Hull, Bobby

Bobby Hull

1939-

Canadian hockey player

One of the most dynamic players in the National Hockey League (NHL) in the 1960s, Bobby Hull earned the nickname "The Golden Jet" for his quick moves and solid shooting ability on the ice and his colorful personality off the ice. Setting numerous scoring records during his fifteen seasons with the Chicago Blackhawks, Hull was the first player to win a contract paying him over $100,000 a year. He was also the first star player to be signed to the fledgling World Hockey Association (WHA) in 1972, another move that helped to shake up the staid management that characterized the sport at the time. Hull returned to a final season in the NHL in 1979-1980 but ended his career on a sour note as it coincided with some nasty headlines about his divorce from his wife of twenty years, Joanne McKay. The separation affected Hull's relationship with the couple's five children, one of whom, Brett Hull , would grow up to become a gifted NHL player in his own right. In his retirement Hull put most of energy into running his cattle ranching operations in Canada, but he remained an active commentator on the sport the made him famous and was frequently in the headlines for his blunt remarks.

Hockey Prodigy

Robert Marvin Hull, Jr. was born on January 3, 1939 in Point Anne, Ontario, Canada, where his father worked in a cement plant. The eldest son in a family of eleven children, Hull received a pair of ice skates as a Christmas present when he was three years old and took to the ice immediately. During his childhood he often cleared the ice so that he could skate on the frozen surface of the Bay of Quinte near his family's home. Before he had reached his teens Hull was playing alongside his father in a local amateur hockey league. His skills were so impressive that Bob Wilson, the head of scouting for the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks, signed the twelve-year-old to a contract committing him to the team. After playing for a juvenile-league team in Hesperer, Ontario in 1952, Hull joined the Blackhawks' junior-league affiliate in Woodstock, Ontario. He then spent the 1954-55 season playing for the Galt Black Hawks in the Ontario Hockey Association and the following two seasons with the St. Catherines Teepees in Ontario. He almost left the team after his coach, Rudy Pilous, told him to play left wing instead of center, which Hull perceived to be a demotion. After talking it over with his father, he decided to rejoin the team after missing four games over his protest.

At five feet, ten inches tall and weighing about 190 pounds, Hull was already an impressive figure on the ice as a teenager. Although he sported huge forearms and thighs and a barrel chest, Hull seemed to move faster on the ice than any of his opponents. His talent was on full display in 1956 when he was unexpectedly called to an exhibition game staged by the Blackhawks against the New York Islanders in St. Catherines. The high schooler scored two goals against the Islanders in the game. Desperate for new talent—the team had finished last in the league for the past four seasons—the Blackhawks brought Hull to the NHL in 1957 and named Pilous head coach as well.

Top Scorer in NHL

The infusion of new talent into the Blackhawks' line up did not pay dividends at first. Hull had just thirteen goals in seventy games in his debut season in 1957-58. The next season he improved his record to eighteen goals in seventy games. The 1959-60 season proved to be the turning point in Hull's NHL career. Hull shared the goal-scoring title with thirty-nine goals and led the league in total points as his forty-two assists gave him an overall score of eighty-one points. Although Hull was plagued by a knee injury the following season, he managed to score thirty-one goals in sixty-seven games; more important, he helped the Blackhawks to win the NHL championship, symbolized by the Stanley Cup, in a four-to-two-game series over the Detroit Red Wings. It was the first such victory for the team since 1938; the team had not even made the finals since 1944. Now hailed as "The Golden Jet" for his rapid plays on the ice as well as for his blond good looks, the feat turned Hull into one of hockey's biggest stars.

