Bobby Hull’s Golden Hockey Career Diminished by His Troubling Dark Side

More than a few goaltenders turned to the mask in the mid-1960s when Hull and his Chicago teammate Stan Mikita began using sticks with curved blades. The sticks, called banana blades for their severe curls, could make pucks rise or dive unexpectedly. In 1967, the N.H.L. introduced restrictions to limit the severity of stick curves.

Hull also became an inspiration to his peers, as he always had a strong opinion of what his services were worth to a league in which players routinely took whatever modest salary the tightfisted owners offered and kept their mouths shut. The insular hockey world was shocked in 1972 when Hull bolted the N.H.L. for a contract worth $2.75 million to play in the new W.H.A. for the Winnipeg Jets. The move eventually broke the firm grip of N.H.L. owners and gave players more money for their skills and more control over where they plied them.

As both the N.H.L. and the W.H.A. turned to brawling on the ice in the 1970s, Hull took a lonely stand, even staging a one-game strike while with the Jets to protest fighting in the game, that years later rang horrifyingly hollow.

Hull may have decried the violence that marred hockey games but his second wife, Joanne McKay, said in a 2002 ESPN documentary that he assaulted her on multiple occasions during their 20-year marriage, which ended in divorce in 1980. She said Hull beat her bloody with her own shoe and held her over the hotel balcony during a trip to Hawaii. “I thought this is the end, I’m going,” she said.

More stories detailing Hull’s dark side emerged over the years, from domestic abuse to troubles with alcohol. In 1986, Hull’s third wife, Deborah, accused him of assault. When a police officer intervened in the incident, Hull was charged with assaulting him and eventually pleaded guilty. He was also charged with battery on his wife but the matter was dropped when Deborah refused to testify.

Another controversy erupted in 1998 when the English-language Moscow Times attributed some disturbing views on race to Hull. The Russian newspaper said Hull felt the Black population in the United States was growing too quickly. He was quoted as saying “Hitler had some good ideas. He just went a little bit too far.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/30/sports/hockey/bobby-hull-death-nhl.html