Family of late legend Bobby Hull dealt heartbreaking news 2 years after his death

Former Chicago Blackhawks legend and Hockey Hall of Fame member Bobby Hull tested positive for chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, the brain-withering disease linked to repetitive brain trauma in contact sports. The news was confirmed by a researcher and Hull’s family on Wednesday morning.

Dr. Ann McKee, chief of neuropathology for the VA Boston Healthcare System and director of the Boston University CTE Center, confirmed Hull was posthumously diagnosed with stage 2 (of four) CTE. Hull therefore becomes the 17th known former NHL player and the third member of the Hall of Fame, after Henri Richard and Stan Mikita, to have tested positive for CTE.

“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 statement. “He insisted on donating his brain, feeling as though it was his duty to help advance research on this agonizing disease.”

His family revealed how Hull “struggled with many of the cognitive symptoms of CTE, such as short-term memory loss and impaired judgment” over the last 10 years of his life.

Hull, who died in 2023 at the age of 84, helped the Blackhawks win the Stanley Cup in 1961, ending a 23-year title drought. He played 15 seasons in Chicago and is the franchise’s career leader in goals scored with 604. He also won back-to-back Hart Memorial Trophies as the league’s most valuable player in 1964-65 and 1965-66, when he won the NHL scoring title for the third time in his career. Hull also played more than 400 contests with the Winnipeg Jets, then in the upstart World Hockey Association, over seven seasons.

This has to be heartbreaking news for the Hull family, though now we wonder if it will be enough for the NHL to acknowledge the link that exists between repeated brain trauma suffered in the game and long-term neurological disorders. For several years now, the NHL has consistently rejected the connection.

In April of 2022, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said that no such association has been established.

“We listen to the medical opinions on CTE, and I don’t believe there has been any documented study that suggests that elements of our game result in CTE,” Bettman said. “There have been isolated cases of players who have played the game [who] have had CTE. But it doesn’t mean that it necessarily came from playing in the NHL.”

The National Hockey League Players’ Association has rejected Bettman’s stance.

In 2018, the league did settle a concussion-related lawsuit filed by more than 100 former players after a judge refused to approve the case to move forward as a class action.