Chronology

1939	Born January 3 in Point Anne, Ontario, Canada
1951	Signs contract with Chicago Blackhawks
1957	Begins playing for Chicago Blackhawks
1960, 1962, 1966	Leads National Hockey League in scoring
1965	Wins Lady Byng Trophy for sportsmanship in NHL
1965, 1967	Wins Hart Trophy as NHL's Most Valuable Player
1967-69	Leads National Hockey League in goals
1972	Signs contract with World Hockey Association's (WHA) Winnepeg Jets
1973	Named Most Valuable Player in WHA
1975	Leads WHA in scoring
1975	Named Most Valuable Player in WHA
1979	Plays for Hartford Whalers in NHL
1981	Retires from professional hockey

1960 was also a pivotal year in Hull's personal life. After a short-lived marriage as a teenager, Hull wed the former Joanne McKay, who had performed as an ice skater. The couple eventually had five children before divorcing in 1980. The latter event made headlines across North America for the allegations of adultery and spousal abuse leveled at Hull, including one incident that occurred in Hawaii in 1966. According to his wife, Hull had beaten her with a steel-heeled shoe before hanging her over a balcony ledge. She left him in 1970 but they reconciled and stayed together for another ten years. Joanne McKay Hull moved to Vancouver with their children and eventually remarried. After several years of estrangement, Hull started to rebuild his relationship with his children, who included NHL player Brett Hull. In 1984 Hull married for a third time; his marriage to Deborah Hull also made headlines when he was charged with assault and battery against his wife. The complaint was later withdrawn, but Hull pled guilty to a charge of assaulting a police officer who had come to make the initial arrest.

The NHL's Most Popular Player

Although the 1961 Stanley Cup was the only one the Blackhawks won during Hull's time with the team, his popularity eclipsed that of almost any other player in the NHL in the 1960s. His powerful slap shot—once clocked at 119 miles per hour—led to another title of the league's top scorer in 1962, when he racked up fifty goals and eighty-four total points. That year the Black-hawks lost the Stanley Cup to the Toronto Maple Leafs. The team returned to the finals again in 1965 and 1971, losing both times to the Montreal Canadiens.

Hull subsequently won the title of top goal scorer again in 1966 with fifty-four goals and ninety-seven total points. The achievement also shattered the record of total goals in a season, set by the Montreal Canadiens' Maurice Richard with fifty goals in 1945. Hull followed up an amazing season in 1966 with three more seasons when he led the league in goals, reaching a pinnacle with the fifty-eight goals of the 1968-69 season. A solid all-around player, Hull won the Hart Trophy as NHL's Most Valuable Player of the regular season in 1965 and 1966, as well as the Lady Byng Trophy for sportsmanship in NHL in 1965.

Signs with World Hockey Association

It seemed that Hull had almost single-handedly revived the Blackhawks' fortunes and his salary climbed to $100,000 for the 1968-69 season. Yet he faced a series of battles with the team's owners. After investors started up a rival hockey league, the World Hockey Association (WHA), in 1972 to compete with the NHL, Hull was one of the first players they approached about the venture. "Going to the WHA was not one bit about money," Hull recalled in an interview with Sports Illustrated 's Allen Abel in 1998, "I had been at war with the Blackhawks' management for years. We hated each other." Still, when the WHA made an offer of a quarter million dollars a year, plus a one-million-dollar signing bonus, Hull thought the offer was bogus. "I thought it was a joke," he told Abel, "I pretended to go along with it, just to scare Chicago. Then my agent, Harvey Weinberg, said, 'Bobby, these guys are serious.'" The total value of the final contract with the WHA's Winnepeg Jets came to $1.75 million, which ensured the WHA a huge amount of advance publicity for the new league.

