CBC Digital Archives

Bobby Hull on playing hockey in the WHA

Ever since Bobby Hull signed a $1 million contract at the corner of Portage and Main in Winnipeg, he's been one of hockey's most remarkable players. The contract meant an end to his career in the National Hockey League and a starring role with the Winnipeg Jets in the upstart World Hockey Association. In this 1977 interview on CBC-TV's 90 Minutes Live, Hull talks about his hockey-playing sons, his Swedish linemates on the Winnipeg Jets, and how legal action from the NHL took a toll on him.
• Born in 1939 and growing up just outside Belleville, Ont., Bobby Hull began skating at age four and was a junior hockey star with the St. Catharines Teepees before making his NHL debut with the Chicago Blackhawks in 1956.

• Despite being one of the game's greatest players, Hull was not named to Canada's roster for the 1972 Summit Series. Hockey fans were incensed, but summit impresario Allan Eagleson (who was also an agent to NHL players) insisted that a legal challenge from the NHL was to blame for keeping Hull off the Canadian team. (According to Hull's biography on the Hockey Hall of Fame website, "The NHL was bitter and exacted revenge on the Golden Jet by blocking his participation on behalf of Canada.")  

• Even before signing to the Jets, Hull's nickname was "the Golden Jet" -- an allusion to both his speed and power on the ice and his blond hair.
Medium: Television
Program: 90 Minutes Live
Broadcast Date: Feb. 25, 1977
Host: Peter Gzowski
Guests: Bobby Hull, Danny Finkleman
Duration: 12:48

Last updated: May 27, 2013

Page consulted on September 16, 2013

All Clips from this Topic

Related Content

Peter Gzowski: Voice of Canada

For three hours a day, five days a week - for 15 years - millions tuned in to CBC Radio's Morn...

Top Ten NHL Playoff Moments

For avid fans of the fastest game on ice, the National Hockey League's regular season is a mer...