Interesting stuff- interesting reaction (the original blog post)....
so, the deal is here, you can see that when you younger guys might read comments in the papers that "whoa hooo , I guess there *are* more than 20,000 Blackhawk (or hockey) fans in the city, who knew? " type of bull- it is all couched in what drove (or I think it was) the original blog author to post that sort of thing.
The fact of the matter is, is that Hull and Mikita were what carried the Blackhawks... you see the Hawks never really were all that great of a team; even one of their 1930's SC wins was from (iirc) a team that had a losing record. They were a non-factor on in to the 50's even, and really only Hull and Mikita actually changed that around.
I think it can be argued that the success of the Blackhawks (and mind you from what I understand Blackhawk hockey was not just "relevant" in the 60's - it was the only team in town that won on a regular basis.), that even allowed for the Bulls to be created ... but you know, don't bother some folks with the details of something trivial like 'history' -- anything pre-Jordan doesn't exist.
Personally, I can't think of a better way to commemorate those guys' legacy and what they meant to the Blackhawks as a whole ... in a town doesn't complain about erecting statues of Cubs' players- having some sort of beef with a Hull/Mikita statue is pure surreal bizarreness.
Thx, for sharing.
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FWIW-- Bobby Hull was the best player ever to pull on an Indian head sweater. The fact that he left for Winnipeg (at the then unheard of amount of $1,000,000) -arguably allowed for teams like the Edmonton Oilers, the now Carolina Hurricanes, the now Phoenix Coyotes, the now Colorado Avalanche to even exist in the NHL -as the presence of Hull in that league gave that league legitimacy that it would never have had any other way. You could also argue that the presence of the Oilers in the WHA attracted the Flames to Calgary from Atlanta (back when a US based team actually moved up north).
Bobby Hull was the biggest name in hockey at the time he left for the WHA - *the* premiere superstar in the league; at the time no one -- but no one was scoring goals at the pace he was -so personally I think a little bit of perspective is needed.
Mikita -hey, what can you say about longevity... he played on one team from 1959 until 1980, and was a star in his own right; however Hull got all of the press -as goal scoring always tends to do. However, I doubt there are many top 100 players of all time sites that rank Mikita over Hull.
2 guys, legitimate automatic entries in to the hockey HoF ... um yeah ... I suppose you put their statues in the parking lot that was the old Stadium.... well, by some's "logic".
article about how Hull and Mikita shouldn't get statues outside the UC:Do Bobby Hull And Stan Mikita Statues Fit Outside The House That Jordan Built? - The Rock Report
