This is the start of a series we've been planning for a while. We will spend a little time discussing older players and events we remember, in an effort to help those who are new to this whole "Chicago has an NHL team" thing. We will welcome guest contributors as well. So let's get started...

When I was born, Stan Mikita was a Blackhawk.

When I started Kindergarten, Stan Mikita was a Blackhawk.

When I got my first girlfriend, graduated grammar school, started shaving, got my first drivers license, Stan Mikita was a Blackhawk.

When my high school class graduated, Stan Mikita was a Blackhawk. To be honest, he had just played his last game, but you get the idea.

It got to the point that I always figured I'd be on my deathbed, ready to head off into the great beyond, and Stan Mikita would swing around a defenseman, bury a puck behind me, and I'd slip away to the sound of the foghorn.

The Hawks of the 60s and early 70s were pretty much defined by two of the all-time greats, Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita. They were never linemates, Hull always on the top line and Mikita on the 2-line, with Kenny Wharram on the right, and Ab McDonald or Doug Mohns on the left. The "Scooter Line".

Anyway, Hull and Mikita. Hull was right out of Central Casting, a handsome mass of muscle with curly blonde hair. Even his nickname, "The Golden Jet" sounded like it came from Hollywood. Hull was the fastest skater anyone had ever seen, with a huge slap shot. He was the perfect idol, a hockey God. Even the name "Bobby Hull" sounded like it came from a movie.

Mikita though, he was one of us. He never had any catchy nickname...we just called him "Stosh", like anyone else named Stan from school or around the neighborhood. He was born in Czechoslovakia, and moved to Canada as a small child. The fact that he was from over there resonated with every Bohunk in Cicero/Berwyn, who claimed him as their own. We all identified so strongly with Mikita that even now there is a sea of #21 sweaters at every Hawks game. the name, like the man, was solid, dependable. Where the Canadiens had players with named that sounded like music, names like Guy Lafleur or Jean Beliveau, Stan Mikita sounded more like the guy who put a new roof on your aunt's bungalow, or fixed your grandfather's Rambler. Stan Mikita had a name like half the city of Chicago. One of us.

Stosh wasn't a very big guy, but when he came up he had a real nasty streak. He had sharp elbows, and liked getting the butt end of his stick into guys' ribs. He credited that style of play to Ted Lindsay, who was with the Hawks when he first came up. Lindsay told him to not let anyone run him, and stand his ground. Stosh spent a lot of time in the penalty box.

The penalties came to an end when his daughter saw a game on TV. She asked, "Why does Daddy spend so much time sitting down?" Mikita himself once said, "It takes an awfully long stick to score from the penalty box." Mikita changed his style of play, to the point where he was always among the players with the lowest amounts of penalty minutes each season.

In fact, his changed style of play meant more time on the ice, and he wound up winning 4 Art Ross Trophies, for leading the league in scoring. There were two seasons where he won the Art Ross, the Hart Trophy (for Most Valuable Player) and the Lady Byng (for gentlemanly play). No other player in the history of the NHL has ever won all three trophies in a single season. His style of play was elusive, slipping past defensemen, and puckhandling until he got off his quick wrister. He was also one of the best playmakers and faceoff men in the league.

Stosh was one of the great innovators in the game too. One day one of his sticks got caught in a door jamb. By the time he finally was able to pull it out, the blade had a huge curve in it. He went out to practice with the curved blade, and the puck rose and dipped when he shot it. Hull and Mikita both used the "banana blades", and now hockey sticks with curved blades are the norm. A far cry from when Maurice Richard scored so many goals with his backhand, which would not have been nearly as lethal with a curved blade. A guy who took a handyman's approach - he found something unorthodox to do the job better than the standard tool, much like every handyman around Chicago. One of us.

The other thing he did was, he was the first player who was both a superstar and a player with tough-guy credentials to start wearing a helmet on a regular basis. After Bill Masterson died after hitting his head on the ice in 1968, Mikita almost immediately began wearing one. Before then, players might wear a helmet for a day or two when they were nursing an injury, and players who wore helmets regularly weren't players of Mikita's stature.

Mikita played for the Hawks in 22 seasons. He was the mainstay of the franchise. Players came and went, but Stosh was always there. He was one of the Hawks' captains in the 1976-77 season, but throughout the 70s, he was the face of the franchise.

Today he's active with the Blackhawks' alumni, and he does charity work around the Chicago area. He also has a successful business, Mikita Enterprises.

He still lives in the Chicago area. He really is one of us.