Nov 27, 2008 - 11:04 PM

By Shawn Cayley

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OSHAWA -- The cheers that bounced off the walls of the General Motors Centre last night were as loud as they were deserving.

One of the greatest players in the history of hockey, and the greatest Oshawa General ever, Bobby Orr, was on hand as his No. 2 was finally raised to the rafters in Oshawa prior to the Generals’ game against the Peterborough Petes.

The honour comes some 46 years after his career launched in Oshawa.

During a Thursday night news conference, Orr admitted he was thrilled to see his career seemingly come full circle with the banner raising.

“It’s pretty nice. This is really where my career started,” he told members of the media. “I am honoured and this is something I’ll never forget.”

A lot has been said over the years about why Orr’s number hadn’t been retired before, but it’s all on him, Orr said.

“This wasn’t something I was in a hurry to do,” he admitted, noting the request had been tabled to him on several occasions by the organization over the years. “It wasn’t my thing.”

But after years of reluctance, it’s happened and Orr spent a majority of his news conference speaking glowingly of his time in Oshawa, although it wasn’t any easy transition leaving the quiet surroundings of Parry Sound at the tender age of 14.

“It was a nervous time to be playing, at 14 against older players,” Orr recalled. “I was lucky I could skate a little bit. I dodged a lot of the big guys. The guys, my entire career, coming in at 14, the guys looked after me. Even going to Boston at 18, again, the same thing happened.

“A lot was written (then) about this young player coming here to Oshawa and in Boston and it would have been easy for the guys to . . . I was coming in to take someone’s job, (so) it would have been easy for them turn on me, but they didn’t,” added Orr, who as a rookie totalled 6-15-21 numbers in 34 games with the Generals. “They looked after me, supported me.”

Fans of the Generals, likely wowed by his exploits as a rookie, were in for even more of a treat in the subsequent years as his profile rose with his point totals, which ballooned to 38 goals and 94 points in only 47 games in his final year.

But had it not been for Wren Blair, who as an employee of the Boston Bruins ran the Generals at the time, it may never have happened in Oshawa.

“Wren, for anyone that knows Wren, he’s a good talker,” Orr chuckled. “Wren spent many days in Parry Sound talking to my parents, trying to convince them to allow me to play at a very young age.”

It worked, and the rest is well documented.

As for the current day Generals, they put on a show for Orr last night, with five different players scoring goals in a 5-1 victory over the Petes in front of 6,253 at the GMC.

Brett Parnham opened the scoring, with other goals coming from Kory Nagy, Jeff Hayes, Jeff Brown and Tyler Taylor.

Neil Conway continued his superb play in goal with a 31-save effort, and will lead the Generals into Ottawa for a game with the 67’s tonight, before returning home to face Mississauga Sunday at 6:05 p.m.