The Life Of Mike Karakas (Part Two)

Mike Karakas was the first American-born goalie to make an impact in the National Hockey League.

A few years back I was researching Mike Karakas for a past project and had reached out to his family to get some information on the netminder. What I found out is that Mike’s younger brother Tom Karakas, who was also a pro hockey goalie in his own right, was the family historian and had previously written extensively about his older brother for a family book. Here is Tom’s writing’s on Mike in a two-part series here. Enjoy!

Many goalies have been taken into the Hall of Fame for winning the Vezina Trophy and Chicago has had a few, but hockey is a team sport and if you don’t win the Stanley Cup you have not made it to the top. Mike can say he made it and his name is on the Cup with many great players from the past.

In the 1940-41 season the Blackhawks sent Mike to Providence where he won the Calder Cup for the championship of the American League. Chicago was struggling and got rid of Mike instead of the fifteen other players. He showed in the first year away from the Hawks they made a mistake. In the 1943-44 season the Hawks paid the Providence Reds $25,000 to get Mike back in the nets in Chicago. His first season back in Chicago he brought them to the finals against the Montreal Canadians, only to lose four straight with their great star, Maurice Richard, having one of his many great years.

The name “Karakas” was as well known in Chicago as any sport’s name at the time. Mike finished up his hockey career playing for the Providence Reds in the year l950. He settled in Providence, a town that loved him and thought he was the greatest goalie ever. He later built the house he lived in for many years in Narragansett, R.I.