Bobby HullOne of the National Hockey League superstars of the 1960s, the charismatic “Golden Jet” earned the nickname “Golden Jet” for his blond hair, lightning-fast slap shots and ferocious rink-length offensive rushes. Hall of Famer died Monday. he was 84 years old.
The Chicago Blackhawks, where Hull played 15 seasons, announced his death, but did not say where he died or what caused his death.
Hull’s superior upper body strength powers a terrifying slap shot that has been measured over the years at speeds of 97-120 mph. Blackhawks goaltender Glenn Hall, who faced Hull in practice, once said, “The idea wasn’t to stop it, it was to avoid being killed.
New York Rangers goaltender Ed Jaccomin told The New York Times in 1988 that Hull’s slapshot “will go up and down. Did.
Hull became only the third player in NHL history to score at least 50 goals in a season, joining Montreal Canadiens’ Maurice Richard and Bernard Jeffrion. He scored 50 or more goals five times with the Blackhawks, peaking at 58 during his season in 1968–69.
Along with Stan Mikita, Hal helped turn the Blackhawks’ fortunes around. A nearly dying franchise for about 12 seasons until they joined in the late 1950s. In 1961, Chicago won his Cup championship for the first time in 23 years over Stanley—Hull in the playoffs, where he scored 14 points. Against the Canadiens and Detroit Red Wings — and the team remained competitive throughout their time there.
Hull scored 604 goals for the Blackhawks and signed a 10-year deal with the Winnipeg Jets before becoming the first NHL superstar to join the fledgling World Hockey Association in 1972. He gets a contract bonus, becoming the team’s player-coach.
A temporary restraining order imposed by a Chicago judge prevented him from joining the Jets until the beginning of the 1972-73 season. However, even after returning to the ice, he continued to confuse and frighten goalkeepers. In his first two years he scored 51 and 53 goals, and in the 1974-75 season he scored 77 goals.
In total, he added 303 goals to his career total with the WHA
While playing for the Jets, he appeared in a game in 1975, protesting cruelty in sport and promoting the merger of the NHL and WHA.
And he said he doesn’t regret leaving the Blackhawks for the up-and-coming Jets.
“When I came here, I knew it was going to be hard work,” he told The Times in 1977. In some cases, it wasn’t as fruitful as we thought it would be.
“We have developed some great players and some great cities,” he continued. “And we paved the way for European players.”
The merger took place in 1979, but as the equivalent of an expanded franchise, only four WHA teams, including the Jets, joined the old league. After making the decision, he was traded to another former WHA team, the Hartford Whalers (now the Carolina Hurricanes), where he scored two more goals. It was his final season, and he had to spend part of it playing alongside another former NHL superstar, Gordy Howe.
Robert Marvin Hull was born on January 3, 1939, in Point Ann, Ontario, to cement company foreman Robert Hull and Lena (Cook) Hull. One of his 11 siblings, Bobby started ice skating at a young age. (One of his brothers, Dennis, played his 13th season with the Blackhawks.)
“I gave Robert a pair of skates for Christmas before he was three.” his father told Sports Illustrated in 1960. “I took him to a frozen pond near my house. If he didn’t walk a few times within half an hour, I would be daunted.”
Bobby played hockey at home and at school until he was discovered by Blackhawk scouts when he was 11 years old.
“I was very lucky” Hull told NHL.com in 2017. “I found that ice sheet Quinte Bay When you’re shorter than a hockey stick and addicted to the game. I spent as much time skating as I did in bed. ”
He soon began playing for amateur teams including top junior clubs in Ontario. St Catherine’s Teepees, one of his teammates was Stan Mikita. Hull played there for two years and after scoring his 33 goals in his second season, he joined the Blackhawks for the 1957-58 season.
In 1964, two years after his first 50-goal season, Hull’s physical prowess was tested by the Canadian College of Sports and Fitness Institute. The college determined that Hull was the fastest skater in the NHL at 28.3 mph and the hardest shooter at 118 mph, which probably didn’t surprise anyone. At 5 feet 10½ and 194 pounds, he was declared a “perfectly muscular medium-sized”.
his colleague spoke of the scientific discovery Howe told Time magazine“Somebody has to pull his leg.”
A 1983 Hockey Hall of Fame inductee, Hull was a 12-time NHL All-Star. He also won the Art Ross Trophy as the league’s top scorer three times, the Hart Memorial Trophy as Most Valuable Player twice, and the Reading Trophy once for gentlemanly play.
Half a dozen seasons since Hal retired, his son Brett In three straight seasons, starting with the St. Louis Blues in 1989 when he began playing in the NHL, Bret Hull scored 72, 86 (third-most in league history) and 70 goals. He finished his career with 741.
Information about Bobby Hull’s survivors was not immediately available.
Hull’s retirement period was marked by several difficult events. In 1987, he pleaded guilty to assaulting a police officer who intervened in a dispute between Hal and his third wife, Deborah. She accused him of punching him in the face and filed a battery complaint. I was. She later dropped it. According to a 2002 ESPN documentary of her, his second wife, Joan McKay, was physically and emotionally abused during their marriage.
In 1998, the Moscow Times, a Russian English-language newspaper in which he was attending a hockey tournament, quoted him as saying that “Hitler had some good ideas” but “got a little too far.” The US population was growing rapidly. The paper reported that when asked if Hal was racist, he said: I am not running for any political office. ”
Hull denied the statement. His attorney said an interpreter in the interview told him that Hull never mentioned Nazis or black people in the United States.
In 2008, after a long estrangement caused by the Blackhawks’ leap to the Jets, Hull was returned to the team as an ambassador by owner Rocky Wertz.
“We were romantically involved when I played,” Hull told the Chicago Tribune, referring to Blackhawks fans. “Mighty Montreal He didn’t need the Canadiens to pick him up. Howe didn’t need to come to fill our job. They came to see the Chicago Blackhawks.” ”
But he was dropped after 14 years When he said the team was redefining the role of ambassadors.
