Chicago Blackhawks legend Bobby Hull lived in a different era than today’s players.
The Hall of Fame forward helped the Hawks win the 1961 Stanley Cup during his 15 seasons in Chicago (1957-72) and remains the franchise’s all-time goals leader with 604.
But his career came with a cost.
Two years after Hull died in 2023, a brain analysis authorized by his widow, Deborah, revealed he had chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).
Boston University’s CTE Center, which examined Hull’s brain, defines CTE as a progressive degenerative disease of the brain found in athletes and others with a history of repetitive brain trauma.
Some current Hawks expressed gratitude for the advances in understanding head trauma since Hull’s time, which they say will help them reduce the risk of some of the post-career symptoms “The Golden Jet” had, such as memory loss.
“I don’t know what he’s dealt with and I don’t know his injury history with the head stuff and concussions,” defenseman Connor Murphy told the Tribune, “(but) I don’t worry about myself just because I feel like I’ve done the right things.
“With credit to the trainers and medical staff on all my teams that I’ve been on, every concussion I’ve had, it’s been treated properly and I felt like I 100% recovered right away from it and don’t feel any lingering side effects. So I’m confident that I wouldn’t have any issues.”
On March 12, 2022, Murphy was boarded by Ottawa Senators forward Parker Kelly and had to be taken off the ice on a stretcher. Murphy was placed under concussion protocols and missed the rest of the season.
He traveled to Detroit to consult Dr. Jeffrey Kutcher at the Henry Ford Center’s Kutcher Clinic for Sports Neurology.
“I did a bunch of different innovative tests that I’ve never done before that he does, and he educated me a lot on it and I learned a ton,” said Murphy, who added that his father, Gord, also learned about innovations in handling concussions during his long coaching career.
Murphy said, for example, that the neck and eyes can contribute to symptoms — dizziness, headaches, imbalance — even after the concussion technically has subsided.
“It shows how much it’s evolving and that people in the past, in Mr. Hull’s era, they would have no shot of getting that medical treatment or the right diagnosis because they didn’t have this available,” Murphy said. “So it’s really nice today to see how far it’s come and the resources we have to take care of things.”
Hawks forward Pat Maroon said Hull’s decision to donate his brain for study could inspire others.
“I think you’ll see more athletes coming out and doing it when their time’s up,” Maroon told the Tribune.
In November, the NHL Players’ Association formed a CTE advisory committee to better understand the disease with guidance from medical experts.
Maroon said some players want to see better post-career care addressed in the next collective bargaining agreement.
“That’s the biggest thing we want to change in the CBA,” he said. “We’ve done a good job of changing some things and getting some help right after and getting some scans done, and that’s a huge thing for us. So we’re making the right steps to see how the player is post-career.”
Professional hockey is a lifelong dream for most players, but Maroon said: “That comes with side effects: injuries after hockey that might be lingering, head injuries that might be lingering, CTE that might be lingering.
“So these are things that we now, as the CBA keeps going, players are starting to see more. In fact, this is where we’re trying to grow more and more to help players post-career with what they need. Maybe get a stranglehold on it before it’s too late.”
Maroon added that players with “a long history of concussions can go in a hard place.”
While players such as Maroon and Murphy, a union rep, advocate for more care from the league and union, the irony is they sometimes work against their own health on the ice.
Case in point: Maroon, who has seen more than his fair share of fights in 14 seasons, was asked if he would change anything about his game, knowing what he knows now about head trauma.
“What, you want me to turn into a skill guy?” he scoffed. “We sign up for it to make good money, and it comes with injuries, it comes with trauma, it comes with a lot of emotions. It comes with a lot of ups and downs and adversity.
“That’s part of the game that we’re going through. And I’m sure you’ll see more people come out with results like (Hull’s).”
Said Murphy: “It’s funny, players are competitive and rough and don’t think sometimes about our health. And we want it to be physical and we want it to be hard and we look at it like a guy should protect himself more than the other guy.
“So if anything, I think the league or teams and trainers and doctors, they’re trying to help us more than we’re helping ourselves sometimes.”
The NHL has spotters who help identify whether players warrant concussion testing during a game, but Murphy said the Hawks staff takes it a step further.
“I hadn’t seen it with other teams, but they adapted a physical test,” he said. “So we have a test in the gym that guides you — on top of the computer test, on top of the cognitive test — because the concussion isn’t just cognitive.
“You need to get your heart rate up and get yourself jumping and spinning and turning your head fast to see how you react and how you feel. So I’ve been really impressed that here with the Blackhawks specifically, the staff has come up with great ways to get guys back to play and making them confident that they can physically and cognitively feel 100% to play.”
Hawks interim coach Anders Sorensen credits the league for providing educational videos that are mandatory for staff, coaches and players to watch.
“As long as I’ve been around, everyone’s very aware of it,” he said. “The trainers are great at diagnosing and seeing it. The spotters being back a few years ago was really important — still is, you can see it. But the trainers are so dialed in with that now, so if there are any concerns at all they’ll talk to the players and us as a staff.”
Hockey players are known for resisting trainers’ recommendations about taking enough time to heal from an injury — “Guys are willing to play with broken bones or (torn) ligaments,” Murphy said — but not with this.
“The head stuff is one thing you don’t mess with,” he said.