My first job when I was 14 years old was working at the Boys and Girls Club; it was a summer job, one where I kept kids off the fire escape, made sure they didn’t fight, and played kickball with them all day. It was a job that provided me my first official pay check, one in which I used to get my first pair of Air Jordan’s. It lasted a few months. After that, I rolled into my 2nd gig: a bus boy at an Italian restaurant in the city. Lots of cool stuff happened when I was working there…
I met some famous folks in there; that was one of the coolest things. George Wendt, Dennis Farina, Stan Mikita, and Carlton Fisk come to mind, along with this other guy. I remember the first time I met this other guy. I was bussing tables just like any other day. As I was piling some dishes up for the dishwasher, this guy comes walking into the kitchen through the back door. I’m like… wow, is that really him? He proceeds to walk directly to the dishes I had just stacked up by the dishwasher; he then, reaches on the plate, and takes some of the food that was left over, and pops it in his mouth. How many times I thought of doing that… haha. I know, people think it’s gross; of course, it’s almost unthinkable after all this COVID stuff, but… I’ve seen it done before, especially if it was a “family style” serving, where everybody just took food for themselves from the same large dish or bowl. This was an individual plate. After licking his fingers, he headed out to the restaurant, and sat with the owners at a table in the bar area. I brought him some water and some bread. As I delivered that to the table, he stood up… scars on his face, and engulfed my hand with his, shaking my hand, putting a $20 bill in my hand, and telling me something about ham and eggs between the legs. I’ll never forget it. This guy was Bobby Hull.
Today, we say goodbye to the hockey legend; his statue along side Mikita, stands outside the United Center for all to see. Certainly the Golden Jet was one of, if not THE, best Blackhawks player of all time. I didn’t get to see him play, but have heard many stories of his wicked slap shot that we would fire from right inside the blue line. I remember seeing the pictures, of his bloodied up face, the precursor to those scars on his face. I got my Dad a white Blackhawks jersey with his name and the #9 on the back for Christmas one year. That day, I was asked to walk him to his car, to help him carry the leftovers. After sitting with the owners indulging in a few cocktails, talking a bunch of shit, I helped him to his car. He thanked me, and away he went. This is just one story.
Of course, as time went on, we heard other stories about the great Bobby Hull; these off-the-ice stories weren’t so great… certainly not like the one I just shared. These stories painted an entirely different picture of the Blackhawks legend. We don’t like to hear these stories, especially about guys that did so much good for the team and for the city; when Bobby Hull was playing the game of hockey, there wasn’t many that were better. I don’t know the ins and outs of the life he lived off the ice; I don’t know that about any of the superstars that we look up to for their performance while playing their sport, acting in their movies, singing their songs. There is a lot of ugly in the world; they are not immune from it. There is one judge who will make the final determination, so I’m going to let Him do His job; that time has come. Meanwhile, I’ll remember him for the great Blackhawks player that he was, and from the one day when I met him in person. RIP Bobby Hull…
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