Alan Eagleson

Robert Alan Eagleson (born April 24, 1933) is a disbarred Canadian lawyer, hockey agent and promoter.

Clients that he represented included superstars Bobby Orr and Darryl Sittler, and he was the first executive director of the NHL Players Association (NHLPA), which was initially lauded for improving the bargaining power of National Hockey League (NHL) players.

When the NHLPA was formed in 1967, Eagleson was appointed its first executive director, a position he held for 25 years.

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

He is also well known for providing the opportunity for professional players to compete in international hockey, by promoting the 1972 Summit Series between Canada and the Soviet Union, and the Canada Cup (now the World Cup of Hockey).

However, Eagleson was convicted of fraud and embezzlement and briefly imprisoned, after it was revealed that he had abused his position for many years by defrauding his clients and skimming money from tournaments.

After his convictions, he was removed as a member of the Order of Canada and resigned from the Hockey Hall of Fame where he had been inducted in the builder category.

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.

That led to other members of the Leafs becoming clients, most notably defenceman Carl Brewer, who hired Eagleson as his agent.

Eagleson formed 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.

Eagleson's motive was to educate these players about investments, and use their funds more intelligently.

Pulford, Baun, Brewer and Harris eventually earned university degrees after their playing careers.

Two members of the Blue and White Group, Pulford and Baun, were the first two presidents of the NHLPA.

The Leafs' acquisition of Andy Bathgate was advantageous to Eagleson.

A friendship was forged in Toronto which followed Bathgate to Detroit, where Eagleson started to talk to Red Wings players about the concept of a union.

Eagleson's influence in the hockey world began when he negotiated Bobby Orr's first professional contract with the Boston Bruins.

This led to the beginnings of "agents" in hockey.

Secondly, Carl Brewer fought to have his amateur status reinstated.

Lastly, Eagleson was involved in representing the Springfield Indians during their negotiations with owner Eddie Shore over players rights.

These events solidified Eagleson's reputation, and he became the catalyst for the NHLPA.

Eagleson was also active in promoting the sport, helping to organize the historic 1972 Summit Series—the first time Canadian and Soviet professionals had ever competed against each other on the ice.

According to the Globe and Mail, his role as "manager and motivator, travel agent and godfather, firebrand and peacemaker" for the first squad ever to be known as Team Canada earned him wide recognition and the nickname "Uncle Al".

Eagleson travelled regularly to negotiations and ice hockey events in Europe with an entourage, and employed Aggie Kukulowicz as a Russian language interpreter.

Notably, Eagleson was responsible for the decision to exclude many WHA stars from the Summit Series, including Bobby Hull, Gerry Cheevers and Derek Sanderson, as they had chosen to play in the WHA instead of the NHL.

Four years later, Eagleson organized the first Canada Cup, which included WHA players.

During the final game 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.

By 1979, Eagleson represented more than a dozen Toronto Maple Leafs players, including Darryl Sittler and his best friend and linemate, Lanny McDonald.

Eagleson had a strained relationship with Leafs owner Harold Ballard and general manager Punch Imlach.

Imlach believed Sittler had too much influence on the team and tried to undermine his authority with the players.

When Sittler and goaltender Mike Palmateer agreed to appear on the TV show Showdown, as negotiated by the NHLPA, Imlach went to court to try to get an injunction to stop them.

When Imlach said that he was open to offers for Sittler from other teams, Eagleson said it would cost $500,000 to get Sittler to waive the no-trade clause in his contract.

So, instead of trading Sittler, Imlach sent McDonald to the woeful Colorado Rockies on December 29, 1979.

In response, Sittler ripped the captain's C off his sweater, later commenting that a captain had to be the go-between with players and management, and he no longer had any communication with management.

Ballard likened Sittler's actions to burning the Canadian flag.

For all intents and purposes, the NHL of the 1980s was ruled by a triumvirate of Ziegler, Eagleson and Chicago Blackhawks owner Bill Wirtz, who was chairman of the NHL board of governors.

Eagleson was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1989 as a builder—the first instance of a union official being elected to the hall of fame in a major team sport.

That same year, while Brian Mulroney ruled the country, 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.