Bobby Hull's Passing

Another Chicago Legend passed away.  Bobby Hull, The Golden Jet, former Chicago Blackhawk great and the player who perfected the slap shot in Hockey died on Janurary 30th.  Hockey is a strange sport in that families often produce multiple very good players as Dennis Hull (The Silver Jet) played many years as a good scorer and Hull's son Brett is 5th all-time in NHL goals and arguably had the best 3 season goal scoring stretch in Hockey history during the 1989-1991 seasons potting 228 goals in 231 games.  But, to call Bobby Hull's legacy complicated is to miss the net.

On the ice, Hull and his slap shot brought a Stanley Cup to Chicago in 1961, took the team to the Cup Finals three more times, scored over 600 goals in the NHL and another 300+ in the WHA.  But, when the Blackhawks Wirtz family failed to pay Hull in 1972 he went to the World Hockey Association, an alternate pro-league, which also drew other great players, like the immortal Gordie Howe and even The Great One Wayne Gretzky as an 18 year old in 1979, before being absorbed into the NHL in 1980.

I've always felt that to the Millennials and Zoomers that the WHA in Hockey and the ABA in Basketball must seem like such ancient anachronisms with the clout, power, money, media saturation, and worldwide reach the NBA and NHL have these days.  

But, unfortunately for Hull fans, Bobby didn't just use his immense physical strength on the ice as he was known to repeatedly beat up women.  I'm going to discount the things Hull supposedly said during an interview with The Moscow Times in the late 1990's because anyone who takes Russian media at face value is either incredibly naive or a willing dupe and ends up advancing Russian War Crimes and Imperialism.

But, the spousal abuse was well documented and known even back int he 1960's when Joanne McKay was spotted in Chicago wearing large sunglasses just like Jacquelin Kennedy... except it wasn't high fashion, as much as covering up her black eyes.  There's also the infamously documented incident in 1987 when he beat up a Police Officer who stopped him from beating up a his wife at that time Deborah.  Based on seeing the abuse Bobby Hull gave to Joanne McKay his daughter Michelle is a longtime advocate and legal counsel for abused and battered women. 

I'm sure the NHL and Blackhawks will have some sort of ceremony but, I hope it's a subdued one to "honor" his hockey achievements and not Bobby Hull.