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Thursday, August 8: Don cherry's Grapevine Podcast Bobby Hull
All right, let's go Welcome to this week's edition of the Don Cherry Grapevine podcast. This week we had a request to run the grapevine interview of Bobbie Hall. So we're going to do that. This was recorded in Hamilton, Ontario in 1986. This is when we did the old Don Cherry's grapevine television show. We did two shows a night and the first show this night was Bobbie Hall and the second show we did that night was Blue Jays Ace Dave Steeb. An interesting thing that happened was that Ralph Melanie, who was the executive producer, he had the stick that Bobbie Hall scored his first time he scored his 50th goal with. And somehow it was supposed to go to the Hockey Hall of Fame, but it never got there and it was lost. And Bobbie Hall thought somebody had taken it and he was never going to see it again. And Ralph gave it to dad to give to Bobbie on the show. And man, you should have seen the hook on that stick. It was unbelievable. So anyway, here we go with the Don Cherry Grapevine show, an interview with the great Bobbie Hall. Welcome to the grapevine. It's my old buddy Jimmy Loftus there. The old Bertrand, the man with the goal and earned Dave Steeb right there. That's a good book you guys buy and I'm telling you, and girls buy it too, is he beautiful or what? You got another beautiful guy coming too. Grapes one of my all time favorites and I'm not just saying that because the man is here tonight and probably one of the greatest in the top three in the hockey ever. You know when I'm at a bar and having a few pops as we say, and you know you're picking all stars. You always pick all star, right wingers, the big arguments, center, there's always a big argument. Goldie, there's always a big argument, and defense to Bobbie Orr is on there, but there's a big argument. Everybody picks the left winger, everybody picks the same left winger, Bobbie Hall. And you know Blue, you know Blue, he's got a Blue movie of him, you won't believe. Let's go, let's throw it up, Bobbie Hall right there. A grand feat of the St. Kaplan's Black Pots, Bobbie Hall broke into the NHL ranks with the parent club in Chicago at just 18, and although just a kid, the man known as the Golden Jet, was a pro from day one. Hall Hippo went to city in 1957, and his impact was impressive. In just three seasons, the jet would soar to the first of three NHL scoring titles. An ability to state and shoot made Hall goaltender enemy number one. His slap and wrist shots were incredibly devastating, both timed at over 100 miles per hour, the puck pierced the net like a laser. A goaltender rarely saw the puck and often thought twice of getting in front of it. Hall's pro career would span funny three seasons and covered two leagues, but his greatest years would play on Madison Avenue at Chicago Stadium. Hall's presence along the left way was a formidable one. He was selected the nine-time first-team mall star, including a six-year stretch from 1964 through 1969. Hall's fondness memory might date back to 1966. Chicago's blonde bomber had tallied 50 times, but the NHL marked the 51 remained elusive. The drug continued for three games, but on March 12, Hall electrified the Chicago Cloud with the record talent. At 554, the third period Hall went to the rich shot to beat the range of Cesar Maniego, and history had been made. One of hockey's all-time greats, and certainly one of the classiest performers ever to play the game, the legendary Robert Marvin Hall. All right, I want to go right off the bat, I've got something where Jimmy, are you ready over there? Bring the stick around, I want you to show you something, I don't know, I've got something right off the bat that Ralph Maloney gave me a couple of years ago, and this is a goal. That you got your 50th goal in 1968-69, right there, there it is, right there. That was one that they were supposed to give me back out of the Hall of Fame down. I didn't return that. I don't know how I got it, but Ralph got it, and he said to give it to you. Isn't that nice? Yeah, and I want to show you, I was going to ask you about the curve. Now who's the first guy, you say you had the curve. I'm not Gelly. Who was the first guy? It was Makita. Stan had a terrible habit, if he didn't like a stick, he'd just lean on it and break it. And I said, "Stan, I don't know how many times." I said, "There are 400 little guys out there that would just love to have one of your sticks." I said, "Don't break it, hang it on my rack, and I'll see that someone gets it." So we're practicing one day, didn't like a stick, tried to lean on it, didn't have enough weight, it was late in the season. So he went over to the door, at our bench door, and he rammed it in the door between the hinges, and he rared on it, and rared on it, and finally it split, it split in the blade, and the top part flew out, and the bottom stayed in, and he kept raring on. So it came out, and the stick looked like this. So while he was going downstairs, you know, in Chicago we had to go downstairs to the dressing room, he grabbed a puck out in front of the net, and he fired it in, and I'm watching him. In the net he