Hull 'galvanized' NHL with giant shot, skill with Blackhawks

As a center, Toronto Maple Leafs legend Dave Keon rarely went nose-to-nose with Chicago Blackhawks superstar Bobby Hull. Better still, he never went shot to toe against the Golden Jet's shot, which would have put a cannon to shame.

Hull died Monday at age 84, the Hall of Famer and 1961 Stanley Cup champion having been in fragile health for some time.

"I think in the early 1960s, Bobby Hull was probably the guy who carried the National Hockey League," Keon said from his home in Florida. "He was dynamic, good looking, he could skate, he could shoot. He was very approachable and all the things the League wanted.

"The Rocket (Maurice Richard) retired in 1960. In the late 1950s, the Rocket and Gordie (Howe) sold the League. But Bobby, at the start of the 1960s, and Bobby Orr, in the mid to late 1960s, then came along and they probably galvanized the NHL."

Bobby Hull winds up for a slap shot in front of Montreal Canadiens center Jean Beliveau during a 1960s game.

Hull scored 610 goals, third-most all-time when he retired in 1980, behind Howe (801) and Phil Esposito (710).

There is a grainy photo from the 1960s, Hull winding up for one of his fearsome slap shots, his stick drawn back well over his head. Standing intentionally and quite inexplicably between the Golden Jet and his target in the Montreal net is Canadiens captain Jean Beliveau.

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Years later, Beliveau looked at the photo and grinned tightly.

"What in God's name was I doing? Well, I remember very clearly what I was doing -- getting as thin as I could," Beliveau said, laughing. "Bobby must have hit the net or shot wide, because I don't think he ever hit me."

Hull's slap shot, fired with tremendous force off a crudely bent stick blade, was a thing of legend. A joke often told was that the Golden Jet's shot travelled so quickly that he could fire one through a car wash and the puck wouldn't get wet.

Bobby Hull circles behind Chicago goalie Denis DeJordy with defenseman Pat Stapleton standing nearby.

Keon chuckled when he remembered Maple Leafs defenseman Bobby Baun finding out for himself just how hard Hull could shoot.

"One night in Chicago, the first period was Bobby Hull and Bobby Baun. That was the whole thing," Keon said. "Bobby would pick the puck up behind the Chicago net and come down the ice and Bobby Baun would run out to meet him. They'd have these mid-ice collisions that would shake the building.

"After maybe the sixth time, Hull had had enough. He came down the ice on another rush and slapped the puck at Baun, off his toe. We went into the dressing room at the end of the period and Bobby's toenail had been totally ripped off, inside the toe of his skate. You could see the vein where the nail had been.

"I kind of laughed and Bobby said, 'Well, I don't see you blocking shots!' To which I said, 'And you're not going to!'"

Hull was destined to play hockey, from almost exactly 80 years ago when he took his first strides on an open-air rink just down the road from the family home in Point Anne, Ontario.

Bobby Hull's 1967 autobiography and with Gordie Howe during the 1970 NHL All-Star Game, Frank Mahovlich at far right.

In his 1967 autobiography, "Hockey Is My Game," he relates that his sisters, Maxine and Laura, claimed that he was skating alone the first afternoon he was on blades.

What is for certain is that Hull would become one of the most exciting players of his generation, and had 1,170 points in 1,063 NHL games between 1957-80, with a seven-season detour into the World Hockey Association from 1972-79.

Hull led the NHL in goals scored seven times. Twice he was voted winner of the Hart Trophy as the League's most valuable player (1964-65, 1965-66), and he won the Art Ross Trophy as the League leader in points three times (1959-60, 1961-62, 1965-66), on his way to election into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1983.

His lifestyle off the ice left him with many warts, out of favor with many for his actions and words. But Hull's popularity, especially in Chicago, held fast with a core of fans, the Golden Jet a reminder of a championship won when Chicago hockey rocked the historic Stadium, and "Black Hawks" was spelled as two words.

