Remembering a Blackhawks legend

Posted Oct 22, 2011 by Bob D'Angelo

Updated Oct 22, 2011 at 09:57 PM

Fans of old-time hockey remember Stan Mikita.

Agile and tough as nails, he had a Hall of Fame career playing center for the Chicago Blackhawks from 1959 to 1980 and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1983.

To commemorate his career, Mikita has partnered with longtime Chicago Tribune columnist Bob Verdi to produce “Forever a Blackhawk” (Triumph Books, $26.95, 208 pages hardback).

This oversized book is stuffed with vintage photographs and plenty of memories from Mikita, who was born in Czechoslovakia and was adopted by his aunt and uncle and brought to Canada. There is also a companion DVD that shows classic footage from Mikita’s career and includes several interviews.

Mikita is a humble man, and while his statistics give him plenty of reasons to brag (he was the eighth NHL player to score 500 goals and set franchise records for games played, assists and points), he tells his life story in a matter-of-fact, sometimes self-deprecating way.

Two stories Mikita are typical. The first one involves a brush with Detroit great Gordie Howe. During one game early in his career, Mikita talked some trash at the Red Wings’ legend. Howe listened and waited until later in the season, when he leveled Mikita with a hit so crunching, the dazed Blackhawk “tried to sit on the wrong bench.”

While Mikita never claims he invented the curved bladed hockey stick, he certainly was one of the first NHL players to use one. That is the basis for his second story.

“I was checked into the door that opens and closes to the players’ bench, and my stick got caught in the crack of the doorway,” he writes, noting that since he only had one stick for the game, he had to use it — and was amazed by the results. He later experimented with several more sticks, honing them into an effective weapon.

Mikita helped the Blackhawks win the Stanley Cup in 1961, centering the “Scooter Line” with Ab McDonald and Kenny Wharram. Chicago beat Detroit for its first Stanley Cup since 1938 — and its last until 2010.

When the new ownership took over the Blackhawks several years ago, Mikita was brought back as ambassadors, a role he relishes.

The book has plenty of great black-and-white photographs, but many of them were unidentified. It would have been nice to know the story behind some of the action shots that clearly depicted Mikita in his prime. But perhaps they were left off for effect. Certainly, they were effective.

There are several sidebar/tributes to Mikita from former teammates and opponents. One from Bobby Hull was typical.

“Stan could find you in the dark,” Hull said. “He could thread a needle with his passing.”

That same kind of straightforward accuracy can be found in “Forever a Blackhawk.”