Bobby
Hull(Inducted 1983)

Hull grew up on a farm near Belleville, Ontario, two hours east of Toronto. From a young age it was apparent that his raw talent was exceptional. He moved rapidly through the minor hockey system and was signed by the Chicago Black Hawks organization. As a 15-year-old, he played a handful of games with the Galt Black Hawks of the OHA and didn't look out of place.

The Hawks next moved Hull up to the main junior affiliate, the OHA's St. Catharines Teepees. During his second year, in 1956-57, Hull scored 16 points in 13 playoff matches for the Garden City team. A few months later, he put two pucks past New York Rangers goalie Gump Worsley in a pre-season game to launch one of the greatest of NHL careers.

Hull's highly anticipated regular-season debut came in 1957-58. He didn't disappoint the Hawks' fans and brass and turned in a fine 47-point effort that year to finish runner-up to Toronto's Frank Mahovlich in the Calder Trophy voting at the end of the season. Hull improved by three points in his sophomore year before breaking out in 1959-60 with a league-high 39 goals and 81 points. Teamed with Bill Hay and Murray Balfour on the Million Dollar Line, Hull won the Art Ross Trophy and earned a place on the NHL First All-Star Team.

More important, the young star helped resurrect the fortunes of a struggling franchise. Prior to his arrival, Chicago had missed the playoffs 11 out of the previous 12 seasons. The atmosphere around the organization was dismal and the once proud fans stayed away in droves. Hull's arrival along with Stan Mikita helped rekindle the spark within the franchise and raised the team's profile among the sports fans of the Windy City.

Together with teammate Mikita, Hull developed the curved hockey stick, which gave the shooter more velocity and caused the puck to move differently at times. And what goalies throughout the league didn't need was the most feared shot in the NHL behaving like a curve ball.

The 1960-61 regular season was somewhat of a letdown for Hull individually, but in the post-season he scored 14 points in 12 games as Chicago won the Stanley Cup for the first time since 1938. The next year he became the third player in league history to score 50 goals in a season.

In 1964-65, despite missing nine games due to injury, the Golden Jet scored 39 goals and helped Chicago reach the Stanley Cup finals, where they lost out to Montreal. At season's end he was awarded the Hart and Lady Byng trophies. The following season he set an NHL record with 54 goals and repeated as the Hart Trophy winner.

In 1966-67, Hull's 52 goals helped Chicago win its first regular-season championship since coach Pete Muldoon cursed the team after he was fired in 1938. Their march to the Stanley Cup was cut short in the semifinals by the Toronto Maple Leafs under Punch Imlach.

Hull scored 44 goals during the first expansion season, then followed up with a record-breaking performance in 1968-69. His 58 goals set a single-season record that fans thought would last many years. As it turned out, Boston's Phil Esposito hit the back of the net 76 times two years later. In January 1970, Hull was named by the Associated Press as the top NHL player of the 1960s.

While Esposito was leading the Bruins through a magical regular season in 1970-71, the Hawks were led by Hull's 44 goals and captured the West Division crown. On February 14, 1971, he scored twice against the Vancouver Canucks to surpass Maurice Richard for second place on the NHL's all-time goal-scoring list. Hull then embarked on the most productive post-season of his career with 11 goals and 25 points in 18 games as Chicago came within one period of winning the Stanley Cup. Leading 2-1 late in the second period of game seven, the Hawks couldn't hold the lead and lost 3-2 in front of a disappointed home crowd. One of the indelible images of this final game was the Habs' lanky netminder, Ken Dryden, using his long reach to foil a sure goal by Hull.

In 1971-72, Hull hit the 50-goal mark for the fifth time in his career, playing with Pit Martin and Chico Maki. At this stage of his career, many observers noted that he was playing his most well-rounded hockey ever. Ironically, this complete version of Bobby Hull was the last NHL fans would see of him for several years.

In February 1972, an ominous event in the form of the World Hockey Association General Player Draft took place. The Winnipeg Jets selected Hull and a few months later shocked the hockey world by signing him to the first $1 million contract in hockey history.

This turn of events was the major coup needed by the WHA to legitimize itself. The NHL was bitter and exacted revenge on the Golden Jet by blocking his participation on behalf of Canada in the 1972 Summit Series versus the Soviets. When Hull left the NHL, his 604 goals ranked him second in league history to Gordie Howe.

Overall, Hull's play in the Manitoba capital helped the Jets become a major success in the new league, but the adjustment took its toll as he developed ulcers in response to the stress of playing several games on consecutive nights under conditions that were quite poor compared to the NHL.