goes, fishes it out, came back again, fired it in, and he did this six times. So I said to the guys in the bench, some of the guys were practicing down at the other end, I said, "Look at Makita, he's really cookaloo now." I said, "Look at what he's doing." So he came up, and I said, "Stan, what were you doing?" Fire in the puck in the net, fishing it out, firing it, he said, "Bobby," he said, "When I tried to break my stick," he said, "I put a hook in the blade," and he said, "Can you ever fire it?" So after practice, he said, "I'm going to call Northland, we use Northland Pro, this is a CCM. I use Northland Pro most of my career, except when I did some advertising for CCM." And he said, "I'm going to call Northland and get half a dozen made up with a hook in the blade." And I said, "Well, order me a half a dozen too," and from then on it just went from a little bit to where, who is the cameras, right over there? Which one? Look at that. That was, sir, what? And at times it was even worse than that. So I appreciate it. You can have that and put it in your rec room and compliments of Ralph Mel me, boy, look at that. Just to have another look at it, right there, isn't. That's something. An all star couldn't use that. I'll tell you. I could have scored with that goal. All right. We'll put it right there. Now, where did you develop that slap shot though? I mean, that was murder. First of all, let me tell you a story about Cheavers. Jerry Cheavers told me this story, and it's a true story. It was a power play, and the puck would correct me if I'm wrong, the power play, you had a guy just sifting the puck over, nice to you, nice feathering, and you'd hammer it, and he'd be ducking hoping you'd score. Finally, you put it over five times, and the only way it stopped is he hit the crossbar. What in the crowd? He says, "I never prayed so hard in my life." Is that a true story? There was another, yes, but there was another time, even funnier than that. I got it out the point, and one of the defenders came out to check me, and I read back, and I faked it, and I went around him, and he slid past me, and I went in another, oh, 10 or 15 feet, and I wound up again. And one of the defensemen thought that he'd take a chance at it, and he slid out, and I managed to get around him. Now I'm about from here, maybe over to Jimmy there, out in front of the net. Now I look up, I start to wind up, and I look up, and the net is vacant. And I start to laugh, and cheavers had gone over, and the defensemen gave me a wide berth, and he gave me about three-quarters of the net. Cheavers was over, hiding behind his defense, and I fired it in the open side. He hated you. Ah, but what a great competitor. Yeah, but he hated that. He used to tell stories about you all the time. I remember a guy blocked shots on him, and all-star game was Bobby Orr. Remember the time he blocked that shot on you? The thought, everybody thought you'd killed him at the time. He could do everything, and of course you talk about everyone's all-star, there's the greatest thing that ever laced on a pair of skates right there. No, no. Thanks a lot. Hi, everybody. Right. If you have it, you like the wrist shot, though, don't you? You got it great, but you like that wrist shot. I think I scored about 50% of my goals on the wrist shot, and when I went to the WHA and playing with Alfie Nelson and Anders Hedberg, I used the wrist shot more and more. But the wrist shot, for any kids that are up late enough to watch this, that's the bread and butter shot. Get it away quickly and get it on the net, and don't telegraph your shot. Your dad and mom really helped you in your career. The first year, I went away. I'm from a family of 11, as you know, and never been away from home. And finally, at 14 years old, they want me to go away and play junior hockey up in Hespeler, Ontario, and if it hadn't been for mom and dad coming to see me just about every weekend and bringing me goodies from home, I'd have never ever made it. And of course, all the way through my career, my mother was, she was a princess, I'll tell you what. And she was my greatest admirer, and she backed me up until my nose bled all the time. And as far as my dad was concerned, I could never do anything like that. Oh, I know you couldn't do it. Poor Dennis. Oh, poor Dennis's brother. Oh, one time in Balfill, Dad would walk the streets after a weekend, and the people in Balfill there, they want to get the inside. And they said one day, "Oh, Mr. Hull, what's the latest hope in Chicago?" He said, "My youngest son." You know. I know the store, Dennis tells the story. That's a true story. A Dennis is pretty good, two and forty-some goals, and the whole thing. Hey, Don, if they had given him a chance in Chicago, he would have been as good as anyone. Yeah. Well, they thought that just because his last name was H.U. and Two Sticks, that he should play the same way as that guy did and that preceded it. They booed him, eh? They booed. I tell you what. And on the road, he was our best player, most consistent player, scored most of his goals on the road. I could never understand you. Go in there, and he'd get the puck, and he'd hammer it, and he'd score, and he'd tell the story. You