Rick or "Nifty" as he would be called for most of his pro hockey career was born in Toronto, Canada on Dec 4, 1953 to Terry & Dick Middleton!
He started skating when he was 4 years old as his dad froze a small rink in the backyard and the older boys would take him on the ice so they could skate. Rick began playing organized hockey when he was 6 years old in 1959 and soon afterwards started playing street hockey right out in front of his house because there was a streetlight for when it got dark early Nifty always credited his years of playing street hockey to the development of his excellent stickhandling and passing skills.
Dick & Terry Middleton were huge supporters of Rick's hockey when he started playing for an organization called Wexford. Dick was a printer by trade and would print up flags that would say "Go Wexford Go" for the parents to wave at league games & tournaments and Terry liked to write poems so she would write an inspirational poem for the coach
to read to the team whenever they were about to play in a BIG GAME. Rick's hockey was a real family affair in those days as his sister Carol would always go to the games to cheer her older brother on!
He started skating when he was 4 years old as his dad froze a small rink in the backyard and the older boys would take him on the ice so they could skate. Rick began playing organized hockey when he was 6 years old in 1959 and soon afterwards started playing street hockey right out in front of his house because there was a streetlight for when it got dark early Nifty always credited his years of playing street hockey to the development of his excellent stickhandling and passing skills.
Dick & Terry Middleton were huge supporters of Rick's hockey when he started playing for an organization called Wexford. Dick was a printer by trade and would print up flags that would say "Go Wexford Go" for the parents to wave at league games & tournaments and Terry liked to write poems so she would write an inspirational poem for the coach
to read to the team whenever they were about to play in a BIG GAME. Rick's hockey was a real family affair in those days as his sister Carol would always go to the games to cheer her older brother on!
Coach Mortley: A different era!
Nifty was lucky enough to play for only one coach (Glen Mortley) with Wexford until he was 13 years old when he received an invitation in the mail to tryout with a new organization in the Toronto Hockey League (T.H.L.) named the Toronto Young Nationals. Rick was persuaded by his Wexford teammate Billy Marshall to go to the tryout as he also received an invitation. As it turned out he agreed and it was a decision that would put him on the road to the NHL.
Rick spent the next 4 years with the Young Nats as they were called under coach Frank Miller who he always credited with making him a better skater and all around hockey player! He even invited Frank to join him on the ice during his Bruins #16 retirement celebration at the TD Garden in Boston on Nov/2018.
Nifty's game had improved so much in those 3 years that he received full scholarship offers to 6 U.S colleges including Boston University and was drafted by the Major Jr A Oshawa Generals in the Ontario Hockey League. In 1970 Nifty decided that he wanted to play Jr A for the Oshawa Generals, but felt he wasn't ready physically yet so he decided to play one year (1970-71) of Jr B hockey for the Young Nats. It was the first year they had a Jr B team! Nifty had a great year as he was voted on the 1st All Star Team at right wing and won the Rookie of the Year Award! He now felt he was ready to tryout for the Oshawa Generals!
Rick went to training camp in Sept/71 and made the team under coach Gus Bodnar. His first year with the Generals was good but he knew his next year had to be better as he would be turning 20 and would be eligible for the NHL Draft.
Nifty not only had a great year, he had what turned out to be the best season of his entire hockey career!
He finished the season 1st in the league in goals with 67 and 3rd in the league in points with 137 which helped him win the coveted Red Tilson Award for league MVP. Nifty had made it and now all that was left was the NHL Amateur Draft in Montreal in June of 1973!
Rick spent the next 4 years with the Young Nats as they were called under coach Frank Miller who he always credited with making him a better skater and all around hockey player! He even invited Frank to join him on the ice during his Bruins #16 retirement celebration at the TD Garden in Boston on Nov/2018.
