Stanislav Guoth was born on May 20, 1940, in Sokolče, in what was then the Slovak Republic, a "client state" of Nazi Germany. The country no longer exists: After World War II, it was reintegrated into Czechoslovakia. That country also no longer exists: In 1993, it was split into the Czech Republic (sometimes "Czechia") and the Slovak Republic (usually written as "Slovakia"). The town no longer exists: It was evacuated in 1975, and inundated by a reservoir.
And the boy's name wouldn't exist for very long: In 1948, to escape the Communist takeover of Czechoslovakia, he was sent to live with an aunt and uncle in St. Catharines, Ontario Canada. They gave him their surname, and he became Stanislav Mikita. He was never "Stanley," although, like a lot of Eastern Europeans whose names start with "Stan," he would be nicknamed "Stosh."
Slovakia has gone on to produce several good hockey players. Before the 1993 "Velvet Divorce," Slovaks who starred for the Czechoslovakia team and then in the NHL included the Šťastný brothers, Peter, Anton and Marián; and Róbert Švehla and Žigmund Pálffy. Since 1993, there has been Peter Bondra, Miroslav Šatan, Jozef Stumpel, Zdeno Chára, Michal Handzuš, Marián Gáborík, and the Hossa brothers, Marián and Marcel.
But it was in Canada that Stan Mikita learned how to play hockey. He starred for his hometown team, the St. Catharines Teepees of the Ontario Hockey League. In 1959, he was promoted to the Chicago Blackhawks. In 1961, he scored 6 goals in the Playoffs, helping the Hawks win the Stanley Cup.
It was a team laden with stars. Captain Eddie Litzenberger led Mikita, defenseman Pierre Pilote, goaltender Glenn Hall, and a young left wing who would become the most exciting player in the game, Bobby Hull, whose long blond hair -- eventually replaced with a combover and finally a toupee -- and speed gave him the nickname the Golden Jet.
Mikita was placed on what became known as the Scooter Line, centering right wing Ken Wharram and left wing Ab McDonald, with McDonald sometimes replaced by Doug Mohns. Like Hull, Mikita used a stick with a heavily curved blade. While Hull used his "banana blade" to fire the fastest shot in the game in that era, Mikita found success as the NHL's best faceoff man. In 1970, with both Hull and Mikita still roughly at their peak, the NHL passed a rule limiting the curve of a hockey stick's blade to half an inch. Violation meant a penalty, as Marty McSorley of the Los Angeles Kings found out to his dismay in the 1993 Stanley Cup Finals
Mikita was also one of the top defensive forwards in the game, although the Frank Selke Award for the season's best defensive forward had not yet been established. Among the awards that had been established: He was named to 9 All-Star Games; he won the Hart Memorial Trophy as NHL Most Valuable Player in 1967 and 1968; he won the Art Ross Trophy as leading scorer (goals plus assists) in 1964, 1965, 1967 and 1968; and the Lady Byng Trophy as "most gentlemanly player" in 1967 and 1968.
In those seasons, he became the 1st player to win the Hart, the Ross, and the Lady Byng in the same season, doing it twice. To this day, no other player has won it, even once.
Mikita winning the Lady Byng Trophy, donated in 1925 by Evelyn Byng, the hockey-loving wife of Julian Byng, the World War I hero who served as Canada's Governor-General at the time, would have seemed odd early in his career, as he racked up a lot of penalties.
One day, he came home from a roadtrip, and his wife Jill told him that daughter Meg (they also had daughter Jane, and sons Scott and Christopher) had been watching the 'Hawks on TV, and asked her mother, "Mommy, why does Daddy spend so much time sitting down?" The camera had just shown him sitting in the penalty box. So Stan cleaned his game up, and reaped the rewards.
But despite having plenty of stars on their roster, the Hawks couldn't win another Cup. They lost in the Finals to the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1962, and to the Montreal Canadiens in 1965, 1971 and 1973. It would be 2010 before they won another Cup.
In 1967, an errant shot hit Mikita in the ear, and actually tore a piece off. It was stitched back on. Afterward, he became one of the earliest players, and certainly the biggest star among those who did, to wear a helmet full-time. The NHL would later make helmets mandatory.
In 1972, Mikita, despite being born outside Canada -- and in a country still effectively controlled by the Soviet Union -- was named to Team Canada for the 1972 "Summit Series" against the Soviet national team. But injury limited him to just 2 of the 8 games.
It's worth noting that Hull and goaltenders Gerry Cheevers and Bernie Parent had been declared ineligible, because it was a team of NHL players, and those 3 had jumped to the new World Hockey Association. The goalies were Ken Dryden of the Canadiens and Hull and Mikita's Blackhawk teammate, Tony Esposito. It's also worth noting that Bobby Orr of the Bruins was injured. If either Hull or Orr was available, it would have been a very different series. Instead, Canada won it in the last 30 seconds of the last game, 4 games to 3 with a tie.
In 1976, Mikita was named Captain of the Blackhawks, and was awarded the Lester Patrick Trophy for contributions to hockey in America. Despite a back injury, he played 22 seasons, all with the Blackhawks, retiring after the 1980 season, playing into a 4th decade. At the time, only Gordie Howe and Phil Esposito had scored more NHL points, and only 6 players had appeared in more games.
The 'Hawks made his Number 21 the 1st they retired, as they were still feuding with Hull. They would make peace in 1983, and Hull's Number 9 went into the rafters. Also in 1983, Mikita and Hull were both elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Their retired number banners, although with the 1 of Hall and the 35 of Esposito, were taken down following the last regular-season game at Chicago Stadium in 1994, and presented to their honorees. New banners went up at the opening of the United Center. In 2011, statues of Mikita and Hull were dedicated outside the arena.
Mikita was inspired by the deaf son of a friend to establish, along with fellow Sloavk Irv Tiahnybik, a Chicago businessman, the American Hearing Impaired Hockey Association (AHIHA). And when he heard that the Special Olympics had been established in 1968 by Eunice Kennedy Shriver, sister of the late President John F. Kennedy, and were set for Chicago's Soldier Field, he jumped at the chance to be involved.
He became an avid golfer, and ran the company that make the little plastic containers for the sauces that McDonald's uses for its Chicken McNuggets. He also owned a restaurant in the suburb of Oak Brook, Illinois, named Stan Mikita's Village Inn.
In 1998, The Hockey News ranked him 17th on their list of the 100 Greatest Hockey Players. In 2017, he was named to the NHL's 100th Anniversary 100 Greatest Players, which were not ranked.
Although he survived cancer, in 2015 he was diagnosed with dementia. He died this past Tuesday, August 7, 2018, in Chicago, at the age of 78.
Blackhawks President William Rockwell "Rocky" Wirtz: "Stan made everyone he touched a better person. 'Stosh' will be deeply missed, but never, ever forgotten."
Former teammate Dale Tallon, now general manager of the Florida Panthers: "His preparation was impeccable. His style of play was unique. He had great skills and drive and passion. He was hardworking. He was unselfish. He was a superstar."
(Tallon was also the 1st player to wear Number 9 on the Blackhawks after Hull. He joked, "The only thing wrong with it is, they left off the decimal point.")
Hull: "Pound for pound, Stan had to be one of the greatest who ever played, and he was a player who always came to play."
If Hull was the Golden Jet, then Mikita was a Dark Glider, but there was plenty of lamp-lighting when he was on the ice. And he will always shine brightly in the minds of hockey fans.