Bob Pulford

Robert Jesse "Bob" Pulford (born March 31, 1936 in Newton Robinson, Ontario) is a retired Canadian professional ice hockey forward who played for the Toronto Maple Leafs and Los Angeles Kings in the National Hockey League. He has been a coach and executive for the Chicago Blackhawks for the past thirty years.

Pulford played junior hockey for the Toronto Marlboros for three seasons from 1953 to 1956, winning two Memorial Cups under coach Turk Broda. He moved up to the Maple Leafs for the 1956–57 season and remained with the team for 14 seasons. Pulford was an important member of the Leaf teams that won four Stanley Cups in six seasons during the 1960s. The Leafs traded him to the Los Angeles Kings on September 3, 1970, where he played two seasons and retired as a player in 1972.

Pulford became head coach of the Kings for the 1972–73 season and led the team for five years before becoming coach and general manager of the Chicago Black Hawks in 1977. He served as coach on three separate occasions from 1977 to 1987. He was promoted to senior vice president in 1990, but took on the general manager's duties again from 1992 to 1997, from 1999 to 2000, and from 2003 to 2005. During his third stint as general manager, Pulford nominally doubled as head coach. However, Lorne Molleken remained the team's main operator on the bench, with Pulford as more or less a senior consultant.

In 7 seasons: 426 games as Hawks coach, Bob Pulford won 182, lost 176, and tied 68. His win percentage was .507 and he is ranked second behind Billy Reay in most regular season games won as Hawk coach.

He won the Jack Adams Award for best coach in the NHL in 1975.

He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1991.

On October 11, 2007; Pulford was named an officer with the Wirtz Corporation and is no longer part of the day to day management of the Blackhawks.

External links

• Bob Pulford biography at Legends of Hockey