Kuc: Stan Mikita's greatest legacy goes far beyond hockey

June 02, 2024

The look in Jill Mikita’s eyes that afternoon in June 2015 while sitting in the sun room of the family home and speaking of her husband, Stan, is one I will never forget.

There was a sadness, of course, mixed with some fear of the unknown with her husband living in an assisted care facility, his memories stripped by the devastating brain disorder dementia with Lewy bodies. But it was the strength in Jill Mikita’s eyes that left an indelible mark.

Stan Mikita died on Tuesday at age 78. The news arrived via e-mail while I sat in my car in the parking lot of a local store. I’d gone there with my son, Adam, to buy him a Cubs jersey for a journey to Kansas City to see his favorite baseball team play the Royals.

Adam is 8 years old, and was talking a mile a minute, excited about the father-son road trip that will cap the summer before school starts next week. But when I read the e-mail and mumbled more to myself than to him that Stan Mikita had died, Adam went quiet after whispering, “That’s sad.”

And it is. It’s sad because the world lost not only one of the greatest hockey players to ever lace up skates, but a man whose zest for life and caring for others surpassed what he did on the ice during his 22 seasons with the Blackhawks. During my nearly 10-year stint as Hawks beat reporter with another publication, our paths would cross on occasion and Mikita would often offer his customary greeting: a crushing handshake that would require the suppression of a pained yelp.

Stan Mikita’s presence will always be felt at the United Center. (Dennis Wierzbicki/USA TODAY Sports)

The last time I saw Mikita was at the opening of the Blackhawks Store on Michigan Ave. in October 2014. When he spotted me, he asked, “What are you doing here?” It was a strange question at the time because the team was holding a news conference at the store and it was my job to be there. Only later was it revealed that Mikita had been experiencing dementia symptoms. A few months later, all of his memories would be gone.

I’ve written countless words as a sportswriter, but none have meant more than the ones penned when the Mikita family allowed me to tell the story of Stan’s battle with dementia with Lewy bodies. The piece appeared the morning of Game 6 of the 2015 Stanley Cup Final, and later that June 15 night, the Hawks defeated the Lightning to capture their third championship in six seasons. It is the most important story I will ever write. Stan Mikita and his family deserved it.

It turned out that others deserved it, too. E-mails began flooding in from readers reaching out to share stories about their loved ones who battled dementia. The notes numbered in the hundreds and came from sons and daughters, husbands and wives and grandsons and granddaughters from all walks of life. To this day, the e-mails still come.

Stan Mikita’s legacy as a hockey player includes being arguably the greatest Blackhawks player of all time. His legacy as a family man includes a wife, children and grandchildren who will forever be proud of the husband, father and grandfather he became.

In Tuesday’s announcement, his family said Mikita “was surrounded by his loving family whom he fiercely loved” when he passed away. That family fiercely loved him back.

But perhaps Stan Mikita’s greatest legacy is the way he unknowingly inspired strangers to open up about family members’ struggles with a brain affliction that can take a horrible emotional toll on everyone with whom it comes into contact. They need to talk. Stan Mikita inspired them to do so. That’s a legacy.

(Top photo: Bill Smith/NHLI via Getty Images)

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