Blackhawks to unveil statues of Hull, Mikita

Their statues should have been somewhere in or around the United Center a long time ago, but Saturday night Stan Mikita and Bobby Hull finally get the proper recognition they deserve as the two greatest players in Blackhawks history.

The bronze life-like statues of Mikita and Hull will be unveiled at the northeast corner of the UC in a ceremony before the Hawks play the Avalanche.

The statues were up and bundled tightly in secrecy on Friday. The place chairman Rocky Wirtz, president John McDonough and their staff picked to display them is perfect, in the small plaza at the northeast corner of the building on Madison Street that gets a lot of foot traffic before and after games.

The Michael Jordan statue is not far away, so all those visitors who show up daily to take pictures of the monument to the greatest basketball player ever now can walk over and see the statues of Mikita and Hull.

The organization's decision to erect statues completes the journey for Mikita and Hull back into the Hawks family when only a few years ago they were not welcome.

Late owner Bill Wirtz and former senior vice president Bob Pulford wanted little to do with Mikita and Hull for whatever reasons that really aren't important anymore.

In Pulford's case, he simply didn't like the two Hawks greats, perhaps because of their popularity, their outspokenness or the fact he played against them for so many years as the Toronto Maple Leafs' checking center.

Wirtz had ample opportunity to overrule Pulford and welcome Mikita and Hull back into the organization, but he never did.

Everything changed when McDonough took over the day-to-day operation of the team in 2007. One of the first things he did was reach out to Mikita and Hull and offer them a place in the organization. The days of holding grudges were over, proclaimed McDonough, who realized what Hull and Mikita meant to Hawks fans and to the team they helped make kings of the city in the 1960s and early '70s.

Mikita and Hull accepted when McDonough offered them positions as team ambassadors. They have become fixtures again in the Hawks' community and around the United Center. One of the loudest ovations at every home game is when Mikita and Hull are shown on the scoreboard watching together from their box.

The Hawks tried once before erecting a statue recognizing the achievements of players from the past. It still sits on Madison Street across from Gate 2, a disappointment to those of us who at the time were expecting so much more. It was an effort by Bill Wirtz that didn't work because Wirtz refused to allow any player to be singled out ahead of another.

I wrote then Mikita and Hull should have been front and center on that statue, either by themselves or with Tony Esposito and Glenn Hall. One figure looks like Hull early in his Hawks career, but nobody ever came out and said officially it was the Golden Jet. Such silliness.

At least on Saturday night all finally will be made right when another of the many mistakes from the past is corrected by present leadership.