Nifty's game had improved so much in those 3 years that he received full scholarship offers to 6 U.S colleges including Boston University and was drafted by the Major Jr A Oshawa Generals in the Ontario Hockey League. In 1970 Nifty decided that he wanted to play Jr A for the Oshawa Generals, but felt he wasn't ready physically yet so he decided to play one year (1970-71) of Jr B hockey for the Young Nats. It was the first year they had a Jr B team! Nifty had a great year as he was voted on the 1st All Star Team at right wing and won the Rookie of the Year Award! He now felt he was ready to tryout for the Oshawa Generals!
Rick went to training camp in Sept/71 and made the team under coach Gus Bodnar. His first year with the Generals was good but he knew his next year had to be better as he would be turning 20 and would be eligible for the NHL Draft.
Nifty not only had a great year, he had what turned out to be the best season of his entire hockey career!
He finished the season 1st in the league in goals with 67 and 3rd in the league in points with 137 which helped him win the coveted Red Tilson Award for league MVP. Nifty had made it and now all that was left was the NHL Amateur Draft in Montreal in June of 1973!
Toronto Young Nationals photo with coach Frank Miller center who was on the ice with Rick on his retirement night.
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1972-73 Oshawa Generals: Top Line -- Nifty (RW) Brian Kinsella (center) & Bill Lochead (LW)
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The rest, as they say, is history!
Here's a breakdown of Nifty's professional career (1973-88), with stats, awards & honors bestowed upon him during and after his NHL career!
Rick was drafted in June 1973 by the NY Rangers...1st Round...14th Pick!
He played in the American Hockey League in his first year (1973-74) for the Rangers farm team ... the Providence Reds in Providence RI. He was voted onto the 1st All Star Team at right wing and won Rookie of the Year in the AHL. The Reds went to the Calder Cup finals that year losing to the Hershey Bears in 5 games.
In 1974-75 Rick made the NY Rangers lineup out of training camp and never looked back. He scored 2 goals in his first NHL game and had 18 by Christmas before he ended up breaking his leg in Jan/75. Still, he finished the year with 22 tallies.
The 1975-76 season was a year of transition for both the NY Rangers and Nifty! It was early in his second year in New York when the Rangers and Bruins made one of the biggest trades in NHL history when NY traded Brad Park & Jean Ratelle to Boston for Phil Esposito & Carol Vadnais. Rick had the honor of playing on the same line as Espo that year, but the team didn't gel and it turned out to be the only year of his career that his team missed the playoffs.
In May 1976, Rick received a phone call from the NY Rangers Coach & General Manager at the time John Ferguson, who told him they were trading him to the Boston Bruins for Ken Hodge.
Rick's days in the Big Apple were over ... but the best was yet to come!
In 1974-75 Rick made the NY Rangers lineup out of training camp and never looked back. He scored 2 goals in his first NHL game and had 18 by Christmas before he ended up breaking his leg in Jan/75. Still, he finished the year with 22 tallies.
The 1975-76 season was a year of transition for both the NY Rangers and Nifty! It was early in his second year in New York when the Rangers and Bruins made one of the biggest trades in NHL history when NY traded Brad Park & Jean Ratelle to Boston for Phil Esposito & Carol Vadnais. Rick had the honor of playing on the same line as Espo that year, but the team didn't gel and it turned out to be the only year of his career that his team missed the playoffs.
In May 1976, Rick received a phone call from the NY Rangers Coach & General Manager at the time John Ferguson, who told him they were trading him to the Boston Bruins for Ken Hodge.
Rick's days in the Big Apple were over ... but the best was yet to come!
"My only 4 goal game of my career was during my rookie year with the Rangers 1974-75. We beat the California Golden Seals 10-0!"
Rick Middleton, Peter McNab, Don Cherry, Terry O'Reilly and Bobby Miller 2018
Rick reported to the Bruins training camp in Sept 1976 and met his future coach for the next 3 years ... the one and only Don Cherry (or "Grapes" as the players called him). Nifty decided to wear the #16 with the Bruins for 2 reasons ... it was available and his old buddy and teammate with the Rangers, Derek Sanderson used to wear it in Boston earlier in the decade.
