Bobby Hull’s golden hockey career is diminished by his disturbing dark side
If ever there was an NHL star whose spectacular on-ice performances were diminished by his off-ice misdeeds, it was Bobby Hull.
His blond hair and matinee idol looks coupled with the rousing solo hurtling across the ice that usually ended in his terrifying slapshot hitting the back of the net earned him the nickname The Golden Jet. But all that hockey gold was tarnished by Hull’s dark side, who died on Monday at the age of 84.
For every achievement, like his five 50-goal seasons in 15 years for the Chicago Blackhawks from 1957 to 1972, and all the groundbreaking moves, like his use of a bent stick or his leap to the upstart World Hockey Association in 1972 that ultimately enriched him his colleagues there were flaws: credible allegations by two women of domestic violence; an arrest for assaulting a police officer; and expressing abhorrent views on race, genetics, and Hitler.
It will be interesting to see how the NHL and the Blackhawks, the team most associated with Hull, handle memorials to him. The NHL All-Star Game will be played in South Florida on Saturday. The next home game in Chicago is on February 7. Usually, the death of a Hall of Fame star like Hull would merit an emotional tribute at either event, but his conflicting legacy leaves that in doubt.
The NHL has long been criticized for its handling of issues related to sexual assault and racism, but has attempted to improve its image in recent years. The Blackhawks, in particular, have come under immense criticism, mostly due to the team’s mishandling of a 2010 sexual assault allegation involving a video coach that resulted in a lawsuit by a former player last year and the departure of several team managers.
So far, neither the league nor the Blackhawks have cited problems with Hull’s reputation in acknowledging his death. In an official statement released Monday, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman referred to Hull as one of the league’s “most iconic and distinctive players.” Rocky Wirtz, the chairman of the Blackhawks, called Hull “a beloved member of the Blackhawks family.”
A few years after his NHL career began with Chicago in 1957, Hull established himself as hockey’s first mainstream superstar. A muscular farm boy from Point Anne, Ontario, a small cement factory town 125 miles northeast of Toronto. NHL had when the television era arrived in the 1960s.
Both the league and the Blackhawks quickly recognized the publicity value in Hull. He was the subject of numerous promotions designed to generate interest in hockey, particularly among women at a time when the sport had a predominantly male audience. One of the most famous hockey pictures from the 1960s there was one from Hull, bare-chested, flaxen hair and muscles glistening in the summer sun, throwing hay with a pitchfork on the family farm.
At six feet tall and weighing 195 pounds, Hull was no taller than most of his fellow players, but he possessed great strength and speed. His slapshot was estimated to reach speeds of up to 120 miles per hour, routinely terrorizing goalkeepers of the day as most of them played without the protection of masks.
More than a few goaltenders turned to the mask in the mid-1960s when Hull and his Chicago teammate Stan Mikita began using curved-bladed sticks. The sticks, called banana leaves because of their severe curls, can make pucks rise or dive unexpectedly. In 1967, the NHL introduced restrictions to limit the severity of stick curves.
Hull also became an inspiration to his peers, as he always had a strong opinion of what his services were worth to a league where players routinely took the modest salary offered by the cramped owners and kept quiet. The insular hockey world was shocked when Hull entered the NHL in 1972 on a $2.75 million contract to play in the new WHA for the Winnipeg Jets. The move ultimately broke the tight grip of NHL owners and gave players more money for their skills and more control over where they deploy them.
While both the NHL and WHA began battling on the ice in the 1970s, Hull took a solitary stance, even going on a one-game bout while with the Jets to protest fighting in the game, which had been going on for years. later sounded horribly hollow.
Hull may have condemned the violence that marred hockey games, but his second wife, Joanne McKay, said in a 2002 ESPN documentary that he assaulted her several times during their 20-year marriage, which ended in divorce in 1980. She said that Hull beat her bloodied with her own shoe and held her over the hotel balcony during a trip to Hawaii. “I thought this was the end, I’m going,” she said.
More stories about the dark side of Hull developed over the years, from domestic violence to problems with alcohol. In 1986, Hull’s third wife, Deborah, accused him of assault. When a police officer intervened in the incident, Hull was charged with assault and eventually pleaded guilty. He was also charged with wounding his wife, but the case was dropped when Deborah refused to testify.
Another controversy erupted in 1998 when the English-language Moscow Times attributed some disturbing views of race to Hull. The Russian newspaper said Hull thought the black population in the United States was growing too fast. He was quoted as saying, “Hitler had some good ideas. He went just a little too far.”
Hull denied making the comments and said he would sue both The Moscow Times and The Toronto Sun, which reprinted parts of the Times article, but nothing came of the threatened legal action.
However, Hull’s daughter Michelle contradicted him in the newspaper stories. She told ESPN that when she saw the comments attributed to her father about black people and Hitler, “the first thing I thought was, ‘That’s just like him.'”
Despite the list of ugly incidents, the Blackhawks named Hull a team ambassador in 2008. He was removed from the position last year. The team said it intended to “redefine” the team ambassador role and that Hull and the organization had “jointly agreed” that he would retire.
But a statue of Hull erected outside Chicago’s United Center in 2011 remains.