Stan Mikita

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Mikita was born Stanislav Guoth in Sokolče, Slovak Republic, during its brief existence as a client state of Nazi Germany. He was raised on a small farm until 1948, when his aunt and uncle, Anna and Joe Mikita, visited from Canada and took the eight-year-old back with them to St. Catharines, Ontario. His parents believed Canada offered a brighter future than Communist Czechoslovakia. He anglicized his first name to Stanley and took his aunt and uncle's surname. After three standout junior seasons with the St. Catharines Teepees, he joined the Black Hawks in 1959–60. In his second full season, 1961, the Black Hawks won their third Stanley Cup, with Mikita leading all playoff scorers with six goals. The following season he became a star as centre of the famed 'Scooter Line' with right wing Ken Wharram and left wingers Ab McDonald and Doug Mohns. Combining skilled defense and a reputation as one of the game's best faceoff men using his innovative curved stick, Mikita led the league in scoring four times in the decade. He tied Bobby Hull's single-season scoring mark in 1966–67 with 97 points. In his early years he was among the most penalized players, but after his young daughter asked why he spent so much time in the penalty box, he changed his game and won the Lady Byng Trophy twice. In 1973 he co-founded the American Hearing Impaired Hockey Association and founded the Stan Mikita School for the Hearing Impaired. He also helped bring the Special Olympics to Chicago.

In Their Own Story

In December 1967, an errant shot tore a piece off one of Mikita's ears during a game. It was stitched back on, and Mikita became one of the first players to wear a helmet full-time. The curved stick that became his trademark started by accident: his standard stick got caught in a bench door, bending the blade before he hit the ice. He soon began using a propane torch from team trainers to create a deliberate curve. That curve gave him a comparative advantage as a shooter, and the NHL eventually limited blade curvature to ½ inch in 1970. Mikita's drastic change in behavior came after a road trip when his wife told him their daughter Meg had watched a game on television and asked, 'Mommy, why does Daddy spend so much time sitting down?' The camera had just shown Mikita in the penalty box. He went on to win the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy for sportsmanlike conduct in 1967 and 1968. In the 1972 Summit Series, Mikita played two games for Canada against the Soviet Union, both in Canada, plus two exhibition games against Sweden and Czechoslovakia. He also played several exhibition games for Czechoslovakia in summer 1967 when he visited his family in his country of origin.

Reader's Guide

Stan Mikita played his entire 22-year NHL career with the Chicago Black Hawks. He recorded over 500 goals and 900 assists in nearly 1,400 games. When he retired, he was one of only two players to record 500 goals and 900 assists for a career, and he had the most points for a player who played with only one franchise. He won the Art Ross Trophy as leading scorer in 1964, 1965, 1967, and 1968. He won the Hart Memorial Trophy as MVP in 1967 and 1968. He won the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy in 1967 and 1968. He was named to the NHL First All-Star Team in 1962, 1963, 1964, 1966, 1967, and 1968, and to the Second All-Star Team in 1965 and 1970. He played in the NHL All-Star Game in 1964, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, and 1975. He won the Lester Patrick Trophy in 1976. His jersey number 21 was retired by the Black Hawks on October 19, 1980, the first player to receive that honor in franchise history. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1983 and the Slovak Hockey Hall of Fame in 2002. In 2017 he was named one of the 100 Greatest NHL Players. After retiring, he became a golf pro at Kemper Lakes Golf Club and owned Stan Mikita's Village Inn in Oak Brook, Illinois. He appeared as himself in the 1992 film Wayne's World.

Did You Know?

• Mikita was born Stanislav Guoth in Sokolče, Slovak Republic, during its brief existence as a client state of Nazi Germany.
• He began using a curved stick after his standard stick got caught in a bench door, bending the blade; he later used a propane torch to create deliberate curves.
• He changed his playing style after his young daughter Meg asked why he spent so much time in the penalty box while watching a game on TV.
• In 1973 he co-founded the American Hearing Impaired Hockey Association and founded the Stan Mikita School for the Hearing Impaired.
• He was the first player in NHL history to win the Hart, Art Ross, and Lady Byng trophies in the same season, doing so in consecutive years.