"Grapes" put Rick on a line with Jean Ratelle and John Bucyk for his very first Bruins game vs the Minnesota North Stars! Rick scored a Hat Trick in his first Bruins game (only Bruin to ever do it) but as he said later..."how can you not score a hat trick playing on a line with those guys?"
Over those 3 years with Grapes as his coach, Nifty was part of some great Bruins teams, who ended up losing two Stanley Cup Finals in 1977 & 78, and a 7th game OT in the 1979 semi-finals to the Montreal Canadiens. He would have another chance a decade later but he always felt those Bruins teams deserved to win at least one Stanley Cup!
The 1980's saw the legendary Ray Bourque starting his Hall of Fame career with Boston and in 1980-81 the Bruins would hire one of their all-time great goalies & Nifty's old teammate -- Gerry Cheevers -- as their new head coach! "Cheesie" immediately started using Nifty as his "go to guy" playing him on the power play, penalty killing, first shift, last shift etc! Rick was now playing 20-30 minutes a game and his stats started to reflect it as Nifty was able to break the 100 point mark that season for the first time in his career with 103.
"Grapes" put Rick on a line with Jean Ratelle and John Bucyk for his very first Bruins game vs the Minnesota North Stars! Rick scored a Hat Trick in his first Bruins game (only Bruin to ever do it) but as he said later..."how can you not score a hat trick playing on a line with those guys?"
Over those 3 years with Grapes as his coach, Nifty was part of some great Bruins teams, who ended up losing two Stanley Cup Finals in 1977 & 78, and a 7th game OT in the 1979 semi-finals to the Montreal Canadiens. He would have another chance a decade later but he always felt those Bruins teams deserved to win at least one Stanley Cup!
The 1980's saw the legendary Ray Bourque starting his Hall of Fame career with Boston and in 1980-81 the Bruins would hire one of their all-time great goalies & Nifty's old teammate -- Gerry Cheevers -- as their new head coach! "Cheesie" immediately started using Nifty as his "go to guy" playing him on the power play, penalty killing, first shift, last shift etc! Rick was now playing 20-30 minutes a game and his stats started to reflect it as Nifty was able to break the 100 point mark that season for the first time in his career with 103.
The next 3 years would see Nifty become one of the premier wingers in the NHL when rookie Barry Pederson was put on his line at center. Barry & Nifty clicked immediately and had 3 of the best season's together as any 2 linemates in NHL history! Together, from 1981-84, they would post over 200 points/season and help the Bruins finish first in the NHL in 1983!
In their first year together (1981-82) Nifty surpassed the 50 goal mark for the first and only time in his career with 51 and the next season saw him come within ONE goal of his second 50 goal year scoring 49! That year he also had his best career playoff with 33 points in 17 games! Nifty feels their third year together (1983-84) was their best with both of them reaching their highest career point totals! Barry amassed an incredible 116 points while helping Nifty total 105 to tie Ken Hodge for the most points by a right winger in the history of the Boston Bruins!
In their first year together (1981-82) Nifty surpassed the 50 goal mark for the first and only time in his career with 51 and the next season saw him come within ONE goal of his second 50 goal year scoring 49! That year he also had his best career playoff with 33 points in 17 games! Nifty feels their third year together (1983-84) was their best with both of them reaching their highest career point totals! Barry amassed an incredible 116 points while helping Nifty total 105 to tie Ken Hodge for the most points by a right winger in the history of the Boston Bruins!
The next two seasons turned out to be the beginning of the end for the "Dynamic Duo!" In 1984-85 Barry was to play in only 22 games due to having an operation on his arm. The following year in 1985-86, after receiving the distinct honor of being named Co-Captain of the Boston Bruins along with Ray Bourque, Nifty suffered a head injury (blood clot on the brain) in Jan/86 by getting hit by a puck in the left temple in practice! Rick would miss the rest of that season & the playoffs but would recover over the summer and was back at training camp in September!
