Hull, "Bobby" (Robert M.)
Hockey
b. Jan. 3, 1939, Point Anne, ONT
Hull's skills are sometimes defined in terms of speed. He could skate 28.3 mph with the puck and 29.7 mph without it; his slap shot was timed at 118.3 mph, his wrist shot at 105 mph, his backhand shot at 96 mph. But he was also an exceptionally strong player with a nearly perfect athlete's body at 5-feet-10 and a solid 195 pounds.
"The Golden Jet" joined the Chicago Black Hawks in 1957. He scored only 31 goals in his first two seasons, but then he perfected his slap shot. Hull won the 1960 Ross Trophy as the NHL's leading scorer with 39 goals and 43 assists for a total of 82 points. He also won the trophy in 1962 and 1966. Hull scored 50 goals to tie the league record in 1961-62; he broke the record with 54 goals in 1965-66 and extended it to 58 in 1968-69.
He won the Hart Trophy as the league's most valuable player in 1965 and 1966 and he holds the record for left wings with twelve all-star selections, including ten as a first team all-star.
Hull was as strong-minded as he was strong-bodied. He demanded $100,000, an unprecedented amount, in 1968 and sat out the first eleven games of the season before settling for $60,000. When the NHL proposed banning curved sticks in 1971, he threatened to boycott the playoffs. The result was a compromise allowing curvature but limiting it to a half inch.
The World Hockey Association won instant respect when it signed Hull for the Winnipeg Jets in 1972. The price was a $1 million signing bonus, $1 million for four years as a player, and $100,000 a year for six years with the team's management. He was the new league's most valuable player in its first season, 1973-73, and again in 1974-75.
Hull remained with the Jets when they entered the NHL in 1979 but went to the Hartford Whalers for the last part of the season. He retired in 1980, but he returned to played with the New York Rangers in the Dagen Nyheter Cup Challenge in Sweden in September of 1981.
In 23 seasons, Hull played 1474 regular season games, scoring 913 goals with 895 assists. His total of 1808 points is third behind Wayne Gretzky and Gordie Howe. In 119 NHL playoff games, he had 62 goals and 67 assists.