• Florian Kuklinski -1979

Florian Kuklinski was a player, coach and youth hockey "Founding Father," from Mosinee, Wisconsin.

He grew up playing hockey in the late 1930's and early 40's on the Wisconsin River in Mosinee.  In 1944, Florian left high school and joined the U.S. Naval Service.  During World War II, he served on a Land Service Transport vessel in the Pacific Ocean and was honorably discharged in 1946.  After the war, he enrolled in construction classes at Wausau Vocational School and later worked in Mosinee as a carpenter for his father Ed Kuklinski.  Eventually, Florian took over his father's construction business. 

 "KUK" as he was nicknamed, was a player on the 1949 State Champion Mosinee Papermakers Senior Hockey Team.  He played for the Mosinee Paper Makers on several Wisconsin Michigan League and Wisconsin State Championship Teams through the 1950' and into the early 1960's.  He eventually became the head coach of the Papermakers in the mid 1960's and later in the mid 1970's when they won state championships in 1975 and 1976.  Both years Kuklinski took his these teams to the U.S. senior intermediate national tournament.
    
Kuklinski organized and coached the Mosinee Youth Hockey Program in the 1960's that continues to this day.  His teams had their greatest success during the sixties. The Pee Wees won state tournaments in ’62,’63 and ’65; the Bantams in ’64,’65, and ’67; the Midgets in ’67 and ’68; Juveniles in ’69 and the Juniors in 1968.  Florian helped Mosinee become the “Hockey Capital of Wisconsin.” by developing State Championship youth teams, and earning participation in the U.S.A. National Youth Hockey Tournaments. Because of Kuk's fundraising leadership, Mosinee state championship youth teams played in the Nationals in Detroit, Michigan and Fort Wayne, Indiana.

During Florian's hockey career, he also refereed senior, youth and WIAA High School hockey.  In 1979, he was chosen to referee in the WIAA High School State Tournament.  Florian was not only an organizer, hockey coach, player and referee, but he also built and donated a set of hockey boards for the Mosinee outdoor rink.  In the early 1970's, he also worked with other members of the community to develop a plan for the city's Recreation Center that presently is the home of Mosinee Area Youth Hockey, Mosinee High School Hockey and the Mosinee Papermakers.