Unfortunately, Barry wouldn't be back as the Bruins decided to trade him to the Vancouver Canucks for Cam Neely and a first round draft pick on June 6, 1986! The "Dynamic Duo" would never play together again!
Rick worked hard that summer to get back into shape for the next season! He rebounded well from his head injury when his old friend and teammate Terry O'Reilly took over as Head Coach and put him on a line playing left wing with Cam on right! Nifty went onto score over 30 goals that year for the 8th and final time in his 12 years with the Bruins!
In his 12th and what turned out to be his final season (1987-88) the injury bug would hit Nifty again! He suffered a broken rib early in the season that limited him to only 59 games and for the first time since the 1976-77 season he wasn't playing on one of the top two lines or the power play, and was moved to a more defensive 3rd line. Nifty's numbers (13G 19A) dropped to the lowest of his 12 year career in Boston but he always said he was most proud that he finished the season with a +3 and a +224 over his 12 seasons in Boston after being a -44 in his 2 years with the NY Rangers!
Unfortunately, Barry wouldn't be back as the Bruins decided to trade him to the Vancouver Canucks for Cam Neely and a first round draft pick on June 6, 1986! The "Dynamic Duo" would never play together again!
Rick worked hard that summer to get back into shape for the next season! He rebounded well from his head injury when his old friend and teammate Terry O'Reilly took over as Head Coach and put him on a line playing left wing with Cam on right! Nifty went onto score over 30 goals that year for the 8th and final time in his 12 years with the Bruins!
In his 12th and what turned out to be his final season (1987-88) the injury bug would hit Nifty again! He suffered a broken rib early in the season that limited him to only 59 games and for the first time since the 1976-77 season he wasn't playing on one of the top two lines or the power play, and was moved to a more defensive 3rd line. Nifty's numbers (13G 19A) dropped to the lowest of his 12 year career in Boston but he always said he was most proud that he finished the season with a +3 and a +224 over his 12 seasons in Boston after being a -44 in his 2 years with the NY Rangers!
Even though Nifty would score 3 game winning goals in the playoffs to help the Bruins finally beat the Montreal Canadiens in a playoff series (for the first time in over 45 years) and reach the Stanley Cup Finals vs the Edmonton Oilers, it wasn't enough. Nifty's actual last game in a Bruins uniform at the old Boston Garden was the night the generator blew and the lights went out in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals.
In June, the Bruins General Manager Harry Sinden decided to buyout the Option year of Rick's contract! Nifty said he saw it coming but really didn't think it would end the way it did. The thing he always said that bothered him the most was the fact that he was only 12 points from the 1000 point milestone and the Bruins had to pay him 2/3 of his contract anyway! It was certainly not the way he envisioned finishing his career in Boston.
Over Nifty's 12 year career with the Boston Bruins he would score 402 goals (3rd All Time) & 496 Assists (7th All Time) for 898 points (4th All Time) in 881 games...an average of over a point a game! In the playoffs Nifty would score 45 goals & 55 assists for 100 points in 111 games! He's also 2nd All Time to Brad Marchand in shorthanded goals with 25!
Rick was thrilled when he was selected to play for Canada in 2 Canada Cup Tournaments in 1981 & 84, losing in the Final to Russia in 1981 and beating the Swedes 2 out of 3 in 1984 to win the Canada Cup while playing on the same line with future Hockey Hall of Famers, Wayne Gretzky & Michel Goulet!
Nifty currently holds a couple NHL Records for the most points (19) and most assists (14) scored in a seven game playoff series vs the Buffalo Sabres in 1983, and is also one of eleven players on the 1977-78 Bruins team that scored 20 or more goals in a single season! It remains an NHL record more than 40 years later!
In June, the Bruins General Manager Harry Sinden decided to buyout the Option year of Rick's contract! Nifty said he saw it coming but really didn't think it would end the way it did. The thing he always said that bothered him the most was the fact that he was only 12 points from the 1000 point milestone and the Bruins had to pay him 2/3 of his contract anyway! It was certainly not the way he envisioned finishing his career in Boston.
