STH Tales: In Their Blood

BostonBruins.com - Maureen and Karen Connolly were not always labeled the most fervent Bruins fans. When the sisters first started attending games at Boston Garden in the 1960s, they termed themselves something much different, something that was far less about their passion for the Black & Gold and much more about the necessity of their presence.
"We used to call ourselves the seat fillers," said Karen Connolly. "Before Bobby Orr came, my father had a hard time getting people to go to the game. When he couldn't fill a seat, we ended up going. The joke was we were the seat fillers."

That "seat filler" label quickly vanished, however, as the Connollys - like most everyone else in New England - got swept up in the sensation that was Bobby Orr and the 1970s Boston Bruins.
"With Bobby Orr, everyone was more envious that you were actually going to the game," Karen recalled.
The Connollys' father, James, had been attending games at Boston Garden as a Season Ticket Holder since the 1930s, his original seats located in the first row of the second balcony on the blue line where the Bruins would shoot once. A member of the Gallery Gods, James Connolly had the chance to hand out the group's annual award to fan favorites such as Terry O'Reilly and Stan Jonathan.
"Back then, every game, the same people went," said Maureen, who attended her first Bruins game during the 1967-68 season at age 12 and is now a Season Ticket Holder with her sister. "You came to that game and it was like old home week, the same group of guys would always be there every single game."

Before one game in the early 1970s, the Connollys made their way down to the Bruins bench during warmups. Back then, security was far less stringent, allowing the duo to sit on the bench as the Black & Gold got loose for that night's contest.
"[The old Garden] was small and quaint, you could go sit on the bench, you got to do certain things that nowadays you can't do," said Karen. "Bobby always skated to the middle. He never, ever came near the bench or around the boards. He always stayed in the center of the ice for warmups."
As the girls - then teenagers - looked on, Orr stopped near center ice to adjust the tape wrapped around his sock. Deciding that he needed to start fresh, Orr ripped off the tape and skated toward the Bruins bench, making eye contact with the Connollys.
"I held out my hand and he tossed it to me," said Maureen. "It's still in a baggy in my junk drawer."
Some 50 years later, that rolled up piece of hockey tape remains a treasured piece of Bruins memorabilia in the Connollys' basement shrine, along with jerseys signed by Orr, Ray Bourque, Cam Neely, and even Dmitri Kristich - which Maureen won during a "Shirts Off Their Backs" ceremony in the late 1990s.

Their collection also includes a piece of wood from the old Garden bench and part of the cloth from the table on which the Stanley Cup was placed during the on-ice presentation in 1970.
"After we won the Cup - we were all there - [my father] went to the ice and the Cup got put down on the table," Maureen explained. "It was a gold, silky cloth…he looked at it, another guy looked at it, and the guy looked at him and said, 'We'll split it.' They tore it in two."
It was only recently, when Maureen moved from her Waltham home, that she decided to part with a plastic cup that Derek Sanderson was drinking from before a game.
"He was hurt and he was sitting down at the old loge area of the Garden and I was probably about 16 then," recalled Maureen, who along with her sister, at one point attended every Bruins home game for five consecutive seasons. "I wasn't one to do something like that…I saw him sitting there, people were coming down to ask him for autographs and stuff.
"I looked down and saw him. I said, 'I'm gonna go down and ask him for his beer cup.' It was a Budweiser, plastic, nothing cup. I went down and I asked him for it. He gave it to me; I don't think he even acknowledged me. He gave it to me and I turned around and yelled, 'I got it!'
"I rinsed it out and that I kept for a long time and finally I said, 'OK, I don't need to keep this cup in my drawer.' But Bobby Orr's tape I kept."

The Connollys are diehards, for sure, and they have tried to pass on their fandom to their nephews, who used to attend games with "Aunty Karen" and "Aunty Mo" almost every Saturday afternoon.
"Four generations going now," said Maureen, who listed Orr, Bourque, and Patrice Bergeron as the sisters' three all-time favorite Bruins. "The rule to come with Aunty Karen and Aunty Mo, you had to be potty trained, you couldn't go to the hockey game in diapers. The third generation is now bringing their kids. My nephews were like four, five, three, six - we would just walk them right through.
"They would go to every afternoon game. We didn't pay for them or anything. They sat on our laps and went to practically every Saturday afternoon game."
Karen and Maureen attend about half of the home games these days, with friends and family "filling in" for the others. It's a tradition they have a tough time thinking of giving up.
"You kind of think, how much longer?" said Karen. "It's that feeling like you're giving up that family thing, that connection to my father. All the kids look at us, they're trying to make their way."
To the Connollys, it's simple: Bruins hockey is part of their identity.
"Bobby Orr was it. He was the man…he started in '66, I started in '67, the Bruins started their climb and never stopped. It was Bobby. He put the spark back in the game," said Maureen.
"But it wasn't that he cemented our fandom. It's in our blood. It's something you had to do."