Alan Eagleson

Robert Alan Eagleson (born April 24, 1933 in St. Catharines, Ontario) is a disbarred Canadian lawyer, convicted felon in two countries, former politician, hockey agent and promoter, known 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). Although initially lauded for improving the lot of NHL players, his reputation was destroyed after it was revealed that he had abused his position as sole director of the NHLPA to defraud his clients and profit by criminal actions for years.

The Blue and White Group

Eagleson graduated in law from the University of Toronto and soon became a prominent lawyer in Toronto. He first became involved with hockey as an advisor to Bob Pulford, a player with the Toronto Maple Leafs. It was quickly realized that any attempt to create a union would be easier to achieve with Leafs' players as his base of power. [ 67: The Maple Leafs, Their Sensational Victory, and the End of an Empire, p. 143, Damien Cox and Gord Stellick, ISBN number: 0-470-83400-5, Publisher: John Wiley and Sons ] That led to other members of the Leafs becoming clients, most notably defenceman Carl Brewer, who hired Eagleson as his agent.

Eagleson would form the Blue and White Group, a group of friends he had known from the Maple Leafs, including Brewer, Pulford, Bobby Baun and Billy Harris, along with a car dealer, a jeweller, and three other lawyers. [ 67: The Maple Leafs, Their Sensational Victory, and the End of an Empire, p. 148, Damien Cox and Gord Stellick, ISBN number: 0-470-83400-5, Publisher: John Wiley and Sons ] Eagleson's motive was to educate these players about investments, and use their funds more intelligently. Pulford, Brewer and Harris would earn university degrees after their playing careers. Two members of the Blue and White Group, Pulford and Baun, would be the first two presidents of the NHLPA.

The Leafs' acquisition of Andy Bathgate would prove advantageous to Eagleson. A friendship was forged into Toronto which would follow Bathgate to Detroit, where Eagleson would start to talk to Red Wings players about the concept of a union.

A hockey power

Three events would occur that would help Eagleson form the NHLPA. The first event would be the insistence that Eagleson would negotiate Bobby Orr's first pro contract with the Boston Bruins. This would lead to the beginnings of "agents" in hockey. Secondly, Carl Brewer fought to have his amateur status reinstated. Lastly, Eagleson would be involved in representing the Springfield Indians during their negotiations with owner Eddie Shore over players rights. [ 67: The Maple Leafs, Their Sensational Victory, and the End of an Empire, p. 151, Damien Cox and Gord Stellick, ISBN number: 0-470-83400-5, Publisher: John Wiley and Sons ] These events would solidify Eagleson's reputation, and he would become the catalyst for the NHLPA.

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. Notably, Eagleson was responsible for the decision to exclude many WHA stars from the Summit Series, including Bobby Hull, Gerry Cheevers and Derek Sanderson. 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 confront off-ice officials after the goal judge had failed to light the goal lamp when a Canadian player scored, at which point he was seized by soldiers of the Red 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. The image of him angrily giving the finger to Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev was broadcasted around the world.

Within a decade, he was one of the most powerful men in hockey, and by some accounts, the most powerful man in the sport. He 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.

Over the years, Eagleson developed a very close relationship with league president John Ziegler. For all intents and purposes, the NHL of the 1980s was ruled by a triumvirate of Ziegler, Eagleson and Chicago Blackhawks owner Bill Wirtz.

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 considered as a potential candidate for prime minister.

Disgrace

As Eagleson's power grew, concern was raised about his multiple roles as union chief, player agent and hockey promoter. Suspicions also rose that he was reaping a substantial windfall from the Canada Cup and other arrangements unknown to the players.

In 1989, however, player agents Ritch Winter and Ron Salcer teamed up with former National Football League union official Ed Garvey to author a devastating review of the NHLPA's operations. Winter and Salcer had been critical of Eagleson's stewardship for many years, and felt he wasn't giving them the support they needed to adequately represent their clients. The report, presented at a union meeting in West Palm Beach, revealed that Eagleson's travel expenses were not subject to any form of review by the union. Winter and Salcer also charged that Eagleson was skimming off money from advertising on the dasher boards, and had lent pension money to friends. Eagleson was able to weather this storm because the union's executive committee was stacked with longtime cronies. However, he was forced to announce that he would be stepping down as executive director in 1992.

Conway investigates

In 1990, Russ Conway, sports editor of The Eagle-Tribune, began an investigation of Eagleson's performance in office. Conway had heard rumors for some time that something was seriously amiss about the inner workings of the NHL -- specifically serious discrepancies in pension payments. During that time many local Canadian journalists, who owed favours or access to Eagleson, refused to look into the growing allegations that were being investigated. Over the course of a year, Conway interviewed more than 200 NHL personalities, including former and active players and NHL officials.

In September 1991, he published the first of many installments in a series called "Cracking the Ice: Intrigue and Conflict in the World of Big-Time Hockey." The series revealed evidence that Eagleson had engaged in unethical and criminal conduct over a long term.

