In light of news circulating the internet today regarding the world’s first (production ready) flying car, Sports Mockery thought it would be appropriate to revisit the past and give you the greatest innovation in modern athletics courtesy of Chicago sports.

In case you missed it, the flying car designed by Stefan Klein and Slovakian company, Aeromobil, is being presented at the Pioneers Festival in Vienna, Austria on October 29th.

So on the day we are promised to see cars fly, we will take a look at what Blackhawks player made pucks fly with this game changing idea.

The Banana Blade

In regards to landscape changing innovations in modern sports there have been many. From Sportvision and instant replay to headset communication on football sidelines and grooved golf clubs, there are plenty that can lay claim to most significant ever.

Interestingly enough, the curved hockey stick or “banana blade” that has become the standard of today’s NHL, is generally regarded to be the work of Chicago Blackhawks great, Stan Mikita.

Rumor has it that Mikita along with teammate Bobby Hull, were taking some extra shots after practice when the blade of Mikita’s stick cracked and curved. Out of frustration Mikita fired off a shot and happened to notice a significant change in the puck’s lift and velocity.

After seeing this, both decided to experiment with curving their sticks and the shot itself to see if they could master such a devastating shot. They did, and the rest is history as Mikita went on to have his most successful scoring year ever and would of course go on to become one of the greatest players to ever suit up in a Blackhawks uniform.

Here is an excerpt from an article ESPN’s David Fleming wrote on the phenomenon of the curved stick back in 2012–

The son of a carpenter, Mikita set about after practice to re-create his revolutionary boomerang curve, using a vice, a hacksaw, a chisel and a plane, along with a hearty helping of heat and pressure. His new stick made its game debut a few weeks later. Expecting to get ridiculed, Mikita scored on his first three shots. “I invented the curve, but maybe I created a monster, ” he says. “I’m pretty sure the goaltenders’ union is still pissed at me.”

Significance of the Curved Blade

Nowadays you would be hard pressed to find a player that doesn’t curve their stick to some degree or another. Evidence of the effect a blade’s curvature has on the puck is irrefutable. Since it has become common place in the NHL the league has set guidelines for exactly how much a player’s blade can be curved.

Curving the blade allows for far greater control, spin, loft, and velocity as examined here.

It’s pretty commonplace in any discussion regarding groundbreaking achievements for there to be others who claim to be the first to experiment with said achievement.

Others Who Claim To Be The First

On the topic of Mikita’s curved blade, former NHL player Bert Olmstead claims he was curving sticks in his youth during the 1930’s while Andy Bathgate of the New York Rangers similarly claims to have started it with his brother as children in Winnipeg.

While it’s very possible both claims are true, after all kids experiment with pretty much anything and everything as it’s pretty much their job to do so, Mikita is the one who can lay claim to introducing it to the world.

As such, he is rightly credited as being the father of the phenomenon that changed Ice Hockey forever.