When I was younger, it was very hard to gain a spot on a junior-team. There were dozens of guys willing to fill every possible role. In fact, one year there were probably around fourty different guys wanting to make the team as an enforcer. There were a LOT of brawls even in intra-squad games or practices. Those were very wild fights.
"When I was a junior, my most memorable fights were against guys like Bennett Wolf, Charlie Luksa, Brad Marsh and my nemesis Rob Ramage. I also remember a few fights where the crowd was involved."
  
As it is in the real life, in hockey, too, there is the time when a boy either grows up to be a man or not. Growing up to a man in a hockey rink was very hard during those days. Secord wasn't drafted to the NHL because of his playing skills. So, he wanted to prove that he also had the skills to contribute offensively when given the chance.
  
"My first professional training-camp was insane. It was the Bruins rookies vs. Flyers rookies. I fought four or five times in that game and I was exhausted. We had a few bench-clearing brawls in that game, too. And the  next night, it was the same thing against the Isles rookies."  I don't remember what was their captain's name, but he was running our guys and elbowing everyone, trying to hurt our players. I went to him and challenged him to a fight and I received an extra two-minute minor for some reason.
When his five-minute penalty expired, he left his bench like guys always do.
I was supposed to sit my extra two-minutes. I didn't. I left my gloves and my stick to my penalty box and fought the guy again. Naturally, I was thrown out of the game, but the Isles player didn't run anyone after that."
  
"I think my first NHL fight was against Curt Bennett, but I am not sure. I remember, then I hit Anders Hedberg of the Rangers over the boards and he came and used his stick at me. Well, he skated away so I went to the Rangers bench and tried to challenge them, but to no avail.
After the period Hedberg came up to me and started to whine about something, so I punched him. John Davidson came to his rescue and soon we had a small brawl. Players were wondering "what's going on?", since they didn't see me punching Hedberg.
Then Terry O'Reilly was hit by a spectator and O'Reilly went to the stands with Stan Jonathan. They catched the guy who had hit O'Reilly, but there were three brothers with their father and they all attacked our guys. While they had their own fight going, one guy tried to escape and was running up the stairs but Peter McNab caught him and pulled him down, right between the benches. I went and pummeled the guy while Mike Milbury was beating the guy with his own shoe. Seven Bruins-players were sued and one million dollars was asked from every one of us as a compensation. Later on, the case folded somehow."

As always, every player is thrilled to talk about their first NHL goal.
"I scored my first goal after ten or twelve games. I slap-shotted the puck behind Bernie Parent and the feeling was just fantastic."
Secord is famous for his fights with Willie Plett. As a matter of fact, Secord fought with Plett during his rookie-season.
"I fought him when he played for Calgary. He looked down at me like I was a snotty rookie. He obviously thought that I couldn't give him any kind of challenge. So, the game started and he gave me some slashes and was pushing me around, so I answered the bell and I dropped my gloves and so did he. I won that first fight and it really stunned Plett. Later on, I fought with him a lot and I lost some and won some, but I think that I owned him because of the outcome of our first fight.

 When he was playing for Minnesota, I was a "fan-favorite" there. The North Star were always chanting the "Secord sucks" thing and it kept on going for several minutes. Actually, it was great, it gave me a boost everytime to play even harder."
Secord has met with Willie Plett outside the rink, and says nothing but good things about him.
"I've met him a few times and he is a fine gentleman. We hockey players take great pride about our professionalism, it's a job to us. What happens on the ice, stays there. I have an ok relationship with him, and we hold no grudge to each other. I know, it might seem hard to understand to someone who doesn't watch hockey. It must be odd seeing two guys wanting to kill each other on the rink and later on the same night having a beer together and laughing and exchanging stories." 

During his first year in the NHL, Secord scored 16+7=23 and accumulated125 penalty minutes. He didn't get as much icetime as he wanted to have, but he had gained a reputation of being a good fighter. During those days, the Bruins were stuffed with tough-guys such as Terry O'Reilly, John Wensink and Stan Jonathan. Secord has another vivid memory from his early days with the Bruins.
"I still remember when Paul Stewart played his first NHL game. It was against us in Boston. He fought with me, O'Reilly and Stan Jonathan. He wasn't necessarily the toughest customes, but he was very willing fighter.