The series alleged that Eagleson had embezzled player pension funds for many years, principally from the 1972 Summit Series. He was also accused of colluding with teams whose management he favoured, such as the Chicago Blackhawks, to hold down salaries, even if it meant working contrary to the interests of his clients. For example, after Orr's contract with Boston ran out, Eagleson told Bobby Orr that the Blackhawks had a deal on the table that Orr couldn't refuse. It later emerged that the Bruins offered Orr one of the most lucrative contracts in sports history, including an 18 percent stake in the team; however, Eagleson falsely claimed the Blackhawks had a better offer. William Wirtz, the tightfisted owner of the Blackhawks, was never charged with wrongdoing, largely because the Bruins' offer was widely known in league circles, and even reported in the "Toronto Star". No other NHL owner was ever charged in the affair. Orr, who had once considered Eagleson a big brotherFact|date=August 2008, later denounced him after suspecting that he was being cheated. Orr, whose career ended in 1978 because of serious knee injuries, learned he was almost bankrupt, despite having earned high salaries while being represented by Eagleson.

However, the series' most shocking revelation concerned Eagleson's actions regarding disability claims by former players. Eagleson was accused of taking large payments from insurance claims before the players filing them received their share, telling the players that he earned the 'fee' whilst fighting against the insurance companies to get the claims paid. In fact, many players later learned that the insurance companies had already agreed to pay the claims and there was no 'fight'. In other cases where a 'fight' with the insurance companies truly was required, several players ran into bureaucratic dead ends and no support from Eagleson while they tried to move forward on insurance and pension claims to support their families. Conway later turned his series into the basis of a book, "Game Misconduct: Alan Eagleson and the Corruption of Hockey."

Conway published several other stories over the next nine years about Eagleson's crimes. For instance, he'd been reimbursed more than $62,000 for personal expenses from 1987 to 1989. He also revealed that the NHLPA had unknowingly footed the bill for expensive clothing, theater tickets and a luxury apartment in London. Many players had been led to believe that they were playing in the Canada Cup for free because all the money was going to their pensions. Eagleson had also refused to visit the family of a second-line defenceman, Ed Kea, whose career was ended by a devastating head injury that required major brain surgery.

Conway worked very closely with Carl Brewer, who by this time had become the leader of a group of former players who felt Eagleson had lied to them. Brewer's longtime companion, Susan Foster, provided a large amount of material to Conway.

Although Eagleson had been based in Toronto, most Canadian media organizations had avoided detailed investigation of his dealings until Conway's material was published. That changed when "The Globe and Mail" began its own examination of Eagleson's career in early 1993, and published a series of stories with further revelations. Two Globe sports writers, William Houston and David Shoalts, expanded that material, Conway's work, and the latest developments into their own book, entitled "Eagleson: The Fall of a Hockey Czar", which was published later in 1993.

Charged by RCMP, extradited to U.S.

In 1996, after a politically delayed three-year investigation, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police finally was forced, by Conway's publications, to charge Eagleson with eight counts of fraud and theft. He'd already been charged with 34 counts of racketeering, obstruction of justice, embezzlement and fraud in the United States in 1994. However, his influence with politicians in Canada, from his days as a member of the Ontario Legislature, and a power-broker with the Progressive Conservative Party, was such that he was able to fight off extradition to the United States until 1997.

On January 6 1998, Eagleson pleaded guilty to three counts of mail fraud in Boston, and was 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 sentenced to 18 months in prison, of which he served six months at the Mimico Correctional Centre in Toronto. The conviction resulted in his automatic disbarment from the practice of law by the Law Society of Upper Canada, which regulates the profession in Ontario.

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 Winter Olympic Games in Turin, Italy.

urrenders honours

Soon after his guilty plea, Eagleson 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 19 Hall of Fame players -- including Bobby Orr, Andy Bathgate, Bobby Hull, Gordie Howe, Jean Beliveau, Mike Bossy, Johnny Bucyk, Ted Lindsay, Henri Richard, Brad Park, Johnny Bower and Dickie Moore -- threatened to request the removal of their names from the Hall if Eagleson's was allowed to remain.

Defenders of Eagleson pointed out that during his tenure as executive director of the 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 whom 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 later grew into involvement in the World Hockey Championship, the World Cup of Hockey, and the Winter Olympic Games. Furthermore, his maximum salary as director of NHLPA was one-tenth of that of his successor, Bob Goodenow. Many of his most ardent supporters during and after his trial were famous and prominent clients who had benefitted from his activities, including high profile hockey personalities such as Bobby Clarke and Marcel Dionne.

Notes

References

*"The New York Times" [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A00EFDD1030F934A35752C0A96E958260 N.H.L.; Eagleson Pleads Guilty] January 7, 1998
*"The New York Times" [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A07E7DB153FF93BA25751C0A96E958260 PLUS: SPORTS BUSINESS; Eagleson Is Out Of Canadian Hall] February 18, 1998
*"Lawrence Eagle-Tribune" [http://www.eagletribune.com/news/stories/19980326/FP_004.htm Embattled hockey czar quits Hall of Fame] March 26, 1998

Further reading

* "Net Worth", by David Cruise and Alison Griffiths.

* "Game Misconduct: Alan Eagleson and the Corruption of Hockey", by Russ Conway.

* "Eagleson: The Fall of a Hockey Czar", by William Houston and David Shoalts.

* "67: The Maple Leafs, their Sensational Victory, and the End of an Empire", by Damien Cox and Gord Stellick, John Wiley and Sons publishers.

External links

* [http://archives.cbc.ca/IDD-1-74-1493/people/alan_eagleson/ CBC Digital Archives - The Rise and Fall of Alan Eagleson]