Friday Night Fights: Terry O'Reilly vs. Dave Schultz

Tale of the tape:

Terry O'Reilly: 6'1" 200 lbs 228 career fighting majors

Dave Schultz: 6'1" 185 lbs 246 career fighting majors

On January 25, 1976 it was just another fight between Terry O'Reilly and Dave "The Hammer" Schultz.. The two had a knack for knocking each others blocks off. While Schultz took the victories in many of their other bouts, O'Reilly gave Schultz a whipping during this one. There is a scrap between both players and both Schultz and O'Reilly come looking for each other. Schultz pushes one of the zebras out of his way so he can get an arsenal of lefts from O'Reilly. O'Reilly is just pasturing Schultz with punch after punch until the two lock up. Schultz become frustrated during the tie up and headbutts O'Reilly so the two square off again. O'Reilly pulls Schultz's sweater over his head and begins pounding again. The refs break up the fight as the two look exhausted and had enough.

Quotes from and interview with Dave Schultz courtesy of Puck Daddy

"He actually won this fight. You know what the tough thing about fighting him was? He was a lefty and I'm a righty. His left was wide open. Of course, so was my right, you know?

"He didn't hurt me. I got in a few. We fought so many times. If anyone asks who the toughest guy I ever fought was, I'd say Terry O'Reilly. It was his job to fight me every time. If you watch this closely from the beginning, I was going to fight with Forbes. And you'd see him go in and out of players just to get to me and fight me. That's why we fought eight times."

lbv039 (via johnmustache24)

Just about every time the Bruins faced the Flyers Terry O'Reilly and Dave Schultz went at it. The pair fought eight times during their career. They probably would have scraped many more times than they did, but Schultz retired after the 1979-80 season while O'Reilly played until 1985. Schultz hold the single season penalty minute record with an unheard of 472 minutes during the 1974-1975 season. That included 35 fighting majors in part of those 472 minutes. Dave Schultz and Terry O'Reilly were two of the best fighters in the history of the NHL.