The Golden Jet R.I.P

[stimpy]

https://sports.yahoo.com/blackhawks-tim ... 00214.html

A true icon that will be greatly missed by Chicago and all fans of hockey.

[The Meal]

RIP

[Max Peck]

He was one hell of a hockey player, but he was no angel.

In 1987 Hull pleaded guilty to assaulting a police officer who tried to intervene in a domestic dispute between the famed skater and his third wife, Deborah. Deborah Hull never pressed charges against her husband.

In 2002, his second wife, Joanne, told an ESPN SportsCentury documentary what Hull had allegedly done to her on a trip to Hawaii in 1966. In it, she said: "He took my shoe — with a steel heel — and proceeded to hit me in the head. I was covered with blood. And I can remember him holding me over the balcony and I thought this is the end, I'm going." Hull was never charged.

In a 2010 interview with the National Post, one of Hull's few public acknowledgements of the allegations, he seemed to show little remorse. Asked if he is a different person in 2010 than 30 years earlier when many of the allegations were said to have taken place, Hull replied: "Same guy. Same guy with the same attitude toward life. You only pass this way one time, and if you don't have fun, you'll go to the grave, and you'll have missed a lot."

Hull's proximity to controversial comments is undeniable. In 1998 a Russian newspaper reported Hull as saying "Hitler had some good ideas. He just went a little bit too far…" when discussing his thoughts about genetic breeding because he felt the Black population was growing too rapidly. When asked about his comments and whether he is racist, Hull reportedly told the paper, "I don't give a damn. I'm not running for any political office."

Hull emphatically denied making the comments, insisting he was set up. He vowed he would sue the Moscow Times and the Toronto Sun — the first North American newspaper that reported on his interview. The cases were never adjudicated.

[stimpy]

[LawBeefaroni]

All time great player. Less than great person. RIP nonetheless.

Decent perspective here.

[Jeff V]

All time great player. Less than great person. RIP nonetheless.

Decent perspective here.

He did become a pretty good statesman and public speaker in his later years. Hockey generally doesn't create many pillars of the community. Something something violent sports ain't right in the head or some such.

When I was a kid, I would watch hockey with my maternal grandmother (who became an invalid confined to a hospital bed in our house) -- we watched on a little black-and-white TV when CBS, then WGN carried the games (before Wirtz went off his nut). Hull had such a devastating slapshot...he wasn't dodging and dinking his way to fake out the goalie, he just unleashed his cannon and goalies simply could not react fast enough. He was the second-best player of his generation.

I did get to meet him once at a fundraiser some years after he retired and he was congenial enough.