Career Statistics

Yr	Team	GP	G	A	PTS	+/−	PIM	SOG	SPCT	PPG	SHG
Black Hawks: Chicago Black Hawks (NHL); Jets: Winnipeg Jets (WHA, later NHL); Whalers: Hartford Whalers (NHL).
1957-58	Black Hawks	70	13	34	47	—	62	—	—	—	—
1958-59	Black Hawks	70	18	32	50	—	50	—	—	—	—
1959-60	Black Hawks	70	39	42	81	—	68	—	—	—	—
1960-61	Black Hawks	67	31	25	56	—	43	—	—	—	—
1961-62	Black Hawks	70	50	34	84	—	35	—	—	—	—
1962-63	Black Hawks	65	31	31	62	—	27	—	—	—	—
1963-64	Black Hawks	70	43	44	87	—	50	—	—	—	—
1964-65	Black Hawks	61	39	32	71	—	32	—	—	—	—
1965-66	Black Hawks	65	54	43	97	—	70	—	—	—	—
1966-67	Black Hawks	66	52	28	80	—	52	—	—	—	—
1967-68	Black Hawks	71	44	31	75	14	39	364	12.1	8	2
1968-69	Black Hawks	74	58	49	107	-7	48	414	14.0	20	2
1969-70	Black Hawks	61	38	29	67	+20	8	289	13.1	10	2
1970-71	Black Hawks	78	44	52	96	+34	32	378	11.6	11	0
1971-72	Black Hawks	78	50	43	93	+54	24	336	14.9	8	3
1972-73	Jets	63	51	52	103	—	37	—	—	—	—
1973-74	Jets	75	53	42	95	—	38	—	—	—	—
1974-75	Jets	78	77	65	142	—	41	—	—	—	—
1975-76	Jets	80	53	70	123	—	30	—	—	—	—
1976-77	Jets	34	21	32	53	—	14	—	—	—	—
1977-78	Jets	77	46	71	117	—	23	—	—	—	—
1978-79	Jets	4	2	3	5	—	0	—	—	—	—
1979-80	Jets	18	4	6	10	7	0	25	16.0	1	0
	Whalers	9	2	5	7	3	0	13	15.4	1
NHL Totals		1063	610	560	1170	—	640	—	—	—	—
WHA Totals		411	303	335	638	—	183	—	—	—	—

After sitting out several games when Chicago sued to prevent his departure, Hull joined the lineup of the Jets, where he remained for the next seven years. He won most valuable player honors in the 1972-73 and 1974-75 seasons and was widely regarded as the WHA's biggest star. Even Hull's popularity could not pull the entire WHA out of its management problems, however, and it folded in 1979. Four of its teams and dozens of its players were absorbed into the NHL, and Hull finished out his career playing for the league's Hartford Whalers in 1980. Now in his forties, Hull practiced with the New York Rangers in preparation for a comeback in 1981, but he did not make the team's final cut. In all he had played fifteen seasons with the NHL, seven seasons with the WHA, and one season split between the two leagues.

Controversy in Retirement

Hull completed his NHL career with 1,063 games, 610 goals, and 560 assists. His WHA statistics included 411 games, 303 goals, and 335 assists. As an offensive player with few peers, Hull was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1983. That same year his son, Brett Hull, began playing for the Penticton Knights, the first step in a hockey career that would eventually take him to the Stanley Cup-winning Detroit Red Wings in 2002.

Retiring from his career as a professional athlete to manage his cattle ranching operations in Canada, Hull was often sought out for his comments as an elder statesman of hockey. The outspokenness that made him such a popular sports figure sometimes got him into trouble, however. While attending a hockey game in Moscow in 1998, the English-language Moscow Times printed an interview that quoted Hull as favorably evaluating the racial breeding practices of Adolf Hitler as well as making racist comments against African Americans. Hull insisted that he had not made the comments and that he had only been discussing his cattle ranching operations without any racist implications whatsoever. Whatever the truth of the event, it was widely reported in the North American press and tarnished Hull's image with some of his fans. Despite the controversy, Hull remained a sought-after figure on the fan circuit, where his autographed merchandise remained popular with generations of hockey followers.

Awards and Accomplishments

1960, 1962, 1966	Art Ross Trophy as NHL's top scorer
1961	Stanley Cup as NHL champions (Chicago Blackhawks)
1965	Lady Byng Trophy for sportsmanship in NHL
1965-66	Hart Trophy as NHL's Most Valuable Player
1973, 1975	Most Valuable Player in WHA
1983	Inducted into Hockey Hall of Fame

Related Biography: Team Owner Ben Hatskin

A native of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, Ben Hatskin was born in 1918 to parents who had emigrated from Russia. A standout football player in high school, he became one of the first Canadian students to win an athletic scholarship to an American university. He played for the Sooners at the University of Oklahoma but returned to Winnipeg to play for the Blue Bombers before he graduated from college. During World War II he began raising racehorses and his wealth grew as the Hatskin family invested in everything from lumber companies to juke box distributorships.