Over Nifty's 12 year career with the Boston Bruins he would score 402 goals (3rd All Time) & 496 Assists (7th All Time) for 898 points (4th All Time) in 881 games...an average of over a point a game! In the playoffs Nifty would score 45 goals & 55 assists for 100 points in 111 games! He's also 2nd All Time to Brad Marchand in shorthanded goals with 25!
Rick was thrilled when he was selected to play for Canada in 2 Canada Cup Tournaments in 1981 & 84, losing in the Final to Russia in 1981 and beating the Swedes 2 out of 3 in 1984 to win the Canada Cup while playing on the same line with future Hockey Hall of Famers, Wayne Gretzky & Michel Goulet!
Nifty currently holds a couple NHL Records for the most points (19) and most assists (14) scored in a seven game playoff series vs the Buffalo Sabres in 1983, and is also one of eleven players on the 1977-78 Bruins team that scored 20 or more goals in a single season! It remains an NHL record more than 40 years later!
Nifty is about to score vs. Ken Dryden and the Montreal Canadiens in the 1978 Stanley Cup Finals.
Post NHL Career
It's said that when athletes retire from their sport it sometimes takes them awhile to decide what they might want to do with the rest of their lives. In Nifty's case, he didn't have that long to think about it before he got a phone call in early September/89 from his good friend & golfing buddy CB Sullivan.
CB owned a wholesale distributorship by the same name in Hooksett NH. His company sold hair products like Paul Mitchell & Matrix to beauty salons & barber shops primarily in Maine, NH and Vermont. CB asked Rick if he would be interested in coming to work for his company and start their first wholesale catalog under his name that would be mailed to barber shops all over the country. CB understood that Nifty had just finished a long professional hockey career and really didn't know anything about distribution or the catalog business so he offered to educate him in both.
Nifty thanked CB for the great opportunity, and told him he would try it for a few months, but couldn't promise that he would definitely take the offer. Well, it turned out that Rick did accept CB's offer after only a couple weeks and ended up working with CB for the next 21 years until he sold the company in 2010 to a division of L'Oreal!
Nifty and CB first met in the early 80's when he was put on CB's team at the Steve Schubert Charity Golf Tournament in Manchester NH. They became great friends and golf buddies for decades! CB & Nifty would travel many places over the years to play golf, but he said their all time favorite was the trip to Scotland in 1994 when they got a chance to play The Old Course at St Andrews for the first time.
It's said that when athletes retire from their sport it sometimes takes them awhile to decide what they might want to do with the rest of their lives. In Nifty's case, he didn't have that long to think about it before he got a phone call in early September/89 from his good friend & golfing buddy CB Sullivan.
CB owned a wholesale distributorship by the same name in Hooksett NH. His company sold hair products like Paul Mitchell & Matrix to beauty salons & barber shops primarily in Maine, NH and Vermont. CB asked Rick if he would be interested in coming to work for his company and start their first wholesale catalog under his name that would be mailed to barber shops all over the country. CB understood that Nifty had just finished a long professional hockey career and really didn't know anything about distribution or the catalog business so he offered to educate him in both.
Nifty thanked CB for the great opportunity, and told him he would try it for a few months, but couldn't promise that he would definitely take the offer. Well, it turned out that Rick did accept CB's offer after only a couple weeks and ended up working with CB for the next 21 years until he sold the company in 2010 to a division of L'Oreal!
Nifty and CB first met in the early 80's when he was put on CB's team at the Steve Schubert Charity Golf Tournament in Manchester NH. They became great friends and golf buddies for decades! CB & Nifty would travel many places over the years to play golf, but he said their all time favorite was the trip to Scotland in 1994 when they got a chance to play The Old Course at St Andrews for the first time.
Nifty & CB Sullivan at St. Andrews in September 1994.