know, he's a great story teller. What a guy, a bankman. He tells the story. They're in the elevator. You and your dad, and him are in the elevator, and a girl gets in. He says, "Oh, aren't you -- to your dad, aren't you, Mr. Hawley?" He says, "Yes, and this is my son Bobby and his brother." Oh, he -- he -- he -- he was -- what a -- what a sense of humor, though, but the great years you had in Chicago, I mean, come on, that stadium, I mean, is there a better place to play hockey? I don't think there's any greater sphere of action than right there at that old Chicago stadium. And you should hear them now. I thought they were noisy when we played, but I was to a game two years ago when they were in the Stanley Cup playoffs against Edmonton. And I never heard such noise in all my life. I thought that old building was going to -- it was shaking on us. It actually was. That organ -- that guy, the organ. Well, I was hell malgard. Remember back in my year, I don't know who plays it now, but he could really get things going. He couldn't tell you. He couldn't tell you. We used to win our games in the first period. I'll tell you. You guys -- the guy that used to -- the guy that used to I used to like before a game was Magnuson. Remember when he used to -- the time I got out, I was third-glass. Mine was always behind me, and Billy Ray would come up after me. By the time I got up on the ice, coming up those 15 or 20 steps, Maggie had already gone around the ice about four times. Happy with that blonde hair. Now, you had great teams there. Why didn't you win more Stanley Cups? You know, I often wondered that. We won in '61, and that happened to be the only one during my career that we won. And we had -- and not to throw stones at any of those guys on that '61 team because we had a great group of guys, just a togetherness team. But I think we had better teams, more talent on our teams later on in the '60s and early '70s, and always the bridesmaid and never the bride, and it was -- it always happened that we lacked one guy coming up with a big series, or at times, we would get the wrong guys out against the opposition when it should be -- That one goal. Remember that one goal? Of course, the long goal that -- when was that '71? That's somewhere around it. I believe it was '71, where we had two to nothing. I came out in the third period, hit the crossbar, it went up instead of down, it would have made it three to nothing, the floodgates would have been open. And La Mer picks up the puck behind his net and skates to the red line, and Tony, who had played fantastic for us and did every game that he was out there, just happened to miss one, and that gave him the life, and we sunk it. They scored two. One of them. One of them. One of them. They scored two of them after that. Yeah. Cutting around that side and he went right with the puck. Now, you left now. Don't -- you got to admit a mistake to leave Chicago for the WHO. Well, I never look back on anything that I do, and you can't second-guess yourself, and I suppose if, and it wasn't because I went to Winnipeg, I could have gone to LA, I could have gone to Timbuktu. It wasn't the city that I went to, but I had spent 15 years in Chicago and Chicago in the prime of my life, and it's a great, great city, and some of the greatest fans that you'll ever want to play in front of. They put me -- they backed me into a corner, and I made a decision. I went to Winnipeg, and taking everything into consideration. All the money and the whole thing, I'd have been better off to stay in Chicago. You would have because you could have ran for mayor there, and won easily, believe me. I think maybe I could now. Yeah. I think you could. You go back there now. You should see him when he walks in the building. It's unbelievable. Here comes a God. But the salaries now, you started at the salaries. You got to admit, you don't mind paying a guy like you or Bobby Ork Ritzy, but they're out of whack now for -- you know. Well, they brought it on themselves, Don. Obviously, their -- the WHO was necessary because they were blocking professional hockey in different areas of the country that deserved it. And look at the good franchises in the National Hockey League now. Yeah, it's true. Edmonton. Edmonton. Calgary. Winnipeg, Quebec, Hartford. Yeah. You know, there's a team like Edmonton, five short years in the National Hockey League, they win a Stanley Cup. That's not too shabby. There are some of them that would be in the league for a hundred and five years and never win one, the way they're being coached. Thanks. The 76th Club Team Canada got to be the greatest team hockey team ever assembled. I think -- I think -- and you were there, Don and Scotty and Bobby Croun, now McNeil. And do you know why it was the best team that Canada, that's -- it was a Canadian team. It was the best team that they ever raced because one number four, Bobby Orr, played on it. Yeah. And he didn't get a chance to play in the '72 series, or he wouldn't play with us in the '74 series. But he was on one leg. One leg. And you tell the people, and this is without a word of lie, his knee, when he'd come in it, would be twice the size of the other knee. And he'd spend an hour or two with ice