George Mikan: Requiescat in pace

Bob Novak remembers the NBA's first great big man.


As a youngster in Joliet during the 1940s, I was proud of the young fighting men protecting our freedom in World War II. But I have to admit that the Jolietan we admired the most never went to war. He spent those years playing basketball for DePaul. He was the mighty George Mikan.

The memories tumbled back when I learned of Mikan's death Thursday at the age of 80. He was a hero to us in Joliet, and we needed a hero. The city had been mired in the Depression since its three steel mills closed in 1929, never to reopen. We all needed a lift, and Mikan provided it. We thought the alumnus of Joliet Catholic who never played high school basketball was the best basketball player in the world. He was the idol of every kid I knew.

George was not remote, but was around Joliet every summer -- and very accessible. As a baseball-crazy kid on summer Sundays after my team in the Junior Park League finished, I would pick out an afternoon men's game to watch. More often than not, my friends and I would pick the West Side Grocers, the team sponsored by Mayor Art Janke (proprietor of the West Side Grocery). That is, we would pick the Grocers if Mikan were pitching for them.

He wasn't the best pitcher in Joliet, but he was awesome to watch. He had one pitch -- a straight fastball -- and not much control. Firing down from his 6-foot-10 height and wearing thick glasses, Mikan terrified most batters. He was only 19 or 20 (six years older than I), but he was a grown man.

Besides pitching once or twice a week for the Grocers, Mikan also played shortfielder (the 10th position) for the Rivals Club in the Chicago-area "major" fast-pitch softball league (where the Rivals' big opponent was the Match Corporation of America). Very well coordinated, George planted himself on second base and had terrific range to either side. Between the Grocers and the Rivals, the best college basketball player in America each week was playing five or six games of baseball and softball.

But Mikan was mainly a basketball player, and I tried to get as often as possible to the Chicago Stadium (where DePaul played most of its home games). His little hook shot from the low post was unstoppable from that era's very narrow lanes, and he batted away many enemy shots. Mikan unwittingly caused widening of the lanes and prohibition of goal tending.
The centers on most teams then were five or six inches shorter, but not on Oklahoma A&M. Their center was even taller than Mikan: 7-foot Bob "Foothills" Kurland. (After college, Kurland opted to play AAU ball with Phillips 66 of Bartlesville, Okla., instead of going pro and later became a Phillips executive.)