Robinson recalls being gifted Blackhawks jersey by his hockey idol Hull

The sleeves don't reach his wrists and the body is snug across the chest, too short in length.

But Larry Robinson cherishes this decades-old Chicago Blackhawks jersey, a mid-1990s gift from Bobby Hull, his first hockey idol.
Robinson thought about the jersey last week when news broke that Hull had died on Jan. 30 at age 84. On Friday, the 50th anniversary of his first NHL goal, the Hall of Fame defenseman pulled it on in his Florida home for a couple of photos, a large 19 on the back, ROBINSON lettered above it.
"I saw Bobby last summer in Prince Edward Island and had kind of heard through the grapevine that he wasn't doing that well physically," Robinson said on Saturday. "Was I expecting his passing? No. Sooner or later we're all going to go but I was surprised that it happened when it did."
The 71-year-old from the Ottawa Valley whistle-stop of Marvelville had last worn a Black Hawks sweater as a peewee, suiting up with a team from nearby Russell that was sponsored by the local Lion's Club.
He would wear the red, white and blue of the Montreal Canadiens for 17 seasons, the black and white of the Los Angeles Kings for three more after that, and the red and white of his country in the 1976 and 1981 Canada Cup tournaments.

The peewee-class Russell Black Hawks. Larry Robinson is in the second row, far right. Larry Robinson collection
But Robinson grew up loving the Chicago Black Hawks (the team name then two words) and especially Hull, their spectacular left wing who could skate like the wind and shoot like a hurricane.
"Back then, Chicago seldom won. But that's why I liked them -- they were the underdogs," Robinson wrote in his 2014 autobiography "The Great Defender: My Hockey Odyssey."
Robinson didn't think much of the Canadiens "because they won all the time." Instead, he was attracted to the Black Hawks and to Hull.
"Bobby was just so exciting," he wrote. "He would wind up and from behind his own net, skate the length of the ice then wind up with that warped blade and let a slap shot fly."
It's unknown whether Robinson ever blocked a "cannonading" Hull shot, so described by legendary "Hockey Night In Canada" broadcaster Danny Gallivan. They faced each other just once in the NHL, Robinson's Canadiens clobbering Hull's Winnipeg Jets 7-0 at the Montreal Forum on Nov. 22, 1979.

Larry Robinson, Bobby Hull, Bobby Orr and Marcel Dionne celebrate a goal during the 1976 Canada Cup; Robinson on the team's Montreal Forum bench. Denis Brodeur, Getty Images
But three years earlier, they had been hotel roommates during the 1976 Canada Cup tournament. In seven games, Canada steaming to the gold medal, "The Golden Jet" had eight points (five goals, three assists) to finish tied for second in tournament scoring. He was one of three players, with Russia's Viktor Zhluktov and Milan Novy of then-Czechoslovakia, to score five times.
Robinson has said that the Canada Cup team "may well be the best team I ever played on," fellow defenseman Bobby Orr named tournament MVP, Rogie Vachon selected its best goalie.
Not quite two decades later, Robinson having retired from the Kings in 1992 and bound for 1995 Hall of Fame election, a Canadian business group in Los Angeles organized a banquet in his honor. Hull flew west for the event, presenting Robinson with the Blackhawks jersey the latter pulled on again for this story.

Montreal Canadiens' program from Nov. 19, 2007 retirement of Larry Robinson's No. 19, and a 1973-74 rookie-year portrait. Montreal Canadiens; O-Pee-Chee/Hockey Hall of Fame
"Last summer, my brother and I went out to Prince Edward Island for a week and played in a golf tournament. Bobby was there," Robinson said. "By then, he was in a wheelchair. We talked for a half hour and it was great. I just didn't know that he might have been that sick."
If feeling melancholy about Hull's death, Robinson's mood lightened when recounting his first NHL goal, scored Feb. 3, 1973 against the Kings. He joked about it being nearly lost in the mists of time, remembering that he scored it on Vachon while being "in alone in front of the net, in a place where I shouldn't have been."
The Montreal Gazette game story, he was told, instead detailed his having scored not from in tight on Vachon, but on a 40-foot blast, on a pass from defense partner Guy Lapointe.
"Really? Well, OK, that's possible, too," he said.
Beyond dispute was that the goal came in Robinson's 12th NHL game, a rolling puck fired home for Montreal's first in a 7-1 victory. The milestone was buried in the story, however; Canadiens forward Pete Mahovlich was in the headline for having been stretchered off Los Angeles ice when his kneecap was knocked out of its socket, sending him to hospital for repairs and a lengthy rehab.

A well-used public library copy of Larry Robinson's 1980 book of instruction for young defensemen. Collier Macmillan Canada Ltd.
Robinson's sympathy was underwhelming.
"Pete was in the headline? He lives near me, next time I see him, I'll have to give him (heck)," he said, laughing again.
Frank Mahovlich, Pete's cerebral older brother, had the second assist on the goal.
"I remember this about Frank," Robinson said. "We're sitting on the team bus (in L.A.) and Scotty (coach Bowman) says, 'Pete, where's your brother?' and Pete says, 'He's over there, in the parking lot.' There's Frank, looking up into the sky, as if he's in another world. When he gets on the bus, he says, 'You know what, guys? The swallows are coming back to Capistrano.' We're just like, 'What?!' "
Vachon didn't hold a grudge for having allowed Robinson's first goal. As general manager of the Kings, he signed the rangy defenseman as a free agent in June 1989 for what would be a three-season, career-ending stay.
"I asked Rogie about that goal and he didn't remember," Robinson said.

Rogie Vachon at his 2016 Hockey Hall of Fame induction. Vachon surrendered Larry Robinson's first career goal, was a teammate for the 1976 Canada Cup and signed the defenseman as a free agent in 1989. Matthew Manor/Hockey Hall of Fame
If he had sketchy recall of his first NHL goal, he had no recollection at all of his second, which came 23 games later, 206 more goals and six Stanley Cup championships with Montreal to come.
No. 2 was scored at the Montreal Forum on March 31, 1973, the eventual game-winner against New York Rangers goalie Ed Giacomin in a 5-1 victory.
Robinson rounded out his Stanley Cup winnings at 10. He won the Cup three times with the New Jersey Devils, as head coach in 2000, assistant coach in 1995 and 2003, and once with the St. Louis Blues in 2019 as senior consultant to hockey operations.
Today, he is remembering his boyhood worship of Hull, a larger-than-life figure during his youth in the Ottawa Valley.
"Bobby was my boyhood idol so I guess I'll always have memory of him," Robinson said. "That, and the fact that I got to be his roommate for the 1976 Canada Cup. I can lean on that, and that I got to play with him while I was a player."
Through the mists, he also has memories of his first NHL goal. The puck is mounted on a plaque, but if Robinson could find his Blackhawks jersey, the milestone first-goal souvenir couldn't immediately be located.
"It's around somewhere," he said. "I've only moved about 15 hundred times."
Top photo: Larry Robinson at home on Feb. 3, 2023 on the 50th anniversary of his first NHL goal. He's wearing the Chicago Blackhawks jersey that was a mid-1990s gift from Bobby Hull, a boyhood idol.