Armchair Pools Blog

Bobby Hull totaled only 640 penalty minutes in over 1000 games and if you search around, you will find few stories of dirty play. Hull is 15th in NHL goal scorers and his list of awards and accomplishments is long. He doesn't really fit in with the likes of Chris Pronger and Ken Linesman. So why is he on my list?

Well, I decided to expand my definition of "dirty" and "cheap" to off-ice activities. While Hull was considered an ambassador to the game of hockey, he was far from a role model off the ice.

Married 3 times, Bobby Hull was a wife-beater. While charged for domestic abuse in 1984 against his third wife, Hull was never convicted. However, the stories still linger.

From Brett Hull: Stealth Bomber By Joe Sexton;

"He was an abusive personality," says Hull's former wife, Joanne Robinson, who moved her four sons and one daughter from Winnipeg to Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1978 and remarried in 1982. "He was an abusive husband, physically and mentally. It pains me to talk about it all again"

From Hull helped WHA into hockey family by Larry Schwartz

"I looked the worst after that Hawaii incident. I took a real beating there. [Bobby] just picked me up, threw me over his shoulder, threw me in the room, and just proceeded to knock the heck out of me. 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"
-Joanne Robinson on ESPN Classic's SportsCentury series

After several more abusive incidents, [Joanne] filed for divorce in 1970. However, she agreed to a reconciliation. In 1978, Hull threatened her with a loaded shotgun. Two years later they were divorced, a development which estranged Hull from his five children for several years.

Not only did the 'Golden Jet' hate women, he apparently was not found of African Americans or Jewish people either.

From the August 26, 1998 edition of the Daily Courier

Former NHL star Bobby hull reportedly told a prominent Russian newspaper that Nazis were not without merit and also made comments about black people and genetic breeding. "Hitler for example, had some good ideas. He just went a a little bit too far."

Hitting Reg Flemming is one thing, but hitting your wife is another thing altogether. Too bad George Laroque was not around back in the day.