Sportsman Of The Year

It took 21 years for someone to do it, and the man who did surprised no one. From midway of his ninth season in the NHL it was clear that Bobby Hull, the Golden Jet forward of the Chicago Black Hawks, was hell-bent on being the first man in professional hockey history to score more than 50 goals in a season. He was averaging a goal a game at one stretch, two goals during another brief period, and in a 70-game season there seemed to be nothing for his fans to fret about. Except that hockey is not quite that simple. As Hull became more and more dangerous, more and more defense-men clung to his every move. A torn knee ligament forced him out of five games. His right hand was injured fairly late in the season when he offered it against the jaw of Detroit's Gary Bergman. But in his 52nd game he scored his 50th goal, also against Detroit. He had shot 50 goals once before, in the 1961-62 season, thereby tying the record held jointly by Maurice Richard and Bernie Geoffrion, and so just about everyone assumed that Bobby was on his way to No. 51. He was, but frustration was in his path. There was a dreadful lull in which absolutely nothing happened. The master of the slap shot, it was assumed, would now be relieved of the pressure that had been on him all season and he could comfortably await his chance. So he waited and waited and waited through three games until one night on Chicago's home ice when he faced the New York Rangers. The impertinent fifth-place Rangers took a 2-1 lead, and it seemed that Hull was to be thwarted again. Almost six minutes of the final period went by. Then Lou Angotti got the puck, kicked it over to Hull and skated to the bench. Well back of his own blue line, Hull skated a few strides, then slapped the curved blade of his stick against the puck and watched it flash past Ranger Goalie Cesare Maniago, the same Maniago who had been goalie when Geoffrion shot his 50th goal in the 1960-61 season. It was hockey's greatest moment, and a maddened crowd lost control. Hull finished the season with 54 goals, and that, with 43 assists, gave him another record—most points (97) in a season. But it was all quite anticlimactic after that No. 51.