I was looking at this picture last night. It is one of the most famous pictures in hockey history. The great Bobby Hull - Chicago flight #9, hockey's Golden Jet - is celebrating becoming only the 2nd player in NHL history to score 50 goals in a season.
What I find real odd is he is wearing #7. Does anyone have any insight into this?
2 comments:
I think "Tales from the Chicago Blackhawks," which I just read and returned to the library last week, addressed that--he didn't start out as #9. All I've got is this line from his Wikipedia entry:
"Hull originally wore numbers 16 and 7 as a Blackhawk but would later switch to his famous number 9, a tribute to his childhood idol Gordie Howe."
Hull wore 16 for four seasons, from 1957-58 through 1960-61. He switched to 7 for two years, 1961-62 and '62-63. Finally, in 1963-64, he took number 9.
He returned to number 16 for the 1974 WHA Summit Series and again with Hartford during the 1979-80 season. In both cases, of course, Gordie Howe was number 9.
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