Nicknamed the "Golden Jet" for his fair hair and fast driving, Bobby Hull is the hockey player to become the most productive left hitter in the history of the National Hockey League. The player of the NHL team “Chicago Blackhawks”, and later the “Winnipeg Jets” of the World Hockey Association for all 23 years of his career as a professional hockey player has demonstrated power, pressure and speed.
Bobby Hull: biography
Robert Marvin Hull was born January 3, 1939 in a small Canadian town with a population of about 500 people, Pointe Enne. He was the eldest son in a family of 11 children born to Robert Edward and Lena Hull. His younger brother, Dennis William, later played with him at Chicago Blackhawks. For several years, Robert played in the minor hockey league, where he became known as the Lightning Blonde. He supported his family by working as a laborer at Plant No. 5 of a Canadian cement company.
From a very young age, Bobby Hull (photo posted later in the article) played hockey and grew up passionate about sports. He told Joe Sexton of The New York Times that he never went to a place in his childhood, but always ran. And I could not wait for winter. His father often found him in the midst of summer in a house very sweating from the heat. He liked winter, ice. The game has become an obsession. By the age of ten, many thought that Hull would perform in the NHL. He continued to play youth hockey in Hespeler, Woodstock and St. Catharines, where his coach was Rudy Pilus, who later coached Bobby in the National Hockey League.
Slow start
In 1957, at the age of less than 18, Hull finally began his career in the NHL with the Chicago Blackhawks. True, he began slowly. In his first two years, although he appeared in 70 games every season, the hockey player scored only 31 goals. Nevertheless, he managed to make 34 assists in 1957/1958 and 32 in a year. Its performance increased sharply to 39 in the 1959/1960 season, when Hull mastered the “click” puck, increasing the curvature of his club. Thanks to him, this technique has become popular in the NHL. Its cast speed was 190 km / h. Goalkeeper Les said that when the puck came off the stick, it looked like a pea. As she gained speed, she looked less and less visible. Hull's 39 goals secured him the “Art Ross Trophy” for the highest number of goals scored in the 1959/1960 season.
Success on all fronts
Bobby Hull married former figure skater Joanna Mackay in 1960. Together they had five children, Bobby Jr., Blake, Brett (who himself became an NHL star), Bart and Michelle.
In the season 1960/1961 he scored 31 goals and made 25 assists, receiving 56 full points in 67 games. More importantly, he helped the Chicago club win the Stanley Cup for the first time in 23 years. Hull had an outstanding result in the playoffs. In 12 matches, he scored four goals and made 10 assists. The team coach was then Rudy Pilus, a mentor for Bobby when he was a junior. Hull's success was in his natural talent, excellent skating and hard throws. He was one of the fastest skaters in the NHL, accelerating to 46 km / h with the puck and 48 km / h without it. Although the “click” was his fastest hit, Bobby's wrist speed reached 170 km / h, and his left punch gained 154 km / h. In addition, to the great delight of fans of Chicago, Hull managed to have fun on the ice. As the New York Times wrote, Bobby was a fast left hitter who scored goals thanks to his mania to work and a volcanic “click” burst. And if he lost most of his teeth, breaking through the defense, he never lost his face.
At the peak of a career
Hull's abilities continued to shine in 1961/1962, when he scored 50 goals, reaching the NHL record for the maximum number of goals per season. For his efforts, he received the second "Art Ross Trophy." Although in the next three seasons the number of goals wasted exceeded 40 only once, when in 1963/1964. with 43 goals, Bobby Hull was one of the dominant players in the NHL. In the 1964/1965 season, scoring just 39 goals and making 32 assists in 67 games, he led the Blackhawks to an exciting final round of the competition. Although the team did not win the Stanley Cup, Hull scored 10 goals in 14 games and made 7 assists. At the end of the season, he was named the most valuable NHL player and received the “Hart Trophy”. For exemplary sporting behavior he was awarded the "Lady Bing Trophy."
At the peak of his career in the mid-1960s, Bobby Hull was one of the most exciting hockey players. He blinded his fans with breakthroughs across the entire court and scared the goalkeepers with a formidable “click”.
Born to win
In the 1965/1966 season, Bobby Hull became the first NHL player to overcome the 50-goal barrier, scoring 54 goals. In addition, he made 43 assists. For this, he received the third “Art Ross Trophy” and the second “Hart Trophy” as the most valuable player in the league. The next season, he again scored more than 50 goals - there were 52.
Although in 1967/1968. he slowed down a bit, scoring only 44 goals with 31 assists in 71 games, in the beginning of 1968/1969 Hull began to earn more. He wanted to get $ 100,000 a season, which was unheard of at the time. After serving 11 games, Bobby agreed to $ 60 thousand and was forced by the team to publicly apologize. However, Hull proved his worth. He broke his own record for the most goals in a season, scoring 58 goals. With his 49 assists, Bobby scored over 107 points, the only time he succeeded in the NHL. At the end of the season he received the “Leicester Patrick Trophy” for his outstanding services in hockey.
