Legendary Hawk Stan Mikita dies at 78
Began junior career with St. Catharines Teepees and played 22 years with Chicago
Stan Mikita, arguably the greatest player in Chicago Blackhawks history, died Tuesday after a long illness. He was 78.
“There are no words to describe our sadness over Stan’s passing,” the team said in a statement. “He meant so much to the Chicago Blackhawks, to the game of hockey, and to all of Chicago.”
Mikita lived life the way he played the game of hockey. He did it his way and he never stopped caring about what he did.
“He was more prepared than anybody I ever played with,” said Dale Tallon, executive vice-president and general manager of the Florida Panthers, remembering the years they spent together skating for the Blackhawks.
“His preparation was impeccable. His style of play was unique. He had great skills and drive and passion. He was hard-working. He was unselfish. “He was a superstar.”
The little man who came from the little town of Sokolice, in what then was Czechoslovakia, and went on to become one of the biggest superstars of the
National Hockey League and the Chicago sports galaxy died surrounded by his family.
In January, 2015 a statement released by Mikita’s family said he had been “diagnosed with Lewy body dementia,” a progressive disease with symptoms similar to those of Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s.
He is survived by his wife, Jill, a native of Berwyn, Ill., whom he married on April 27, 1963, and their four children, Meg, Scott, Jane and Christopher.
During his 22 years with the Blackhawks he played in 1,394 regular-season games and became the franchise’s all-time leading regular-season scorer with 1,467 points on 541 goals and 926 assists, also a team record. In the goal-scoring category he ranks No. 2 on the team’s all-time list, second only to his junior hockey and Hawk teammate Bobby Hull.
When he and Hull led the Blackhawks during their 1961 Stanley Cup championship season, Mikita scored six goals and assisted on 15 for 21 points in their 12 playoff games. Both the assists and points were the highest of any player in the playoffs. In Hull’s opinion: “Pound for pound Stan had to be one of the greatest who ever played, and he was a player who always came to play.”
Mikita stood five-feet-nine inches tall and his weight ranged from 160 to 165 pounds. Known for his easy skating style, deceptive moves, and stickhandling guile, he had an uncanny ability to set up scoring chances for his teammates and he excelled at winning faceoffs. Overshadowed by his attributes on offence was his defensive ability. One year when the NHL had a 70-game schedule his line was on the ice for only seven even-strength goals.
Inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1983, Mikita earned the Hart Trophy as the NHL’s Most Valuable Player in 1967 and 1968, the Art Ross trophy as the league’s leading scorer in 1964, 1965, 1967 and 1968 and the Lady Byng Trophy for sportsmanship and gentlemanly play in 1967 and 1968. He was the first player to win all three trophies in one year and the only player to win all three in consecutive years.
That toughness manifested itself game in and game out, because playing with injuries was the norm for Mikita during the Hall of Fame career that began when he appeared in three games as an 18-year-old in 1958-59.
His back pain sometimes was excruciating and it finally forced him into retirement following the 1979-80 season in which he played only 17 games.
Mikita’s creativity in finding ways to give back was akin to his ability to produce points. He enlisted teammates to start a hockey school for deaf kids that
evolved into the American Hearing Impaired Hockey Association. “The way I look at it, these kids have been rejected so many times in their lives. You know how cruel kids can be. We like to think we can help them believe in themselves.”
Born on May 20, 1940, Stanislav Gvoth came to Canada at age eight to live with his mother’s oldest brother, Joe Mikita and wife, Anna, in St. Catharines, and he was given the name of the uncle who adopted him. When he arrived in the English-speaking province of Ontario he didn’t know a word of English. The boy, who as a man would speak the language fluently and with no trace of an accent, felt out of place: “I was miserable for a while.” He fantasized about becoming a pilot so he could fly back to Czechoslovakia.
His introduction to hockey came when he began playing street hockey. When he was nine he learned how to skate and began playing ice hockey.
By the time Mikita was a teenager two things had become clear: he was an intense competitor and he was a natural athlete. In addition to hockey, he played football, soccer and lacrosse.
“I think the first time I saw
Stan Mikita he was across the rink from me in St. Catharines,” reminisced Hull. “I was playing for the St. Catharines Teepees’ junior team and he was on the midget team. He had on a leather jacket and he had that boogie haircut. I’d heard he was pretty good. I didn’t get to see much of him till the next year when he moved up to junior. We played on the same line and we were schoolmates. We played football together. We played soccer together. We double-dated together. I was at his house quite often. We were a close tandem.”
They were separated in 1957-58 when Hull went to the Blackhawks and Mikita remained with the Teepees, and reunited in 1959-60 when Mikita played his first full season in the NHL.
In 2008, Mikita and Hull were officially brought back into the family (and onto the payroll) as “official club ambassadors” after a bitter 28-year team separation.