EXTRA: Mikita more than donut shop

A Tuesday night tribute to a Second City sporting greats. Photo by Gregory Tejeda

I'm not the biggest of hockey fans, yet even I appreciate the significance of Stan Mikita, who back when I was a kid was a star of the Chicago Blackhawks and even now remains one of the best hockey players this city ever saw.

Which means certain fans were in serious mourning when the word got out Tuesday that Mikita has passed on. He was 78. Chicago White Sox fans were given a mini-tribute to Mikita just prior to their 4-3 loss to the New York Yankees.

THE SAD PART is that I fear too many Chicagoans won't have a clue as to who Mikita was. Their knowledge of the Blackhawks likely doesn't go back any further than the Stanley Cup titles the team won during the past decade. It's almost as though anything happening prior to that just doesn't matter much.

Which means there's a generation who probably is hearing of Mikita's death, and is thinking up "Wayne's World" jokes -- because we all know the fictional Wayne Campbell hung out at the Stan Mikita's donut shop when he wasn't doing the cable access television show from his basement.

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