Stan Mikita Legacy

Slovak-born Black Hawks legend who won four scoring titles and the Hart Trophy twice.

Stanley Mikita (born Stanislav Guoth; May 20, 1940 – August 7, 2018) was a Slovak-born Canadian ice hockey player who played his entire 22-year National Hockey League (NHL) career with the Chicago Black Hawks. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1983.

Quick Facts

Career span: 1959–60 to 1979–80

Lore & Background

Mikita was born in Sokolče, Slovak Republic, and moved to Canada at age eight after being adopted by his aunt and uncle. He played junior hockey with the St. Catharines Teepees of the Ontario Hockey Association before joining the Black Hawks in 1959. He led the league in playoff goals in 1961 as the Black Hawks won the Stanley Cup, becoming the first Slovak-born player to win it. He won the Art Ross Trophy four times (1964, 1965, 1967, 1968), the Hart Memorial Trophy in 1967 and 1968, and the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy twice. In 1967 and 1968, he became the first and only player to win the Hart, Lady Byng, and Art Ross in the same season. He was the sixth player to reach 1,000 points (1972) and the eighth to score 500 goals (1977). He retired in 1980 as one of only two players with 500 goals and 900 assists, and held the record for most points by a player with a single franchise. He was named one of the 100 Greatest NHL Players in 2017.

Reader's Guide

Mikita's jersey was retired by the Black Hawks in 1980, but he was not the first player to receive the honor; Glenn Hall's number 1 was retired in 1968. Mikita was a centre known for his curved stick, which he began using after his stick got caught in a bench door. He was one of the first players to wear a helmet full-time after an errant shot tore part of his ear in December 1967. After retiring, he became a golf pro at Kemper Lakes Golf Club and owned Stan Mikita's Village Inn in Oak Brook, Illinois. He co-founded the American Hearing Impaired Hockey Association in 1973 and helped bring the Special Olympics to Chicago. He appeared as himself in the 1992 film Wayne's World. He died on August 7, 2018, and was posthumously diagnosed with stage 3 chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) by the Boston University CTE Center.