Hull soon formed one of the top forward lines anywhere in the world with Swedes Anders Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson. The 1974-75 season was particularly special as he finally had a chance to compete against the Soviets in the second Canada-USSR series at the start of the year. He also went on to score 77 goals for Winnipeg in the regular season to establish a new record for a professional league. Hull's play was an integral part of the Jets' Avco Cup wins in 1976, 1978 and 1979. In 1973 and 1975 he was chosen the most valuable player in the WHA.

Prior to the 1976-77 WHA season, Hull was allowed to compete for his country in the inaugural Canada Cup tournament. He was Canada's top-scoring forward and consistently dished out punishing yet clean bodychecks. If this tournament was the highlight of Bobby Orr's career, it was also unquestionably Hull's one chance to shine in a competition featuring the top players from around the globe.

Following the NHL/WHA merger in 1979, Hull remained with the Jets for 18 games in the 1979-80 season before a trade brought him to the Hartford Whalers to play alongside Gordie Howe. He retired after that season with 610 goals in 1,063 regular-season games. Hull took his place in the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1983 along with old teammate Stan Mikita. Following his career, he worked full-time in the cattle ranching business, a field in which he had a lifetime of experience.

Interview with a Legend by Ken Newans

Q: You are known as the unofficial ambassador of Hockey.

Hull: I don’t know whether I’d go that far. You might say I was a little bit more outspoken… I spoke my mind. I studied the game of hockey for the players and for the fans alike, and I felt that the most important people in our game were those twenty thousand people sitting home watching their TV’s; the shut-ins, the elderly and the kids. All I’ve done all my life is just tried to better the game for our players and for those people watching.

 

Q: You seem to enjoy being on this tour. Yet, you give back too!

Well, I believe that’s a big part of this tour. First and foremost it’s important that we’re able to put something back in the game, which we have always done. We’re doing this to help needy charities along with the police forces in different towns and cities. When we go to these places there are a lot of folks that remember us in our heyday, and we have opened their minds to their memories of years gone by. What makes it all worthwhile is we just play for the sheer enjoyment of entertaining people and… make our families and the team we played on and the people watching, proud of what we did.

 

Q: Your breed of hockey player built the foundation for the high priced player of today. Your thoughts?

Well, pioneers always suffer. I don’t care who is the first to embark upon things. For instance, settlers that settled the West, Western Canada and the U.S… they went though hell doing it, but it had to be done. We were pioneers as well, and we kind of took the dirty end of the stick for a while, and now the kids are benefiting from it. I don’t mind a bit how much money they make, as long as they go out and entertain the fans royally and put something back into the game.

 

Q: It must be satisfying seeing your family involved in the sport you love. How have Bobby and Brett handled the pressure of following in the footsteps of their famous father?

Well, Brett was a pretty laid back kid and I think all the pressure was heaped upon my eldest boy, Bobby. Had I known that I was to score one goal in the NHL, I certainly wouldn’t have named my eldest boy Bobby… it’s like the song said, I’d have named him Alice or something like that. But, Brett was pretty laid back and he was the 3rd boy in a family of 5 kids. He never really got serious about the game until I gave him hell one day and said with a little bit of hard work and intestinal fortitude that he could solidify a future for himself. That’s when he went to Penticton as a walk-on and made the team. Then, the second year scored a hundred and some goals to set a record. To play in the National Hockey League as a red blooded American kid… a Canadian kid, we all dreamed about it and I made a boyhood dream come true. Then to have Brett come along and follow in the footsteps, it’s so gratifying. I get as much enjoyment out of watching Brett play as I did of entertaining people myself.

 

Q: You talk about the boyhood dream for you and your sons… but where did it all start for you Bobby?

I was a kid in a small town in Southeastern Ontario with five hundred people and six hundred dogs and all of a sudden I’m in the National Hockey League and I’m a bona fide NHL player. I said if I can only stay five years, it will be great!

 

Q: …and the great memories?

There were a lot of great memories… winning the scoring championship when I was 21, winning the Stanley Cup in ‘61; playing against the Richards, Howes and Beliveaus; playing in Winnipeg while helping to form a new league… it was just the whole career. If I was to do it all over again, I wouldn’t change a thing.

BOBBY HULL PHOTO - Chicago This 8 x10 photo is autographed by the Golden Jet, Bobby Hull! Only $119.00 CDN Item Number: OHCBH Quantity:        Or order through fax/mail by printing this Order Form.

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