Former Chicago Blackhawks participant Bobby Hull is launched to followers throughout the NHL hockey crew’s conference in Chicago on July 26, 2019. Hull’s household introduced he was affected by CTE — the mind situation often called continual traumatic encephalopathy when he died in 2023.
Amr Alfiky/AP
disguise caption
toggle caption
Amr Alfiky/AP
The Corridor of Fame hockey participant Bobby Hull had continual traumatic encephalopathy — the degenerative neurological illness often called CTE when he died in 2023, in accordance with his household.
Hull, a two-time NHL most useful participant and Stanley Cup winner, was often called «The Golden Jet» for his electrical play, bruising hits and marvelous goal-scoring skills. His profession spanned greater than 20 years, largely within the Nineteen Sixties and 70s with the Chicago Blackhawks.
His spouse launched the outcomes of his autopsy mind tissue evaluation on Wednesday via the Concussion Legacy Basis. In a information launch, the group says it hopes to lift consciousness for the long-term results of repetitive head impacts in hockey and encourage help for analysis. Hull’s household donated his mind to the Boston College CTE Heart after he handed away in 2023 at age 84.
Deborah Hull stated her husband felt strongly that no household ought to have endure CTE. «He insisted on donating his mind, feeling as if it was his obligation to assist advance analysis on this agonizing illness.» She stated her husband knew his Corridor of Fame profession got here with a worth. Within the final decade of his life, she says he struggled with many cognitive signs of CTE, reminiscent of short-term reminiscence loss and impaired judgment.
CTE can solely be recognized with an post-mortem of the mind, that means it will probably solely be detected after loss of life.
Bobby Hull of the Chicago Blackhawks skates down the ice with the puck throughout a hockey recreation towards the Boston Bruins on Jan. 7, 1968. Hull would grow to be one of many Nationwide Hockey League’s 100 best gamers. His spouse says repeated collisions throughout his Corridor of Fame profession led to his autopsy analysis of CTE.
Related Press File Picture/AP
disguise caption
toggle caption
Related Press File Picture/AP
As NPR reported in 2024, the hyperlink between American soccer and CTE is well-known. However analysis on different sports activities had lagged behind, even for contact sports activities like ice hockey. That modified in December when researchers at Boston College accomplished the most important examine to this point establishing a relationship between an athlete’s odds of growing CTE and the size of their profession in ice hockey (Hull’s was one of many brains within the examine). The authors decided the longer an athlete performed, the extra seemingly he was to have the illness.
Hull is the highest-profile former NHL participant to be recognized with CTE.
NPR’s Becky Sullivan contributed reporting.
