Kooks and Degenerates on Ice - by Thomas J Whalen (Paperback)

About the Book

This book celebrates the 1969-70 Boston Bruins. While the country seethed from racial violence, war, and mass shootings, the "Big, Bad Bruins," led by the legendary Bobby Orr, brushed off their perennial losing ways to advance to the playoffs and defeat the St. Louis Blues in ...

Book Synopsis

This book celebrates the 1969-70 Boston Bruins. While the country seethed from racial violence, war, and mass shootings, the "Big, Bad Bruins," led by the legendary Bobby Orr, brushed off their perennial losing ways to advance to the playoffs and defeat the St. Louis Blues in the Stanley Cup Finals for their first championship in 29 years.

Review Quotes

Boston, the city on the hill, has been blessed above all others in sports history. The run of the Celtics was incomparable, the Patriots have accomplished the nearly impossible, and though long in coming the Sox have had their moments in the sun. Although the Bruins have never quite matched the others, they, perhaps more than the rest, have captured the heart of the city, especially during the Bobby Orr era. Legendary stuff. And Thomas J. Whalen brings it back in all its salty, crazy drama.

If you are one of the thousands of New England Baby Boomers who can never get enough of Bobby Orr and the Bruins of the 1970s, here's another book for your collection.

If you know--without going to Google--the significance of the figure 13,909 (a full house in the old Boston Garden), whom Ted Green fought with in his greatest ice bout (Wayne Maki), and the hometown of Bobby Orr (Parry Sound, Ontario), then Thomas J. Whalen has written a book specifically for you. If all this is a mystery, then Whalen also has written a book specifically for you.

Tom Whalen provides an excellent concise history of the Bruins while placing their legendary swashbuckling teams of the late sixties and early seventies in the rich social context of their times. Much like those Bruins, this is a book that should delight non-hockey fans as well as diehards.

Whalen vividly takes readers through the arc of the winning season, from early season struggles to the eventual Stanley Cup victory over the St. Louis Blues with Orr's game-winning goal, captured in the famous flying Superman photo. This exciting slice of hockey history is an open-net goal for Bruins fans.

About the Author

Thomas J. Whalen is an associate professor of social science at Boston University. Whalen's social/political commentary has appeared in the New York Times, ABCNews.com, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, and the AP. He has also appeared on several national broadcast outlets including CNN, NPR and Reuters TV. Whalen is the author of multiple books, including Dynasty's End: Bill Russell and the 1968-69 World Champion Boston Celtics (2003), When the Red Sox Ruled: Baseball's First Dynasty, 1912-1918 (2011), and Spirit of '67: The Cardiac Kids, El Birdos, and the World Series That Captivated American (R&L, 2017).