Editor’s Note: The following story contains details about violence, and may be distressing for some readers.
Bobby Hull, a controversial high-scoring Hall of Fame winger who starred for the Chicago Blackhawks and original Winnipeg Jets, has died. He was 84.
Hull scored 610 goals in 1,063 NHL games and added another 303 goals in 411 WHA games. He won the Hart Trophy twice, the Art Ross Trophy three times and the Stanley Cup in 1961. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1983 and included on the NHL’s Top 100 Players list in 2017.
However, off the ice, Hull was involved in multiple troubling incidents that ultimately led to the Blackhawks dropping him as a team ambassador in early 2022.
Hull was convicted of assaulting a police officer who intervened in a dispute with then-wife Deborah in 1986. He also was accused of battery, but that charge was dropped after Deborah told authorities she didn’t want to testify against her husband, a state attorney told the Chicago Tribune.
Hull’s second wife, Joanne, accused him of abuse during an interview with ESPN for a 2002 show.
A Russian newspaper reported in 1998 that Hull said Adolf Hitler “had some good ideas.” Hull denied making the comment, calling it “false and defamatory.”
With files from The Associated Press.
