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. 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, 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.
Read more about this topic: Alan Eagleson
Famous quotes containing the words blue, white and/or group:
“Oh, Scott, for people like you and me the world can be a wonderful place. The sky’s as blue as it is for the giants, the friends are as warm.”
—Richard Matheson (b. 1926)
“I think one of the nicest things that we created as a generation was just the fact that we could say, Hey, I don’t like white people.”
—Nikki Giovanni (b. 1943)
“Even in harmonious families there is this double life: the group life, which is the one we can observe in our neighbour’s household, and, underneath, another—secret and passionate and intense—which is the real life that stamps the faces and gives character to the voices of our friends. Always in his mind each member of these social units is escaping, running away, trying to break the net which circumstances and his own affections have woven about him.”
—Willa Cather (1873–1947)