Bobby Hull Interview

Bobby Hull Interview 2010

20 questions with the Golden Jet, Bobby Hull

Now 71 years old, Bobby Hull is regarded as one of the greatest ice hockey players of all time and perhaps the greatest left winger to ever play the game. Hull was famous for his blonde hair, blinding skating speed, and having the fastest shot, earning him the nickname "the Golden Jet". He possessed the most feared slapshot of his day. In his 23 years in the National Hockey League and World Hockey Association, he played for the Chicago Black Hawks, Winnipeg Jets and Hartford Whalers.

By the time he retired, Hull had led the Chicago Black Hawks to a Stanley Cup title (1961), while assuring himself a place in the Hockey Hall of Fame with 610 career goals and 1,170 points. His son Brett followed his path and plowed even further, finishing his career with 1,391 points.

Here are some quotes from his 2010 Interview:

How did you curve your first blade?

I Poured hot water on it, from a tap, until it got soft and lithe. And then I'd shove it under a door at the Chicago Stadium and put a chair up, underneath the handle, and left it there all night. When I came back in the morning, it was just like this-- [cups hand, like the letter 'C'] -- and then it was "top corner," or "second balcony." [chuckles]

What is the secret to getting a puck onto the street from inside Chicago Stadium?

[laughs] That was in the old Stadium. If you stood at right about the red line, against the boards in between the two benches, there was an exit diagonally across the rink. There was an exit that went out into the main corridor, on Madison Avenue, and there were glass doors on the other side of the corridor. Just a few of us could get that puck over the glass in the corner, and then out through that exit, where it would bounce and hit those glass doors -- and break the goddamn glass in the doors. [laughs]

The Winnipeg Jets gave you a $1-million signing bonus...

BH [interrupts] It wasn't the Winnipeg Jets. It was the World Hockey Association. There were nine teams in the league at that time, when we first began, and they all divvied up $110,000 or whatever it was. And the million came from all nine teams.


Who is more like the old Bobby Hull: Patrick Kane or Jonathan Toews?

[chuckles] No one has faster feet than Patrick Kane, or faster hands. But I think Johnny is, if you're going to compare, more like me. He's a 22-year-old in a 50-year-old man's head. He never does anything wrong, never says anything wrong. And what a leader he is. I would love to have him on my team, and he'd be the captain of my team, as well.

Write the first sentence of a story you would write about Robert Marvin Hull.

They were the best of times, they were the worst of times. Doing a little plagiarism from A Tale of Two Cities. And they were. It was the greatest time of my life. I've really never, ever had a job. I played hockey. And if you like what you're doing, it's not a job. And there were times in there when everything didn't go my way, but no one ever said that life was all a bowl of cherries.

Read more of this Bobby Hull Interview at:
20 questions with Bobby Hull

Bobby Orr Interviews Bobby Hull