The Four Player Trade

I'll never forget where I was when I found out about one of the most stunning and glamorous NHL trades of the 70's. It was November 1975, I had just finished the day at Marina Del Rey Junior High School teaching math classes. I call my girlfriend from the front office counter to confirm our plans and she says to me coyly, "I heard something on the news about two of the biggest names in hockey getting traded today. I thought you'd wanna know. I can't remember their names. Do you know who they're talking about?" Dumbfounded and burned out from trying to teach math to 8th graders, I was clueless. Plus, I was a little self-conscious discussing hockey trades at the school's busy front counter. The trade, we finally figured out was Phil Esposito and Carol Vadnais of the Boston Bruins going to the New York Rangers for Brad Park and Jean Ratelle. Even though neither the Bruins nor the Rangers were my home team, Espo and Park were in my awesome category (Ratelle & Vadnais were great players too, in their own right). For me, that unexpected mega-trade has always been an NHL flashback to that moment, in that junior high and me as a junior high school math teacher.