Stanislav “Stan” Mikita and Bobby Hull




Stanislav “Stan” Mikita, 2011
Julie Rotblatt-Amrany

Bobby Hull, 2011
Omri Amrany

United Center
1901 West Madison Street

            Unveiled on October 22, 2011 on the northeast plaza of the United Center, these statues honor the careers of two renowned hockey players associated with the Chicago Blackhawks, Slovak-born Canadian Stanlislav “Stan” Mikita (born 1940) and Canadian Bobby Hull (born 1939). Both helped the Blackhawks to win the Stanley Cup in 1961 and both were inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1983.
            Mikita played his entire career (1958-80) with the Blackhawks and was considered one of the best centers of the 1960s. He is the Chicago franchise’s all-time leader in assists, points and games played and his number 21 was retired on October 21, 1980.
            Hull, described as the “Golden Jet,” was, perhaps, the greatest left winger of all time and the first to use the slapshot as a scoring weapon. In 1966 he became the first player in the National Hockey League to score 50 goals in a season (doing so a total of four times during his career) and he holds first place in goals and second place in games played and points for the Blackhawks.
            Working closely with the retired players and using detailed measurements from their faces, portrait artists Julie Rotblatt-Amrany and Omri Amrany created larger-than-life (7 feet tall) statues in white bronze, using zinc and nickel to create the silver sheen of their skin and red patina for the jerseys. Placed atop 5-foot tall black granite pedestals, the hockey greats join the Amrany studio’s famous statue of Michael Jordan, located near Gate 4 of the United Center. Mikita and Hull were present for the unveiling ceremony, across the street from the old Chicago Stadium location, where they played a combined 2,430 games.

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