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In 1990 CB and Rick decided they were going to start a charity golf tournament of their own with the benefactor being the Manchester NH Police Athletic League! The tournament ran for over 20 years with not only Nifty's buddies showing up every year from the Bruins, Patriots and Red Sox, but other famous friends of CB's & Nifty's would offer to play such as Lenny Clark, Robbie Knievel, Ian Ziering, and Peter Fonda.
CB was a great friend and mentor to Rick for over 30 years! |
Nifty has been involved in many different ventures over the years both before and after he retired from professional hockey in 1989! He was part owner of a limousine company in the 80's along with also being a partner in a restaurant in Lewiston Maine with his good friend Brian MacGillivray.
In the 1990's while he was working with CB Sullivan, Nifty started a small company called "Dream Team Foods" LLC, which produced, packaged, marketed & distributed "THE NIFTY BAR." Rick got the idea from a very famous Canadian dessert he enjoyed while growing up and thought that people would love it in the U.S . The dessert is called a "Nanaimo Bar" (na-neye-mo) and can be found on the dessert menus of many Canadian restaurants.
He was even able to get Hannaford's markets to carry "THE NIFTY BAR" for two years before it was discontinued. That's when Nifty decided it was time to get out of the dessert business!
Nifty hasn't slowed down yet even though he just became a proud grandfather! He's still running the Boston Bruins Alumni, and recently helped launch another company by the name of "Nifty16 Productions" with partners Tom Moulton and Gary Brandt to help facilitate the making of their movie "TOUGH SLEDDING."
Rick is also part owner and VP of Sales with Ten Digit Communications, LLC which is a reseller for a company called VHT (Virtual Hold Technology). VHT is a 25 year old company who originated callback for businesses and call centers, and has now added a texting platform to their callback service they call "MINDFUL."
If that isn't enough to keep Nifty busy he's a partner in Madison Energy Solutions, a commercial LED lighting company, while also doing some Customer Relations work with All Metals Industries which is owned by his good buddy Terry Robinson.
Rick says that even though he's been retired from professional hockey for over 30 years, he's busier now than he's ever been ... and that is just fine with him!
In the 1990's while he was working with CB Sullivan, Nifty started a small company called "Dream Team Foods" LLC, which produced, packaged, marketed & distributed "THE NIFTY BAR." Rick got the idea from a very famous Canadian dessert he enjoyed while growing up and thought that people would love it in the U.S . The dessert is called a "Nanaimo Bar" (na-neye-mo) and can be found on the dessert menus of many Canadian restaurants.
He was even able to get Hannaford's markets to carry "THE NIFTY BAR" for two years before it was discontinued. That's when Nifty decided it was time to get out of the dessert business!
Nifty hasn't slowed down yet even though he just became a proud grandfather! He's still running the Boston Bruins Alumni, and recently helped launch another company by the name of "Nifty16 Productions" with partners Tom Moulton and Gary Brandt to help facilitate the making of their movie "TOUGH SLEDDING."
Rick is also part owner and VP of Sales with Ten Digit Communications, LLC which is a reseller for a company called VHT (Virtual Hold Technology). VHT is a 25 year old company who originated callback for businesses and call centers, and has now added a texting platform to their callback service they call "MINDFUL."
If that isn't enough to keep Nifty busy he's a partner in Madison Energy Solutions, a commercial LED lighting company, while also doing some Customer Relations work with All Metals Industries which is owned by his good buddy Terry Robinson.
Rick says that even though he's been retired from professional hockey for over 30 years, he's busier now than he's ever been ... and that is just fine with him!
A New Millennium
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Rick had basically been out of the game of hockey for over a decade when he got a phone call at home one day in early 2001 from his buddy Paul Edwards. Paul explained that he had just heard that the US National Sled Hockey Team was looking for a new Head Coach as their coach had quit after the 2000 World Championships and then he asked Nifty if he knew what sled hockey was? Nifty told him he did even though he had never seen it played!
Paul went on to tell Rick that the team was in a shambles, they had only won one game in their history in International Hockey and that the only reason they were even invited to play in the 2002 Paralympics was because they were the HOST TEAM, and even after hearing how bad the situation was, Nifty said he was definitely interested!
