Bobby Hull
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Robert Marvin Hull, born January 3, 1939 in Pointe Anne (near Belleville), Ontario, Canada, is regarded as one of the greatest ice hockey players and perhaps the greatest left winger to ever play the game.
He played his minor hockey in Belleville and then junior hockey for the St. Catherines' Black Hawks in the Ontario Hockey Association.
Nicknamed, "The Golden Jet", Bobby Hull led the Chicago Blackhawks to the Stanley Cup, in 1961 - their third ever and first in almost 30 years. Although he originally wore number 16 then wore number 7 when the Hawks won the cup, he later switched to number 9, considered the prestige number in hockey. Bobby Hull was famous for the speed and accuracy of his 120 mph slapshot, that many others would soon try to imitate.
Although only about 5'10 in stature, Bobby has a solid body build and had a playing weight of about 185 pounds. He played a hard, fast, skilled game matched by few others in the history of the sport.
In 1966, he became the first NHL player to score more than 50 goals in one season, earning a 7-minute standing ovation for his 51st goal. He played 23 professional seasons in hockey from 1957 to 1980, scoring 672 goals.
His NHL awards:
- Won the Art Ross Memorial Trophy as the NHL's scoring champion three times; (1960, 1962, 1966)
- Twice voted the Hart Trophy as the league's most valuable player; (1965, 1966)
- Ten times he was named to the NHL's First All-Star team. (1960, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1972)
- Twice named to the NHL's Second All-Star Team; (1963, 1971)
- Lady Byng Memorial Trophy (1965)
- Lester Patrick Trophy (1969)
- Inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1983.
Bobby Hull won higher salaries for his fellow players, and gave credibility to a new rival league up against the entrenched NHL, when he jumped to the fledgling World Hockey Association's (WHA) Winnipeg Jets (since then became the Phoenix Coyotes) for an unheard of $1,000,000, 10-year contract in 1972. Though the league folded in 1979 (with four of its teams including the Winnipeg Jets joining the NHL), it was reborn in 2003 and named him as its commissioner - see the New World Hockey Association page.
Because he joined to the rival league, Hull was not allowed to play for the NHL team representing Canada in the 1972 Series but in 1974 he played for the WHA team representing Canada against the great USSR national team. The WHA lost the series 5 games to 3. He was a key member of the Canadian squad that won the 1976 Canada Cup.
In 1978 he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.
In 1998, Hull got involved in a controversy by the Russian media, when he allegedly made pro-Nazi comments. He later claimed the interviewer misunderstood him in the translation.
A member of one of the great families of hockey, his son, Brett Hull (the Golden Brett), stars in the National Hockey League and his little brother, Dennis Hull, played alongside him for the Chicago Black Hawks, (and was sometimes referred to as "the Silver Jet.")
External links
- Career Overview and Biography (http://espn.go.com/sportscentury/features/00014266.html) - by ESPN
- - Elder Hull makes racist remarks (http://www.juneauempire.com/Archive/August98/082698/stories/082698/hull.html)de:Bobby Hull