Sports World Nostalgia: Terry O'Reilly

While he may have come a bit before our time, the career of Terry O'Reilly is worth remembering. O'Reilly played 13 seasons in the NHL for the Boston Bruins, earning a reputation for being a total badass, and the nickname "Bloody O'Reilly." From 1977-78 to 1981-82, O'Reilly spent at least 200 minutes in the penalty box each season (on average, spending about 3 minutes in the box per game.) He was Boston's captain from 1983-1985.

O'Reilly is probably most remembered for his part in a 1979 brawl at Madison Square Garden. In this incident, a fan stole O'Reilly's teammate's stick and hit him with it. Never one to take crap from anybody, O'Reilly left the ice, and charged into the stands more than 25 years before Ron Artest did so. His actions, which led to the rest of the Bruins entering the stands to prevent other fans from interfering, earned O'Reilly an 8-game suspension.

But career-spanning violent streaks aside, O'Reilly was also a solid player. He scored a goal in his first NHL game in 1971-1972, the first of 154 NHL goals in his career to go along with 301 assists in 677 games. In the Stanley Cup Playoffs, "Bloody" O'Reilly scored 23 goals and assisted on 40 more in 99 playoff games. (He also logged an additional 304 minutes in the sin bin.) He never played in the Stanley Cup Finals.

After his playing career ended, he had a brief coaching career as a head coach with Boston and an assistant with the New York Rangers. The high point came when in 1988 he skippered Boston to the Stanley Cup Finals, where they fell to Wayne Gretzky's Edmonton Oilers. Boston retired O'Reilly's #24 in 2002.