Chicago Blackhawks historian Bob Verdi's 2010 Bobby Hull book, and Hull with Canadiens captain Jean Beliveau at the Montreal Forum following the Canadiens' win in Game 7 of the 1965 Stanley Cup Final.

I walked beside Hull in Chicago one game night in December 2017 as he steered his motor scooter toward United Center Suite L36. Fans within view called out to him as they rode arena escalators, and he returned their greeting with a wave of a hand so gnarled that it looked like a failed science experiment.

The Golden Jet's mobility was no longer what made him a terror for NHL opponents in the 1950s and 1960s, but on four wheels and at a few miles per hour, he was happy to motor slowly enough to enjoy his fame and popularity as he rode toward a suite packed by team sponsors and jersey-wearing fans.

Hull never forgot that, in hockey, he was an entertainer.

"Here, pal, try it on. See if it fits," Hull growled as he climbed off his scooter, his voice sounding like he gargled with gravel.

He had tugged his 2015 Stanley Cup ring over a swollen knuckle and dropped it loudly on a table, the diamond-encrusted boulder having been given to him and then-fellow Blackhawks ambassadors Stan Mikita, Tony Esposito and Denis Savard.

From left, Tony Esposito, Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita at the 2014 NHL Stadium Series game at Soldier Field in Chicago.

A wide-eyed youngster immediately scooped it up, Hull delighted to see the joy it brought the young fan. His 1961 ring, worn on his other hand, looked like a Cracker Jack prize next to the rock that by now was being shown around the suite.

For the next nearly three hours, Hull would autograph programs, jerseys and pucks. His familiar signature had changed very little since he arrived in the NHL with the Black Hawks for the 1957-58 season.

"I used to have a little loop in the 'H' but I took it out," he said a couple of years ago. "Otherwise it's been pretty much the same all along. You can read it. I sometimes put my 9 on it only because some folks want it there. That, or a 16 or 7 (jersey numbers he wore before he switched to No. 9 in 1963-64, his seventh NHL season)."

For years, Hull would frustrate teammates by holding the team bus while he signed autographs for fans, and he was a huge drawing card when he attended collectible shows large and small.

Bobby Hull signs autographs for Chicago Black Hawks fans in the 1960s.

After 15 seasons with the Blackhawks from 1957-72, he bolted for the Winnipeg Jets of the fledgling WHA, playing seven seasons there before wrapping up his career with 27 games in 1979-80 with the Jets and Hartford Whalers.

He was a lock for Hall of Fame enshrinement to everyone but himself, and when his moment came in 1983, he went in along with his dear friend Stan Mikita and Canadiens goalie Ken Dryden.

"At the time, I was at loggerheads with the NHL for having gone to the WHA," Hull said. "I knew that the Hall was pretty well about putting NHLers in there. But it came as a great enjoyment for me that after all the years I'd played, 23 professionally, my friend Stan and I would be honored together. I was, and I am, very, very proud to be known as a Hall of Famer."

Hull would almost burst with fatherly pride when his son, Brett, was enshrined in 2009, after he had 1,391 points (741 goals, 650 assists) for five teams during 19 seasons.

Chicago teammates Stan Mikita, Pierre Pilote and Bobby Hull at a Chicago Stadium workbench preparing a stick for use in March 1964.

"Brett is the greatest sniper in the history of the NHL, bar none, and I'm not saying that because he's my boy," Hull said. "Brett could score goals in so many different ways he could make your head spin. He was something to watch."

The Golden Jet deeply mourned the 2018 death of Mikita, following a lengthy illness, and of Blackhawks goaltending legend Tony Esposito, lost to pancreatic cancer in 2021. Each was 78.
On Monday afternoon, another member of the Blackhawks family gone, Tony Esposito's widow, Marilyn, messaged from her home in Florida to express her sympathies.

"Bobby was a dear teammate and a friend," she said. "Tony and Stan and Bobby are telling some stories now, I'm sure."

Top photo: Bobby Hull during his prime and with the Chicago Black Hawks in 1957-58.
All photos courtesy of Hockey Hall of Fame except where indicated.