The first autograph I got was from Bobby Hull. I had received it through my uncle Marcel, a traveling salesman, who had met the blond comet in a bathroom at the Royal York Hotel in Toronto. The news of Blackhawks No. 9, written in two words in time, read: Best regards to Marc, Bobby Hull. That was in 1966, I was 12 years old.
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I don’t remember if my uncle spelled the words for him in French or if Hull did it himself, but whatever.
This is the first memory that came to mind when the news of Bobby Hull’s death at the age of 84 was announced yesterday.
The man had a sense for public relations. He said it’s part of an athlete’s job to give back to fans and journalists.
He signed many autographs during the pre-game warm-up and had his team bus serviced after away games.
Poor guards!
Hull was at his best in 1966. He had just surpassed the record of 50 goals in a season he shared with Maurice Richard and Bernard Geoffrion.
He was the most electrifying player in the National League, making the crowd jump with his hard-hitting drives and hard-hitting slap shots that hit 100 mph. The guards feared him, and with good reason!
Aside from making throws at a speed never seen before, many still played without a mask.
The poor!
The arrival of banana pallets
As if they didn’t have it tough enough in the line of duty, it was the debut of curved-blade sticks, an idea of the great Stan Mikita, who grew up with Hull in the Blackhawks organization.
One day Mikita had the idea of placing the blade of his staff under a door to give it a curved shape. Then he experimented with shooting pucks.
Hull emulated him, beginning the era of what became known as the banana stick.
The youngsters were all Bobby Hulls when they raised their racquet far back, whether it was a puck or a tennis ball. We finally managed to raise the puck with slap shots.
Impressive!
Watch out for flying pucks!
One night at Chicago Stadium, my late colleague Pierre Nadon barely had time to put his head down in the press box at one end of the rink.
Hull had started from the middle of the rink. The puck had dented the wall behind friend Pierre.
Fans sitting behind the gates wherever Hull went had to be careful.
A visit by the Blackhawks to the forum was also an event. However, the Canadian had to watch out for the player on Hull.
Claude Provost, who would have his place in the Hockey Hall of Fame alongside Bob Gainey and Guy Carbonneau, was on a mission to follow him step by step and did a good job.
The Habs are the team of the original six against which Hull had the fewest goals, fewest assists and fewest points, with 64 goals and 67 assists for a total of 131 points in 171 games.
The Canadian was also the only formation he posted a negative differential against with a record -34.
Hull averaged 211 points (108-103) in 175 games against the Bruins, 194 (108-86) in 171 games against the Rangers, 193 (98-95) in 171 games against the Red Wings and 181 (97-84 ) 173 against the Maple Leafs.
Nice tribute to Joe
Hull had given me a nice eulogy for Provost, whom his teammates called Joe for his versatility and hard work, when he died suddenly in Florida in 1984.
“My best memory of Claude is that he was by far my most honest roofer,” he said.
“I can’t remember a single time I got mad at him for covering me up too tightly. »
The two had become friends over time.
force of nature
Hull was a god in Chicago.
The Hawks were the laughing stock of the NHL before he landed in the Windy City, followed a year later in the second half of the 1950s by his great friend Mikita.
Born in Point Anne, a ghost town affiliated with Belleville, Ontario, he grew up on a farm.
His body was carved from stone.
We liked to say that he was strong like the oxen he kept on his cattle ranch.
Former referee Red Storey, known for his cheerful personality and colorful language, said the more clothes he took off, the fatter he got.
AMH project manager
After 15 seasons in Chicago, in which he scored 604 goals, Hull took the plunge to join the governing body that needed big names to secure a place on the professional hockey chess board.
The 12 teams in the new league all contributed to their signing bonus, which totaled $1 million, a large sum in 1972.
The contract that tied him to the Winnipeg Jets was worth $1.75 million over 10 years.
Hull continued to fill the net alongside Swedes Anders Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson, a trio known as the Hot Line that soon became a cursed racetrack in the eyes of National League owners.
All told, Hull has 913 goals and 1,808 points in 1,474 NHL (16 seasons) and WHA (seven seasons) games.
You could call that a great career.
His life was not a role model
File photo, Portal
Brett Hull did not speak to his father Bobby for several years. They reconciled when the son started his NHL career. The father was there in 2006 when the Blues Bretts shelved number 16.
Bobby Hull had a dark side. The man couldn’t get close to the great hockey player that he was.
His antics in his private life have greatly tarnished his image. His daughter Michelle, one of five siblings from his first marriage to Joanne McKay, once said she doesn’t want to be around when her father is drunk. A lawyer by profession, she now defends female victims of domestic violence.
Although no criminal charges were brought against her father in this regard, it was well known that he physically abused his spouses.
In addition to his first wife Joanne, with whom he was a couple from 1960 to 1980, his second wife Deborah, to whom he was married from 1984 to 1986, spoke publicly about the abuse Hull had subjected him to.
She filed a complaint against him and then withdrew it. Since then she has lived a life away from the public eye.
Hull also had a short-lived relationship with a woman named Claudia Allen.
Reconciliation with Brett
His son Brett did not speak to him for several years and blamed him for what he had done to his mother Joanne. He reconciled with his father when he began his National League career with the Calgary Flames.
Married three times, Hull had six children from two unions, plus another from a chance relationship.
During his junior career with the St. Catharines Teepees he had a daughter whose existence he was unaware of when he left St. Catharines to play in the National League. The young mother gave the child up for adoption.
In addition to Michelle and Brett, three other boys were born to Joanne McKay and Hull’s marriage. Bobby Jr. and Blake won the 1980 Memorial Cup with the Cornwall Royals.
For his part, Bart played as a running back for the Ottawa Rough Riders and the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League.
Michelle, on the other hand, was a figure skater.
regret
In an interview he gave me in 1983, Hull said he regretted it.
“If I had to do it again, I would pay more attention to my family. I’m sorry if I embarrassed my wife [Joanne] and my children sometimes.
“And God knows if I hurt them. »
However, he had not learned the lesson as a few years later he attacked his wife, Deborah, with whom he had a daughter.
Hull also made headlines for making racial slurs. In an interview with the Moscow Times in 1988, he said of Hitler that he had good ideas but perhaps went too far.
He denied making those comments, adding that it was the journalist who made him discuss the issue…
Another story has it that he was also quoted as saying that the black population in the United States is too high