Product Description

Black and Gold is a pictorial history of the Boston Bruins, one of the NHL's Original Six teams and among hockey's most popular franchises. Celebrating their 85^th season in 2008-09, the Bruins are a storied team with a long and rich history, and a fascinating cast of characters. Home to players such as Orr, Esposito, Schmidt, Bucyk, Cheevers, O'Reilly, Bourque and Neely, Boston has captured five Stanley Cups as well as numerous division and conference titles.

Featuring four decades of pictures from long-time team photographer Steve Babineau, and accompanying text by NESN broadcaster Rob Simpson, Black and Gold will document much of the rich history of the team, including magic moments from the past, star players and coaches such as Ray Bourque, Cam Neely, Terry O'Reilly, Don Cherry, and Joe Thornton, as well as Bruins goalies, grinders, and the old Boston Garden. This epic collection of photographs and commentary from the last four decades, featuring many never-before-seen shots, will be sure to bring back memories for every Bruins fan who bleeds black and gold.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #115203 in Books
• Published on: 2008-09-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

From the Inside Flap
Black and Gold is a pictorial romp through four decades of one of the NHL's great Original Six franchises-a personal history of the Boston Bruins as seen through the lens of Steve Babineau, team photographer for 35 years.

Over his long career, Babs, as he is known, has captured over one-third of the history of this storied franchise with his work. He has seen many of the greatest in the organization and has photographed them all for the record: Bobby Orr, John Bucyk, Phil Esposito, Terry O'Reilly, Ray Bourque, Cam Neely, Gerry Cheevers, Don Cherry and the Lunchpail Gang, and many more.

In glorious color and classic black and white, Black and Gold lovingly captured four decades of Bruins history and the team's characters in over 300 photographs,many of them never published before.

With veteran hockey journalist, broadcaster, and author Rob Simpson, Babs shares his memories and best-loved moments with the team: from growing up a Bruins fan, to his own early hockey playing day, getting interest in photography and coming to work for the Bs, and eventually documenting the team and its plays through four decades. Black and Gold is an up-close and personal look at the Bruins plays, coaches, and fans, as well as the old Boston Garden and the characters who inhabited it.

As well as Babs' perspective on the Bruins—from the stands, the penalty box, the press box, and the arena rafters—Black and Gold features interviews with many former Bruins, coaches, and general managers, peppering the pages with great first-hand stories and anecdotes on what it means to be a Bruin and share in the great tradition of the franchise; and on the hundreds of blueliners, scorers and playmakers, grinders and enforcers, goalies, and coaches that passed through the organization in the four decades that Babs caught on film.

Thirty-five years and some 1,700 games have gone by since Babineau shot his first game back in the 1973-74 season, and he's still counting. Black and Gold is a fitting testament to that great career, and to those who fill its pages.

This stunning collection of photographs, magical moments, and commentary from the last four decade swill be sure to bring back memories for very Bruins fan who bleeds black and gold.

From the Back Cover
 

About the Author
Rob Simpson is an established hockey reporter, commentator and writer. He has written a number of magazine and newspaper articles about the game on and off the ice, and also penned the 2005 book Between the Lines, about the Hall-of-Fame career of long-time NHL linesman Ray “Scampy” Scapinello. A 25-year veteran of the broadcasting business, Simpson recently spent three years as a Boston Bruins TV program host and rink-side reporter for the New England Sports Network.  He also produced and hosted Hockey Odyssey on the NHL Network. For four years, Simpson produced and hosted Maple Leaf America on Leafs TV in Toronto. His favorite and frequent pastime is travel, which is for fun and business. Presently a Delaware family man off-season, he’s taken a career path less traveled, with previous stops in Alabama, Florida, Australia, Hawaii, and Idaho. 

Photographer Steve Babineau has spent the last 35 years accumulating hundreds of thousands of images of the Boston Bruins, Celtics, and Red Sox, as well as special event and concert photos from the Boston Garden and the TD Banknorth Garden. Hockey being his first love, the former high school player has dedicated himself to capturing the great moments on and off the ice for the Bruins and the NHL in Boston and beyond. H is images have appeared in countless magazines, yearbooks, on hockey cards and promotional items, and on-line. Babs currently runs Sports Action Photography with his son Brain, who began taking photos with dad two decades ago. Babineau resides in Massachusetts during the hockey season, for a little while longer anyway, and in Florida during the off-season, where he and his family enjoy the sunshine and frequenting Disney.

Customer Reviews

Solid Gold Treatment for America's Blue Collar Hockey Team
This beautifully illustrated book captures the essence of a memorable era of Bruins and hockey history. Among the players featured are the likes of the incomparable Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito, Gerry Cheevers, Terry O'Reilly, Cam Neely, Ray Bourque, and the swashbuckling Bruins squad led by head coach Don Cherry known as the "Lunchpail AC." Longtime Bruins team photographer Steve Babineau culled through hundreds of thousands of negatives shot over four decades to assemble this definitive portrait of hockey's original blue collar franchise. Babineau's photographs are perfectly complimented by Rob Simpson's informed and entertaining text. Since both authors are hockey professionals and diehard fans their enthusiasm for the Bruins is matched only by their skill as chroniclers of the team's colorful history. This book belongs on the same shelf as past hockey pictorial histories by photographers such as Harold Barkley and Denis Brodeur and is a must purchase for any serious hockey fan...all for the price of a second balcony seat.

A Boston Bruins Masterpiece
If your a longtime Boston Bruins fan (like me from 1966) then you have to get this book. This is a wonderful collection of photographs and stories covering all of the great past Bruins that fans loved not only for their play on the ice but for their actions off the ice. It is a book that features athletes from the Bruins the way we wish all athletes would act. A true classic for the coffee table whether it is hockey season or not.

Great Book
You can't find a better collection of photograhs concerning the Bruins organization than what is in this book. You are getting it directly for the archives of the teams photographer. If you are a Bruins fan than this book will not dissapoint.