bags on it just to get that knee down. And on one leg, he was better than the rest of us ever thought of. He was the best player in the world. So he had -- oh, of course. We had some pretty good defenseman, too. Yeah. Serge. Oh, my. Robinson. Robinson. Puthen. Paul Schmeer. No wonder -- Paul Schmeer, he never got the chance either. And he -- he was our best guy. He was our best guy. Now, you went over with WHO, and I'll never forget this. You were criticized for signing autographs over there. Remember with the guys? He criticized all my life for that. But then the guys would say, "Bobby, you know where I can get a cheap fur coat for my wife or a new freak?" I says, "As a matter of fact, when you were hollering at me to get on the bus --" Now, you were saying -- I was talking with this young gentleman, he said, "Any time you need a fur coat for your wife or a new stove." Now -- Let me tell you a story, too. You know, and I know you didn't do -- no, wait a minute. I know you didn't do that for that. And I remember I was playing -- I was playing in the American Hockey League, and we were in Toronto one time, and you were going for your 50th goal against Bruce Gammel. That's right. Remember Bruce Gammel. Remember Bruce Gammel. He's going up the whole warm-up now, and he's going for a record, okay? This guy signed autographs the whole warm-up, and as he's walking into the dressing room, he stopped and signed autographs. He must have only had five-minute rest. That's the kind of guy Bobby Hall is. And don't you go away, we're going to come right back with a round of applause. [applause] I know you're in the cow business, in the cow business. No. Where are those cows? We're in the Pold Herford business, and I've been talking to Dave and Bob about it, maybe we can get them. But I want to tell you, and I'm glad you brought that up. There are some very good friends of mine down in Nakawik, New Brunswick, Bear Island. Bear Island. Yes, they're the Goodein family, and every time I go down there, they raise Pold Herfords, and I stay with Debbie and Michael Goodein. Well, Debbie's parents, Bertha and Jean Marion, they thank you. They are the greatest things since sliced bread. He made Debra and I a Goode box of pickles and preserves, and we're set for the winner. All right. Great. Hey, I know they got good taste. I don't know what you got going on. All right, now, listen, I'm going to ask, you know, they talk about Gretzky getting abuse and hooked and checked. How about when you and the rocket talk about that? I haven't watched enough of Wayne. I wish I could see him more often, but I wish that we could show him a few filmed clips of the way we were grabbing. Bugsie Watson. Well, Watson, he was just one of the buns that I kept in the league for so many years, but they should have really put handles on our sweaters. And I know the rocket, he used to go in there, and two of those big defensemen used to jump on his back. They'll go all the way in on that right side and put the puck in the net. And the way I know a lot of guys stand used to say, "But if I were you, I'd have a spirit of them or hacked them or banged." I like Stan. You know what? Yeah, that's your kind. But what I used to, I used to, when I'd score, I'd go over and stand beside their bench and just stand there a little bit and look up there. Look up. Look up. Well, you know what Jimmy Loftus? Here the smile on our shoes. Yeah. He's got a question here. There's another guy here. Oh, he's got a nice haircut, too. I did the roles for Dennis one time and we had a great time loving it. And I must say, you've never lost your sense of humor and I love it, man. I really do. Thank you. Hellmates, I wanted to ask you about it. If I could put a group of guys together to play for me that wouldn't wear helmets, we'd win it all. I like that. You know what? I'll get a lot of abuse from the parents, and they want to see their little Jimmy's and Johnny's protected. But I think with this mask, with the hats, when I see those kids play, all I hear when they go in the corner, it's whack on the helmet, bang on that face mask, then when they get up to play Pro Hockey, you know, they're doing it in the face of the guys without any mask on and what have. Yeah. And I think it's created a monster. I really do. I agree with you and there's one thing before you go. We're right down near the end, but the one thing I want to ask, who's the best goalie? I know you can't say Tony or Glenn Hobba, who's the best goalie you ever win it against? I think, likely year after year, any goaltender that played for the Montreal Canadiens really stood out. And maybe it was because of their ability, but also too, and you know that a goaltender is only as good as the team that plays in front of them. And remember, Gump was in the New York and had the worst goals against record one year. Jock Plant was in Montreal and won the Vesna. The next year, they traded teams, usually won the Vesna, Jock Plant had the worst goals against record. So, I'll tell you something, this guy is the people's choice. Everybody loves them in Chicago. Everybody loves them around here too. Way to go, body boy. Thanks everybody for listening and we'll talk to you next week. [Music]