In 1967, the book Bobby Hull. My game is hockey. ” In it, the author, who was at the peak of his fame, modestly gives autobiographical information, but he teaches the game more - ice skating, puck possession, aggressiveness (in a good way), defense, goal scoring, practice and training. Bobby Hall's book also teaches you how to watch matches.
Confrontation with the NHL
One hallmark of Hull's career was his penchant for frankness. Although he had one mediocre year, the 1969/1970 season (38 goals and 20 assists in 61 games), followed by a great year with 44 goals and 52 assists in 78 matches, Bobby threatened to strike during the playoffs 1971 year. The league was about to ban bent hockey sticks that Hull loved and popularized. The hockey player left the playoffs and persuaded other players to join him if this ban were imposed. Nevertheless, a compromise was reached and a half-inch bend was allowed. Hull continued to play the best playoffs of his career in terms of points. In 18 meetings, he scored 11 goals and made 14 assists, but the Blackhawks failed to win the Stanley Cup.
Money again became a problem for the hockey player even before the start of the 1972 season. He demanded more royalties from the Black Hawks, but the club refused. Jack Kent Cook, the owner of another NHL team, the Los Angeles Kings, wanted to acquire Hull if the Blackhawks agreed to this. Bobby later said in an interview that, in his opinion, things could have turned out differently if the club had kept him or even sent him to Los Angeles. But the ego and greed of the club prompted him to decide to move to the new professional league of the World Hockey Association. Founded by lawyers, the league believed that the Hull caliber star would help her succeed.
Tempting offer
When Bobby Hull negotiated with the Winnipeg Jets, he made an impromptu remark about wanting to get $ 1 million in advance. He did not believe that he would actually receive this amount. But when the Jets offered him a bonus of $ 1 million for signing a contract, $ 1 million of salary for four years, and $ 100,000 a year for six years for working with the team, Hull left the NHL. His act allowed the league to instantly gain the trust it needed. His contract had a side effect, as a result of which the salary of players in the NHL and VHA increased sharply. In addition, the National Hockey League spent millions challenging the very existence of a competitor in the courts.
Success in VHA
Hull's stay in Winnipeg was marked by some of the best performance years in his career. In each of his first four seasons, he scored more than 50 goals. In the 15 years that Bobby played in Chicago, he only had 5 seasons when he achieved such a result. In its first season of 1972/73. he missed 20 matches, but scored 51 goals and made 52 assists for 103 points in 63 matches. In 1974/1975 in 78 meetings, Hull scored 77 goals and was named the most valuable WHA player, as in the previous season. It was the best year of his career in this league. The next season, he played in only 34 matches, but managed to score 53 points. In 1977/1978 Hull participated in 77 games, but scored only 46 goals and made 71 assists.
Not taking part in the USSR-Canada matches of 1972, Bobby Hull against Tretyak made in 1974.
Again in the NHL
The WHA could not support itself, and several teams, including the Winnipeg Jets, entered the NHL at the beginning of the 1979/1980 season. Hull stayed with the club, but only played in 18 meetings before being bargained for by another old WHA team, Hartford Whalers. He appeared in nine matches and in three meetings after the end of the season before being released. At that time, Hull was experiencing a very bitter and public divorce from his wife Joanna. Among other claims, she accused him of physical abuse. After the divorce ended in June 1980, she took the children and moved to Vancouver. The hockey player did not see them for ten years. Bobby Hull, whose personal life was crumbling, tried to restart his career at the New York Rangers. He was in the training camp of the club in 1980, but was not enrolled in the team. Hull has played professional hockey for 23 years.
Life after sports
After leaving Bobby Hull in the number of goals and points scored took second place after the hockey legend Gordy Howe. Over his 15 seasons in the NHL, he scored a total of 610 goals and scored 1170 points, making him the most productive left-handed striker in history at the time. His achievements at the VCA were no less impressive. In 330 games, he scored 255 goals and scored 515 points. Leaving hockey, Hull devoted most of his time to his ranches in Saskatchewan and Bellville, Ontario, and was president of Bobby Hull Enterprises. He also, for many years, since 1982, worked as a sports commentator on Canadian television. In 1983, Hull was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Goalkeepers nightmare
Even after Bobby Hockey left hockey, he continues to set NHL records. When his son Brett became a league star in the late 1980s and 1990s, they became the only father and son to score 500 goals and score 1000 points. According to Lorne Worsley, goalkeepers are scared when they score. Playing against guys such as Bobby Hull or his son, you constantly wait for them to leave the ice, and then - when they will return to it again. And when they appear, even without the puck, they will definitely get it, and the goalkeeper knows that. Thank God that they do not come so often.