Bobby Hull, Hockey Hall of Famer, Is Dead at 84

A half-dozen seasons after Hull retired, his son Brett began to play in the N.H.L. In three consecutive seasons starting in 1979 with the St. Louis Blues, Brett Hull scored 72, 86 (the third most in league history) and 70 goals. He finished his career with 741.

Information on Bobby Hull’s survivors was not immediately available.

Hull’s time in retirement was marked by some difficult incidents. In 1987, he pleaded guilty to a charge of assaulting a police officer who had intervened during a dispute between Hull and his third wife, Deborah. She accused him of hitting her in the face and filed a battery complaint; she later dropped it. According to a 2002 ESPN documentary, his second wife, Joanne McKay, had undergone physical and mental abuse during their marriage.

In 1998, The Moscow Times, an English-language newspaper in Russia, where he was attending a hockey tournament, quoted him as saying that “Hitler had some good ideas” but “just went a little bit too far,” and that the Black population in the United States was growing too quickly. The paper reported that Hull, when asked if he was a racist, said, “I don’t give a damn. I’m not running for any political office.”

Hull denied the statements; his lawyer said that the translator for the interview had told him that Hull had never mentioned Nazis or Black people in the United States.

In 2008, after a long estrangement caused by his leap from the Blackhawks to the Jets, Hull was welcomed back to the team as an ambassador by the owner, Rocky Wirtz.

“We had a love affair when I played,” Hull told The Chicago Tribune, referring to Blackhawks fans. “We didn’t have to have the mighty Montreal Canadiens come to fill our joint. We didn’t have to have Howe come in to fill our joint. They came to see their Chicago Blackhawks.”

But he was dropped after 14 years when the team said it was redefining the ambassador’s role.

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