nothing’s said.’ Of course, back then I didn’t know anybody anyways, so it didn’t even matter.”

Cavallaro, who had no idea what the number change was about or why it was happening, personally stitched the new Bourque jersey himself and then made the drive up to Boston and hand delivered the jersey to Crocker.

Cavallaro: “I did the jersey personally just so no one else saw it. I just did it. I threw it in the box and made sure I taped it because I wasn’t sure if I was gonna give it to someone else who was gonna walk it to Bobby or if I was gonna give it to him directly…

“I drove it in. Those were the days I would drive it right into the Garden and Bobby was standing right on Causeway Street…I had it in a box and I just handed it to him. He said, ‘thanks’ and he went back in and that was it. It was very quiet.

“[Crocker] was standing there in his Cliff Engle sweater, the sweaters that were popular at the time – white, black, with gold striping and Bruins.

“I like everybody else saw what they [ended up doing] on TV.”

The only other person who was let in on the plan? Bruins radio broadcaster Bob Wilson, who was set to emcee the proceedings.

Greenberg: “I alternated between Fred Cusick and Bob Wilson [for ceremonies]…this was Wilson’s turn to handle the public address and host the event. I told him that afternoon. We were hoping we could keep it under wraps.”

Somehow, some way, the plan remained a secret – from what the people interviewed for this story can recall, the only people who knew exactly what was going to happen during the ceremony were Sinden, Johnson, Greenberg, Bourque and his wife Christiane, O’Reilly, Crocker, Ness, and Wilson.

Greenberg: “The reason we were able to keep it quiet is because we didn’t come up with the idea until [the day] before…there were literally a handful of people who knew. In those days, we didn’t have social media. The plan was to try and make it a surprise for him.”

Sinden: “There wasn’t much time between the idea and the game...I don’t think I really told anybody until the next day when we did retire it…it was pretty easy to keep it secret.”

O’Reilly: “I knew…I managed to keep my mouth shut until it happened.”

Bourque: “If it would’ve been days and weeks, I think it would’ve been tougher. But no, it was just six hours that I had to hang on to that secret and it was pretty easy. I was excited about nobody knowing and kind of revealing it and really making a big splash.

“It was really, really weird and strange, the lack of communication…I drove in with Glen Wesley and Keith Crowder that night and I didn’t say a word. The only people that knew was my wife and I and the trainers and management.”

Before the ceremony, Bourque retreated to the training room to put the No. 77 jersey on underneath his No. 7.

Bourque: “I put 7 on when I was getting dressed and I just went in the back room, the trainers’ room, and just made sure. The trainers knew so I took the [No.7] sweater off and put No. 77 on underneath and then put the other one [back] on and nobody noticed nothing or saw nothing. It was pretty funny when you think about it.”

When the moment finally arrived, Wilson introduced Bourque, saying, “Ray Bourque, the captain of the Bruins, will make a presentation.” And what a presentation it was.

Bourque skated over to Esposito, shook his hand, and handed him an ‘Esposito’ Bruins jersey. As he did that, Bourque pulled off his No. 7 sweater and slowly turned around to unveil his new No. 77. Bobby Orr and O’Reilly can be seen smiling and clapping on the carpet behind them as the Bruins’ bench and the Boston Garden crowd erupts. Bourque and Esposito embraced with a hug.

Esposito: “When Bourquey took the jersey off, I looked at him – and if you could read the lips, I said, ‘what the frick are you doing?’ He said, ‘this is yours, big fellow, and it always should’ve been yours and nobody else’s.’ Well, I was stomped for words. And he did say that by the way. And I was. It was a special moment for me and my family.

“I could tell some of the Rangers brass, some of the reporters, they were a little bit, you know, this shouldn’t be happening with the Rangers playing here. That’s the only thing I had against it, but beggars can’t be choosers.”

Bob Sweeney, who had an assist in the B’s 4-3 win that night and remains one of Bourque’s best friends, was watching from the bench. O’Reilly was standing on the carpet to Esposito’s right.

Sweeney: “That was an unreal moment. No one knew…we’re looking at each other like, ‘what is going on?’ And then we see him pull off the jersey and turn around and see 77. We all knew what was gonna happen from there on out. The message before that was, eventually - Ray was already well on his way to a Hall of Fame career – they would retire the No. 7 for both of them.

“To see what he did that night and to leave Phil Esposito speechless was an unbelievable moment. One of the most iconic moments in the history of the Bruins. It was nice to be a part of it.

“What Ray did was a testament to the type of player, but more importantly the type of human being he is.”

