
I believe that Phil Esposito was the first to wear #77 when he played
with the Rangers in the '70s.  This was the season that they put the
Rangers crest and "modern-style" numbers on the jerseys instead of the
"NEW YORK" or "RANGERS" block letters and two-colour numbers.  He took #77
because the Rangers already had a #7.

(Hockey Night in Canada made a big thing out of it, saying it was the
biggest uniform style change in a long time.  This was before Pittsburgh
and Vancouver changed their colours.)

     dwarf