Alan Eagleson
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Robert Alan Eagleson (born April 24, 1933 in St. Catharines, Ontario) is a Canadian disbarred lawyer, former politician, hockey agent and promoter, famous for his role in promoting the 1972 Summit Series between Canada and the Soviet Union, the Canada Cup (now the World Cup of Hockey), and his representation of famous hockey players such as Bobby Orr. He was also the first executive director of the NHL Players Association (NHLPA). However, his reputation was all but destroyed after it was revealed that he had used his position to enrich himself for years.
A hockey power
Eagleson, then a lawyer in Toronto, first came to prominence in 1966 when he negotiated Orr's first contract with the Boston Bruins. He soon built a clientele of several other prominent players. When the NHLPA was formed in 1967, Eagleson was appointed its first executive director, a position he held for 25 years. He was also active in promoting the sport, helping to organize the historic 1972 Summit Series--the first time Canadian and Soviet pros had ever competed against each other on the ice. Four years later, he organized the first Canada Cup.
During one of the Summit Series games in Moscow, Eagleson garnered international attention by attempting to assault one of the referees, at which point he was seized by soldiers of the Soviet army. The Canadian players and the few Canadian fans rallied to his defence to prevent him from being arrested, providing one of the most memorable off-ice moments of the series.
Within a decade, he was one of the most powerful men in hockey, and was even elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1989 as a builder--the only known instance where a union official has been elected to the hall of fame in a major team sport. The same year, he was named an Officer of the Order of Canada for his work in promoting the sport.
Political career
Eagleson was also active in politics for many years. In the 1963 federal election, he ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the Canadian House of Commons for the Progressive Conservatives in the Toronto riding of York West. He was defeated by hockey player Red Kelly who ran for the Liberals. Later that year, he was elected to the Ontario Legislative Assembly as the Progressive Conservative Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for the Toronto riding of Lakeshore, serving there until 1967. He was a major PC fundraiser and, in the late 1960s, president of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario. He was a member of the Big Blue Machine that dominated Ontario politics for much of the 1970s and 1980s. At one point, his name was even bandied about as a potential candidate for prime minister.
Disgrace
In 1991, several former players led by former Toronto Maple Leafs defenceman Carl Brewer, one of Eagleson's first clients, accused Eagleson of racketeering, fraud and embezzling player pension funds, particularly those raised from the ticket sales of the 1972 Summit Series.
He was also accused of acting contrary to the interests of his clients in favor of teams whose management he favoured, such as the Chicago Blackhawks. For example, after Orr's contract with Boston ran out, Eagleson told Orr that the Blackhawks had a deal on the table that Orr couldn't refuse. It later emerged that the Bruins offered Orr a very lucrative deal, including an 18 percent stake in the team; however, Eagleson never disclosed this to Orr.
The vast majority of the work done in exposing Eagleson's crimes was conducted by American newspaper writer Russ Conway of the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune, a paper located just outside Boston. Conway ran a series of stories detailing Eagleson's activities that was eventually turned into the book Game Misconduct. The first series of reports forced Eagleson to resign as NHLPA executive director in 1991.
In 1994, Eagleson was charged with skimming off money intended for the NHLPA pension fund and disability insurance money. The NHLPA, it turned out, had unknowingly footed the bill for expensive clothing, theater tickets and a luxury apartment in London. In 1998, Eagleson pleaded guilty to three counts of mail fraud in Boston and fined $700,000. Later that year, he pleaded guilty in Toronto to three more counts of fraud and embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars of Canada Cup proceeds in 1984, 1987 and 1991. He was disbarred and sentenced to 18 months in jail, of which he served six months. Since being released, he has largely remained out of the limelight, although he was interviewed on television after Canada's loss to Russia in the 2006 Olympics.
Soon after his guilty plea, he was removed from the Order of Canada (though he continued to wear his lapel pin during the court proceedings prior to his sentence). He also resigned from the Hockey Hall of Fame, after the Hall's board informally voted to expel him (a formal vote, which was almost certain to pass, was due within a few weeks). The Hall had tried to stay out of the controversy, but was forced to act after Orr (who once looked on Eagleson as a big brother), Bobby Hull, Gordie Howe, Johnny Bucyk, Ted Lindsay, Henri Richard, Brad Park and other prominent players threatened to pull out of the Hall if Eagleson were allowed to remain a member.
Defenders of Eagleson point out that during his tenure as executive director of NHLPA, both salaries and pension benefits increased exponentially, offering real security to players that had not existed prior to that time. During the criminal proceedings against him, several players who he had defrauded were amongst his biggest supporters. Moreover, prior to Eagleson's involvement, Canadian professionals had never participated in international hockey, an involvement that has now grown into involvement in the World Hockey Championship, the World Cup of Hockey, and the Winter Olympic Games.
External links
References
- The New York Times [N.H.L.; Eagleson Pleads Guilty] January 7, 1998
- The New York Times [PLUS: SPORTS BUSINESS; Eagleson Is Out Of Canadian Hall] February 18, 1998
- Lawrence Eagle-Tribune [Embattled hockey czar quits Hall of Fame] March 26, 1998
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