You certainly have to be of a certain age to remember seeing Bobby Hull on the ice for the Chicago Black Hawks, or eventually skating for a W.H.A. club, the Winnipeg Jets, or Hartford Whales.
He didn't invent the slap shot, but he did achieve tremendous speed with it when he first bent his hockey stick blade in a radiator, curving it until it somewhat resembled a Jai Alai cesta. It was a was called a banana blade.
The curvature of this alteration was eventually limited by an equipment specification rule, but at the height of Hull's career there were a lot of hockey sticks being bent to effect the blistering slap shot.
It is interesting, at least to me, that in the NYT Richard Sandomir's obituary it is Eddie Giacomin, long-time goalie for the NY Rangers who is quoted about how Hull's shot "would rise or dip." Glenn Hall, the Chicago goalie who faced Hull's shot in practice, said you had to hope you weren't going to get killed facing it.
Oddly enough it was a game at Madison Square Garden, and Bobby had gone off to the W.H.A. Winnipeg Jets, but his brother Dennis Hull was still playing for the Black Hawks.
I remember Dennis got loose on the left side, skated in almost alone and took a wicked slap shot at Giacomin. Eddie made the save, only to go down in a heap. He wasn't moving, and you never heard 17,000 fans so quiet. It seemed like a good while before Eddie even moved. The worst was feared, but it didn't happen. I think he went on to finish the game. No concussion protocols then.
In the 1966 season Hull was chasing the 50 goal season record that was owned by Maurice "The Rocket" Richard, and Bernie "Boom Boom" Geoffrion.
Boom Boom got his nickname not because he was a stripper and popped balloons with his butt, but because his shots, when they missed the net and hit the boards, they sounded like cannon fire.
Both Richard and Geoffrion played for legendary Montreal teams. It was also an era when they only played 50 games a season, and you had to carry the puck across the blue line, onside, not shoot it in and dump it in the corner then scramble for it. More finesse.
Richard was a left-handed shot playing the off, right-wing. Lots of his shots were from in close and were launched from a backhand, which can give a puck a bit of a knuckleball spin toward the net, rising as it got closer to the goalie.
Richard retired in 1960, but Geoffrion was younger, and eventually played for the Rangers as a power play specialist and even after that as a head coach, which he did not do well at.
Years ago I saw Boom Boom on line at he $10 window at Aqueduct race track, impatiently in line trying to get his bet down. I yelled "Boom Boom," but he wasn't very receptive to being greeted while gambling.
The 1966 hockey season was turning into a Roger Maris, Aaron Judge pursuit of a number, and Bobby Hull was zeroing in on breaking Richard's and Geoffrion's record, even though they were playing at least 70 games then.
When Bobby got to 49 his next game was at the Old Garden against the New York Rangers. It was late in the season, and his pursuit of the record lead Channel 9 in New York, WOR, to televise a mid-week home game. They usually only ever televised weekend away games.
I was in high school and went to the game, paying either $1.50 for side balcony or $2 for end balcony. I might have even gotten in for 50¢ using my G.O., General Organization school card.
In goal that night was Cesare Maniago. I don't remember the score, but Bobby didn't score. Maniago was great, the Rangers won, and we left from the 49th Street exit and onto the street chanting over and over "Hail Caesar." It was great.
Hull went onto get his 50th goal against Detroit, and then his 51st goal against the Rangers, at a packed Chicago Stadium on March 12, 1966. The Ranger goalie? Maniago, who I read was in net for Geoffrion's 50th five years earlier.
As great a player as Hull was (his son, Brent Hull exited the league after scoring 741 lifetime goals.) Bobby is being remembered for some unfortunate comments and for physically abusing his wives. I wasn't aware of these details when he was a player, but I do remember that the terms of one of his divorces seemed to leave Bobby with only his dental bridgework. We made fun of "who was his lawyer."
He was one off 11 kids growing up in Point Anne, Ontario, whose father was a cement company foreman. Bobby was skating at three-years-old, fairly typical for those who make it to the N.H.L. The sport is about skating first.
Supposedly Gordie Howe, on hearing about the skating speed and slap shot velocity said of Hull, "somebody ought to but the hobbles on him."
Hobbles must be a favorite Canadian word, but it is found in the OED and means: "to fasten together the legs of a horse." Yeah, I guess that would slow him up if they tied his skates together.
I've been watching hockey a long time, and the strategy is always to try and have your so-called checking line matched to the opponent's high scoring line. The match up doesn't always occur, but when Hull was playing the attempts to slow him down were a bit rougher than you would get sway with today, even if they were penalized.
In a memorable game, at least to me, I think it was a Sunday, network telecast that Montreal's John Fergusson, No. 22, a so-called enforcer whose fists did more work than his offense with the puck, shadowed Bobby Hull.
Fergusson picked a nasty fight and left Hull bleeding from the nose profusely. Even on network TV you could tell Fergusson hit Bobby hard. Sure there was a penalty.
Fergusson actually later became a New York Ranger coach. And I once saw him at Belmont race track in the Clubhouse after the 1976 Belmont Stakes, and asked if we were going to have a good team this year. He said, "sure." We didn't.
There is probably someone somewhere who can name all the Ranger coaches since Emile Francis, (and there have been many), but I think memorizing the Periodic Table might be easier.
Whatever his off-ice experiences were does not diminish the player I saw shoot the puck.
And hey, Cesare stopped him one, glorious night.
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