The Devil and Bobby Hull: How Hockey's Original Million-Dollar Man Became the Game's Lost Legend

An award-winning writer sets the record straight on hockey's forgotten golden boy—Bobby Hull In his prime, few could dispute Bobby Hull's athletic brilliance—the first to have five 50-goal seasons, the highest scorer on the 1976 Canada Cup team, the first to use the slapshot as a scoring weapon, and the first hockey player to sign a million-dollar contract. With his body-builder torso, and his 100 mph volleys across a rink, the world of hockey glory was his to lose. And he did. With his publicized marital troubles and his defection from the NHL to the WHA, Hull's star began to fall, leaving him broke and in exile from the game. In The Devil and Bobby Hull, this once great hockey player and pioneer is finally given his due. Not only are Hull's remarkable on-ice achievements finally put in perspective, so, too, are his achievements off the rink—including endorsements for a wide array of products (rare for an NHL player) and his appearance on the cover of Sports Illustrated a record four times. And the book details how Hull's battle with the owners of the Chicago Blackhawks—challenging the reserve clause in his contract, a move that enabled him to move to the WHA—helped other players follow him. The author places Hull squarely in the pantheon of other hockey greats, including Gordie Howe, Bobby Orr, and Wayne Gretzky—and makes the case that he is the game's most influential and important player This is the full, unauthorized story of Hull's life—that doesn't sidestep the controversies (including the domestic violence tainting his private life) Details Hull's recent reconciliation with the Chicago Blackhawks A candid look at one of hockey's most gifted and controversial figures, The Devil and Bobby Hull tells the story of his extraordinary career and life—and why this remarkable man has not faded into oblivion.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments ix 1. Pitchfork 1 2. Crawling Through a Knot-Hole 16 3. All That Money Can Buy 51 4. Invitation Rescinded 90 5. Prior Total Dominance 105 6. Exile on Portage and Main Street 120 7. Not Disgraced 137 8. "Kid, you go over to the other side" 148 9. A True Gentleman at the Rink 171 10. Hull vs. Hull 179 11. Staggered 226 12. How Can We Repay Bobby Hull? 245 Epilogue: High, Hard and Often 261 Index 267

About the Author :
Gare Joyce is a feature writer and editor at Sportsnet Magazine, has written for ESPN The Magazine and espn.com, and was previously the hockey columnist with the Globe and Mail. Joyce is the author of seven books, including The Ovechkin Project with Damien Cox (Wiley, 2010). His short fiction has appeared in an anthology published by Dave Eggers's McSweeney's group, and his first crime novel, The Code was published January 2012.