After having a taste of the NHL spotlights, Secord was demoted down to minors. Bruins had too many men on their roster, so Secord was sent down to Rochester.
"I played four games for Rochester while scoring 4+2=6 and adding 40 penalty  minutes. I had one unbelievable fight when I was there. I can't remember who he was, but he needed only a few more minutes to break the AHL penalty minute record. He wanted his record badly. He got it. And he got pummeled well, too."

When asking about other memorable fights from his early years in the NHL, Secord has a nice story to tell. 
"Like everybody knows, Clark Gillies was a player who didn't have to fight too often, because he was simply one of the best and toughest ever. We were playing a play-off series against the Isles and O'Reilly had fought with Gillies a few times. I thought I'd give O'Reilly a break and fight Gillies myself. I engaged the fight by punching Gillies with my glove. When he dropped his gloves and I saw his fists, I got nervous. His fists were so
unbelievably big, and he was a big guy, too. All I saw were his hands. He punched me twice and I went down."

Secord didn't last long in Boston after his second year and entering his third year, he got lucky when he was traded.
"I started my third season pretty badly, and I was a scratch quite often.
Harry Sinden was also telling me how bad player I was and he sent me down to
Springfield. Luckily, the Blackhawks scouts saw me and I was traded to Chicago later that year."
After his first year in Chicago, he was confident that his career was progressing to the right direction. After scorind 13+9=22 and 145 penalty minutes he made his breakthru next year scoring 44+31=75 and 303 penalty minutes.
"I was playing with Denis Savard regularly. My presence gave him more time to operate on ice and I got more ice-time than ever before. I played really physical game that year and I fought quite a bit. I think I fought Larry Playfair three times during that year. Once I even knocked down the lines-man when he tried to come in-between when I was fighting Playfair.
Even though I had a lot of penalty minutes that year, I never thought I got penalties because of my reputation. The referees respected me and I respected them. Of course there were times when there was a referee who didn't have confidence to whistle the way the game needed to be whistled."
The following 82-83 season, Secord scored 54+32=86 and gained "only" 180 penalty minutes.
"Steve Larmer came to our line. Me and Denis Savard were very fortunate to have Steve Larmer. We were a solid line. I didn't have that much penalty minutes, because our coach asked me not to fight so often. Actually, even though I scored well, I felt like I didn't play the way I was supposed to play. I was also told not to hit guys so often. I needed to play physical, and I didn't. It's big part of my game, to be on the other guys skin. When I hit a guy and the crowd starts chanting, it brings energy to me and to my team-mates. And I was missing that element. It felt strange. I scored 20 goals on power-play that year. I didn't play much in short-handed situations, the coach wanted more mobile guys (than me) to play shorthanded.
One of the funniest stories I have to share with you, is the time when I dropped Kim Clackson with one punch. One of his team-mates told him that I was a righty. Hell, I _ALWAYS_ threw nothing but lefts. Anyway, Clackson was a real pest, really annoying player. So, we squared off and he was expecting that I'd hit him with my right hand. I totally surprised him when I threw a left and he went down. I've heard that Clackson didn't appreciate his team-mates advices after that."'
All seemed to go well with Secord's career. But then, he was forced to deal with a serious injury.
"Hockey players play through pain, even though how sever injury they have, all they want to do is to play. For example, my fight with Bob McGill. I had a high fever, but I wanted to play nevertheless. So, I got into a fight and he won me easily. But when I was healthy and I fought McGill, I worked really hard to drop him, he really absorbed the punches well.
My injury. My right leg has always been shorter than my left leg. As time went by, my hip started to go up and "inside to my stomach" and it completely jammed my hip area. It put pressure to my stomach and basically it was ruining my groins. Walking or any kind of moving was painful, even impossible sometimes. I went and saw a lot of doctors, but no one knew what to do.