Bobby Hull, the two-time Hart Trophy winner, three-time scoring champion and Hockey Hall of Famer, was diagnosed posthumously with stage 2 chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), according to his post-mortem brain-tissue analysis released Wednesday by his wife, Deborah, and the Concussion Legacy Foundation.
Hull’s family donated his brain to a brain bank at Boston University for study after he died in 2023 at the age of 84.
Deborah Hull said Bobby struggled with short-term memory loss and impaired judgment over the last decade of his life, symptoms consistent with CTE, which stems from repeated blows to the head.
BREAKING: Hockey Hall of Famer Bobby Hull diagnosed with stage 2 #CTE by @bu_cte after his death in 2023.
For nearly the last 10 years of his life, Hull struggled with many of the cognitive symptoms of CTE. His widow says Bobby knew his historic career came at a price.
READ:… pic.twitter.com/6RdAwWChCU
— Concussion Legacy Foundation (@ConcussionLF) February 19, 2025
Hull’s longtime teammate with the Chicago Blackhawks, Stan Mikita, also had CTE according to the BU CTE Center. Mikita suffered from Lewy body dementia before his death. Mikita was part of a study of a group of 19 deceased NHL players, 18 of whom were posthumously diagnosed with CTE. The study found that the odds of developing CTE increase by 34 percent for each year of hockey played.
“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 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.”
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has been steadfast in his refusal to acknowledge a link between playing in the NHL and developing CTE.
“NHL families deserve to know that CTE can be a consequence of the head impacts they receive while playing the game,” said Chris Nowinski, CEO of the Concussion Legacy Foundation. “The NHL still shamelessly refuses to acknowledge this scientific truth, so we hope this message reaches current players so that they, at a minimum, can play with informed consent.”
Dr. Robert C. Cantu, the medical director of the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research, told The Athletic earlier this season that Bettman is standing in the way of players’ health.
“I think hockey has a reasonably good concussion protocol for those that are recognized with concussion,” Cantu said. “I think hockey’s done the right thing about taking away checks to the head, making them illegal. I think hockey could educate a little more than they’re doing about the long-term effects of repetitive head trauma.
“Some mandatory reading on some CTE papers might not be a bad thing. … Once you get rid of Bettman, I think things will be different.”
(Photo of Bobby Hull in 2013: Jonathan Daniel / Getty Images)