In 1967 Hatskin attempted to win an NHL franchise during the league's expansion. His bid failed, which fueled his desire to participate in a new, rival league, the WHA, in 1972. Hatskin knew that the credibility of the WHA depended on getting established hockey stars to join its teams. He aggressively sought out the services of Bobby Hull for his team, the Winnipeg Jets, and eventually signed Hull to a contract estimated to be worth at least $1.75 million.

Although it was one of the more successful teams in the WHA, Hatskin had to ask for a public subsidy to keep the financially troubled Jets alive after 1974. The team was absorbed into the NHL in 1979 and was purchased by Barry Shenkarow. At the end of the 1995-96 season Shenkarow sold the team to a consortium of Minneapolis businessmen, who ended up moving the team to Phoenix, where it was renamed the Coyotes. A few years later, hockey legend Wayne Gretzky bought an interest in the team and started working as its general manager. In Winnipeg, Hatskin is still remembered as visionary who performed a near-miracle in bringing a major-league sports franchise to a medium-sized city on the Canadian prairie.

A Pivotal Era in Hockey

Although contemporary NHL fans are more familiar with the impressive career of his son, Detroit Red Wings right wing Brett Hull, Bobby Hull retains his legendary status in the sport's history. Both on and off the ice, Hull instigated some fundamental changes in the way hockey was played and managed. As a player Hull transformed the sport into a game that emphasized offensive maneuvers, quick action, and scoring, in contrast to its former emphasis on a defensive game plan. Hull's salary demands also led to significant increases in the value of contracts earned by NHL players, particularly after he bolted to the WHA in 1972. Hull's media presence and popularity with his fans also helped to increase interest in the sport at a time when it was still limited to six teams. Without Hull's presence at a crucial juncture in the sport's history, it is questionable whether the NHL would have expanded to include its teams north of the Canadian border. For each of these reasons, Bobby Hull ranks as one of the most important hockey players of his, or indeed any, era in the sport.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Books

Diamond, Dan. Hockey Hall of Fame: The Official Registry of the Game's Honour Roll. Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 1996.

Diamond, Dan, ed. Total Hockey: The Official Encyclopedia of the National Hockey League. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing, 1998.

Jacobs, Jeff. Hockey Legends. New York: MetroBooks, 1995.

Periodicals

Abel, Allen. "When Hell Froze Over." Sports Illustrated (April 6, 1998): 98.

Davies, Tanya. "Was It Bigotry, or Animal Husbandry?" Maclean's (September 7, 1998): 48.

Friesen, Paul. "Hatskin Silenced Skeptics" Winnipeg Sun (December 30, 1999).

Jenish, D. "'Like Father, Like Son.'" Maclean's (March 18, 1991): 52.

Other

Schwartz, Larry. "Hull Helped WHA into Hockey Family." ESPN Classic Web site. http://espn.go.com/classic/biography/s/hull_bobby.html (October 24, 2002).

Sketch by Timothy Borden

Where Is He Now?

In retirement Bobby Hull splits his time between a home in Florida and his cattle ranching operations in eastern Ontario and New Brunswick. Hull also makes regular appearances at fan conventions, where he earns thousands of dollars signing memorabilia related to his legendary career. After a bitter divorce in 1980 from his wife of twenty years, Joanne McKay, Hull married Deborah Hull in 1984.

Hull was stung by the controversy surrounding his alleged racist remarks to a reporter in Russia in 1998. He claimed to have been misunderstood and misquoted but preferred not to prolong the affair by discussing the event in depth. Hull is especially proud of the NHL accomplishments of his son, Brett Hull, who currently plays for the Detroit Red Wings. "I want to see Brett in the Hockey Hall of Fame," he told Allen Abel of Sports Illustrated in April 1998, "And I want to see one of my grandsons follow suit."