No. 4 is No. 1 in the hearts of New Englanders, but Sports Illustrated recently gave one of the greatest hockey players of all time the shaft when it comes to still shots.
The iconic photo of Orr, which was taken as he’s leaping through the air celebrating his Stanley Cup-clinching overtime goal in 1970, took the No. 80 slot on the list of the “100 All Time Greatest Sports Photos.”
Bostonians aren’t the only folks upset with this decision, as SI’s very own Stu Hackel is outraged, to say the least.
“As for the rankings, I believe that the Orr goal is the greatest hockey photo ever, historic for numerous reasons [a Cup clincher by the game’s top star, capturing the moment of his ascendancy to king of the game at the time of the its first big explosion as a truly national sport in the United States after the NHL’s expansion of 1967] and exceptional as an image,” he wrote on SI.com. “It’s otherworldly in its appearance with Orr flying Superman-like through the frame. It’s black and white, so perhaps that cost it points with the editors, but that never bothered me. In fact, many of my favorite hockey shots are black and white.”
Below is a list of all of the New England sports-related photos and their rankings.
- Rodney Harrison, David Tyree: No. 95
- Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain: No. 82
- Bobby Orr: No. 80
- Tony DeMarco, Carmine Basilio: No. 76
- John Havlicek, Chat Walker: No. 59
- Bob Cousy: No. 52
- Ted Williams: No. 51
- Larry Bird, Magic Johnson: No. 38
- Pau Gasol, Celtics: No. 19
- Virginia Tech vs. Boston College: No. 14
- Manny Ramirez: No. 4
- Magic Johnson, Ed Pickney: No. 3
Let’s not leave out the local members of the 1980 Miracle on Ice team (No. 78) or former president John F. Kennedy (No. 61).