O’Reilly: “The way Ray did it, he just sort of rotated slowly as he peeled the sweater off so everybody could see that he had a new number…I was amazed that it was kept under wraps until he peeled that sweater off and gave it to Phil. That was a great moment. Still, I watch the videotape years later and it just gives you chills.”

Greenberg: “It turned out to be better than we ever expected. When I tell you that Phil was astonished – that’s the best word I can come up with. I don’t believe he ever once gave it any thought that this could happen.

“To see Phil’s expression – and I have talked to him a million times since then – I can tell you, it ranks up there…if it’s not the greatest night of his professional hockey career, it’s close to it.

“I’ve told him this a thousand times, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more astonished look on anybody’s face in my life. He really had absolutely no idea that this was in the works.

“The best part of it was Phil’s reaction...it was the surprise of surprises. It worked to a tee.”

As the Garden crowd roared on, Sinden walked over to pat Bourque on the back and several of the other Bruins dignitaries on the carpet also went over to shake the new No. 77’s hand as they celebrated his gesture.

Sinden: “It’s one of the best memories I’ve ever had with the Bruins. It was very, very emotional…both players were really terrific and very cooperative. It turned out to be one of the really nice nights in my time with the Bruins. Every player would like to get their jersey up in the rafters, but they don’t like to give up their number. And Ray actually preferred 77 because he thought he was the second 7.

“[That moment’s] right up there [with the Stanley Cup], it really is. It was emotional for the two players, I thought, and when you see that and you’re close to it, it kind of spreads to you and I felt that way. I felt great about it. I thought it was a good thought the way we did it.”

Wilson then stepped back to the mic and told the crowd, “Ladies and gentlemen, what you see is what Ray Bourque will wear from now on. Ray Bourque is going to wear No. 77 as No. 7 is retired.” Bourque said into the microphone, “There’s your jersey back Phil, she’s all yours,” as Esposito pulled his No. 7 sweater over his head.

Esposito then grabbed the microphone saying, “I gotta tell you, I was looking forward to this for a long, long time, I admit it…Ray Bourque is one of the greatest players that ever played this game. What this young man did tonight is something that I’ll never, ever, ever forget. No matter what happens in my life, Raymond Bourque. Never.”

Moments later, No. 7 was hoisted to the Boston Garden rafters as an emotional Esposito looked on.

Esposito: “Before I had Lasik [surgery], I had glasses on. I’m watching it go up and my wife and my daughter who was three or four years old. I had a lump. I don’t get too emotional, I don’t. I got emotional seeing all the guys just recently [during Big Bad Bruins Night] and I got emotional during the [Centennial Opening Night].

“When that [No. 7 banner] was going up, my thought was, ‘I wish my dad and my mom were alive to see this.’ My brother [Tony] was still playing. I think he retired a year later or something. It would’ve been nice for him to be there, too…it was a great night, it really was.”

A night that that him and Bourque still talk about to this day.

Esposito: “When I see him, I still say, ‘You son of a gun, you fooled me.’ Because I didn’t know he was gonna do that, not at all. Terry O’Reilly…he knew something but nobody else knew it. Bobby told me, ‘I didn’t know, Phil. I promise you.’”

Bourque: “It’s a special connection. I don’t think it would’ve been right having another name on that and sharing it. It made that connection a special one. I know Phil really appreciated the gesture and it was just the right thing to do.

“I never asked for [No. 7], it was given to me. I was an 18-year-old, I really didn’t say all that much back then. It took a while. But I just went on and tried to do my job. When it was presented to me about doing the right thing, it was an easy thing to do.”

For Bourque, the moment is still the No. 1 topic of conversation among fans that he encounters.

Bourque: “Out of anything that I’ve done in my hockey career, what's talked about the most when I’m stopped, they say, ‘Hey I remember that night with Phil Esposito when you took off 7 and revealed 77.’ That’s by far the thing that’s talked about the most when I meet up with fans.”

And it remains one of the great moments in the 100-year history of the Boston Bruins.

O’Reilly: “That was one of the nicest moments in Bruins history. Phil did so much for the organization wearing that number. Ray had done just as much, so for him to give it up that way and then make 77 just as famous, if not more than No. 7, it’s really a storybook ending.

“[Bourque’s] the ultimate hockey player and I’ve always thought hockey players have a real commitment to teamwork and everything that goes with that friendship and loyalty. He’s one of the all-time greatest in Bruins history and he went on and did that with a brand new number, No. 77...and made that famous.”

Bourque: “It was an amazing night. I’m really happy that it made Phil’s night the way it should’ve been. When you think about it, that number really shouldn’t have been worn, but it was and the way it all worked out was beautiful. And now we got 7 and 77 up there. I was just proud and happy that I represented that No. 7 [well].”