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CZECH POINTS: Mikita left his mark

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One of the coolest stories my dad ever told me took place at the old Olympia in Detroit back in the 1960s.

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For decades, the Olympia was home to the legendary Mr. Hockey — Gordie Howe — and his Detroit Red Wings teammates. The NHL was still the Original Six back then and the Chicago Blackhawks were in town for a Saturday night tilt.

Earlier in the day, my dad and mom — and at least one of my brothers — had hopped on a train in Belleville and made the lengthy journey to the Motor City to attend the game.

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That was a huge deal in those days. I think dad, who was then running the old Elaine Footwear shoe factory in Stirling, must’ve scored some tickets off a salesman.

After the game, dad spied Chicago centre, Stan Mikita, talking to some friends near an exit. Mikita and Bobby Hull were the two biggest stars on the Hawks team. They’d already won a Stanley Cup together and would go on to become two of the biggest superstars in the history of the game.

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Both my dad and Mikita hailed from what was then known as Czechoslovakia (now, separately, the Czech Republic and Slovakia) so dad wandered over to say hello, in Czech.

As the story goes, they talked for a while, perhaps comparing notes about their respective hometowns — dad’s was Chrudichromy, near Brno in the Czech Republic; Mikita’s was Sokolce, near Nitra in Slovakia — before it was time for Mikita to board the team bus. Before he did, though, Mikita disappeared around a corner and returned holding a brand new Northland hockey stick.

Here,” he said to dad, “give this to your sons.”

Wow. A Northland.

Everybody in the NHL used a Northland in those days. And unless you were in the NHL, you couldn’t get one. Anywhere.

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Today, a kid might wrap that Northland in cellophane and hide it in the closet, dreaming of some day flogging it on eBay for a bunch of cash as a collector’s item. But, not us. Especially back in the 1960s.

We used that Northland stick for outdoor games on the mill pond and street hockey games on our driveway. Soon, through wear and tear, the blade was barely a half-inch thick; then, finally, somebody stepped on it and it broke off.

But, that wasn’t the end of the Northland.

Enterprising, we dug up an old piece of plywood and nailed it to the shaft of the Northland. That accomplished, we squeezed even more use out of it — as a goalie stick.

Stan Mikita died Tuesday. He was 78 and suffering from dementia in his later years.

He was not only one of the best players in hockey history, but also one of its classiest. I’m not sure he would’ve remembered that simple act of kindness almost 60 years ago at the drafty old Olympia in Detroit, but he sure left an impression on us. We were big fans. For life.

A few years after the Northland hockey stick was brought back to our house in Stirling, my parents split up. I wound up in Belleville.

I have no idea what happened to the remains of that stick. But one thing I do know for sure, there was nobody who ever did more with a single Northland hockey stick than we did.

Except, Stan Mikita.

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