Bobby Hull

Lore & Background

Hull was born in Point Anne, Ontario, on January 3, 1939, the son of Lena Cook and Robert Edward Hull. He played minor hockey in Belleville and Junior B hockey for the Woodstock Warriors, leading them to the 1955 Sutherland Cup. He later played for the Galt Black Hawks and St. Catharines Teepees before joining the Chicago Black Hawks in 1957 at age 18. He originally wore numbers 16 and 7 but switched to number 9 as a tribute to his childhood idol Gordie Howe. By his third season, he led the league in goals and points, a double feat he repeated in 1961–62 and 1965–66. On March 12, 1966, he became the first NHL player to score more than 50 goals in a season, finishing with 54 goals that year, the highest single-season total of the Original Six era. He led the NHL in goals seven times during the 1960s and joined the 400-goal club on January 7, 1968.

Reader's Guide

Bobby Hull's significance lies in his transformative impact on professional hockey. He was the first NHL player to surpass 50 goals in a season, setting a new standard for offensive achievement. His move to the WHA in 1972 for a then-unprecedented contract worth $1.75 million over 10 years plus a $1 million signing bonus gave instant credibility to the rival league. Hull's 77 goals in the 1974–75 WHA season remains the most in league history. He was also central to the curved-blade controversy; his use of a 'banana blade' led to NHL rules limiting blade curvature, initially to between 0.5 and 0.75 inches, later set at 0.5 inches. Hull was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1983, the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame in 1997, and received the Wayne Gretzky International Award in 2003. In 2017 he was named one of the '100 Greatest NHL Players' in history. His career spanned 23 seasons from 1957 to 1980, and he scored his 1,000th combined goal on March 11, 1978, becoming only the second player to reach that mark after Gordie Howe.

Did You Know?

• Hull's slapshot was once clocked at 118.3 mph (190.5 km/h) and he could skate 29.7 mph (47.8 km/h).
• He sat out a game in October 1975 as a protest against hockey violence, stating intimidation and stick-swinging were not hockey.
• Hull scored 43 goals in the WHA playoffs, the most in WHA postseason history.
• He was not allowed to represent Team Canada in the 1972 Summit Series because he had joined the rival WHA.

Notable Quotes (Wikiquote)

"I think for kids it's the most important part of the game. You have to be able to skate forward and backward, stop and start, go from side to side. Those are the basics of the game." — Bobby Hull "Hull comments on his belief that the most fundamental aspect of ice hockey is skating." — Bobby Hull