Rick said later that all he heard were the words "hockey" and "Paralympics" and right away he thought it would be a great challenge!
Rick was officially named the new Head Coach in June 2001 and in August after running the Selection Camp and picking the 15 players that would be on the National team with his good friend and assistant coach Tom Moulton, they found out that they were seeded last in the tournament (6th out of 6 teams).
On top of that, 9/11 would happen less than one month later and they never ended up playing another team for 7 months until they arrived in Salt Lake City in March 2002..
To the surprise of everyone, including themselves, they went onto win all 5 of their round robin games outscoring the opposition 22-3 before playing NORWAY (the reigning Gold Medal Champs in Nagano/98) in the GOLD MEDAL GAME ... beating them in a shootout that went down to the last shooter!
It is one of the best UNTOLD stories in sports history so that's why almost 20 years later there's a movie in the works by the name of "TOUGH SLEDDING"!
In the summer of 2002 Nifty would receive another phone call ...this time it was from the New England Sports Network (NESN). They asked Rick if he would be interested in coming down to the NESN studios to audition to be a "hockey analyst" on a new show that was going to play before and after Bruins games as well as in between periods.
When Nifty arrived at NESN, he ended up doing the audition with Tom Caron who was going to be the HOST of the show starting next season. They liked Rick's audition and he got the job. He remained on the show through the NHL lockout in 2005, then worked with their new HOST Kathryn Tappen in 2006 & 2007 before leaving the show after the 07 season.
Rick said his favorite thing about the job was when young hockey fans would come up to him before or after Bruins games and call him "NIFTY!" He knew that even though he had been retired for almost 20 years these young fans were picking up his nickname from watching Kathryn Tappen always call him Nifty on the show. He was proud that his nickname was being handed down from one generation of hockey fans to another!
In 2008 after leaving NESN Nifty received another great honor and would be named the President of the Boston Bruins Alumni Association...a position he still holds today! The BBAA play over 30 benefit games annually to help raise much needed funds for over 30 different organizations and causes.
US Citizenship
Rick came to the United States from Canada in 1973 at the age of 19 to play professional hockey! Over the next 8 years after playing and living in Providence, New York, and Boston he decided to make America his home and he became a Permanent Resident! Rick is very proud of his Canadian heritage, but he decided that after living and working for over 30 years in the US, it was time to become an American citizen. On March 27, 2015 in Concord NH he did just that!
Over the last 2 decades Rick is very grateful for receiving the following recognitions...
2005 Induction into the "Oshawa Generals Hall of Fame"
2012 Induction into the "Mass Hockey Hall of Fame"
2014 Induction into the "NH Legends of Hockey" (Coach)
2017 Received the "Hockey Legacy Award" from the New England Sport's Museum
Over the last 2 decades Rick is very grateful for receiving the following recognitions...
2005 Induction into the "Oshawa Generals Hall of Fame"
2012 Induction into the "Mass Hockey Hall of Fame"
2014 Induction into the "NH Legends of Hockey" (Coach)
2017 Received the "Hockey Legacy Award" from the New England Sport's Museum
(l-r) Jason Varitek, Chris Berman, Rick Middleton, Martina Navratilova, Dave Cowens and Willie McGinnest
The Greatest Honor
Rick has said that he always thought that the Greatest Honor a former professional athlete can receive is to have their number retired by the team they played most, if not all of their career with. Well...that's exactly what happened to Nifty 30 years after he retired from the Bruins!
On Nov 29, 2018 Rick Middleton received the ultimate honor from Cam Neely and the Boston Bruins of having his #16 retired to the Boston Garden Rafters for eternity!
RICK MIDDLETON IS ONE OF ONLY ELEVEN PLAYERS TO EVER HAVE HIS NUMBER RETIRED IN THE ALMOST 100 YEAR HISTORY OF THE BOSTON BRUINS!
