(Reuters) – Hockey Hall of Fame forward Bobby Hull, the first NHL player to score more than 50 goals in a season, had chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) when he died in 2023, his widow and the Concussion Legacy Foundation said on Wednesday.
Hull’s family donated his brain to a brain bank at the Boston University CTE Center after he died in 2023 at the age of 84 and results from a post-mortem brain tissue analysis showed he had stage 2 (of 4) CTE.
CTE, which can only be diagnosed after death and can develop from long-term exposure to repeated hits to the head, has been linked to mental health issues ranging from mood and behavioral symptoms to cognitive impairment and dementia.
Hull struggled with short-term memory loss and impaired judgment for the last 10 years of his life and decided to donate his brain after seeing longtime teammate Stan Mikita, who also had CTE, decline late in his life.
“Seeing the pain and heartache suffered by his lifetime friend Stan Mikita’s family, Bobby felt strongly no other family should have to endure CTE,” Deborah Hull, Bobby’s wife of 39 years, said in a news release.
“He insisted on donating his brain, feeling as though it was his duty to help advance research on this agonizing disease.”
Canadian Hull, who had a feared slapshot and was known as the “Golden Jet” because of his blonde hair and speed on the ice, helped the Chicago Blackhawks to a Stanley Cup in 1961 which ended a 23-year title drought for the franchise.
The left winger helped resurrect the fortunes of a Blackhawks franchise which, prior to his arrival, had missed the playoffs in 11 of the previous 12 seasons.
Hull was a five-time 50-goal scorer, led the NHL in scoring seven times, twice won the Hart Trophy as the league’s most valuable player and was voted a First-Team All-Star on the left wing 10 times.
He finished his NHL career with 610 goals scored over 16 seasons with Chicago, Hartford and Winnipeg and is now 18th on the all-time list.
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto, editing by Ed Osmond)
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