“I meant it as a rallying cry, a statement, a way to get closer to the fans,’’ he said. “When I first started wearing a beard, the Bruins were in it every season. Who knew it would take this long?’’
There were a few close calls for the beard through the years: The Bruins advanced to the finals in both 1988 and 1990 against Edmonton. But they won no Stanley Cup. Larson’s involvement with the Bruins decreased during the 1990s, but he stayed busy at NESN, working Red Sox postgame shows and as an in-studio host, handling play-by-play for several sports, documentaries, and the magazine show “Front Row.’’ He also had a long stint providing morning sports reports on WHDH radio. His career in the Boston media spanned a period from 1969 to 2007.
On Monday morning, at the Black Tie Spa and Barbershop on the Rockland-Norwell line, the beard finally came off, in front of his family and friends.
With the walls festooned with sporting memorabilia, aesthetician Caitlyn Russell of Hull, an ardent Bruins fan dressed in black and gold, had the honor of performing the long-awaited shave.
“The beard is older than the person shaving it,’’ cracked Pat Murray, owner of the shop.
Larason’s wife of 27 years, Van, had never seen him without a beard. Neither had their 18-year-old daughter, VyVy, who will enter UMass-Boston this fall; or 14-year-old son Tommy, a budding young baseball star who plays for the Seadogs of the South Shore Baseball Club in Hingham.
“He still looks old,’’ said VyVy, adding that she didn’t feel bad for saying it because he signed his notes TOG (The Old Guy).
Larason said that his face feels different. His biggest jolt came on Tuesday morning, when he got up and “looked in the mirror,’’ he said.
The event was filmed for posterity by Fields of Vision, a video production company whose principals include former NESN colleagues who worked with Larason for years, with Jim Carroll coordinating the filming done by Emmy Award-winning videographer Eric Scharmer. They plan to post the video on the company website and elsewhere as a tribute to their longtime colleague.
