Mike Ditka, Bears coach and Hall of Famer, dies aged 86
The first tight end in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, he won a Super Bowl as player, assistant and head coach, and shaped Chicago football for decades.
Mike Ditka, the tight end turned coach who gave the Chicago Bears their only Super Bowl title, has died. His family announced on Friday, October 9, that he was 86.
In brief
- His family announced on Friday, October 9, that he was 86.
- The route back to Chicago started with a letter.
- NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said Ditka “brought intensity, authenticity, and an unmistakable personality to everything he did,” and praised his efforts for the Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund.
No cause of death was given. In a statement carried by the Tennessean, the family said it was “with profound sadness” that it announced the passing of a husband, father, grandfather and friend. Canton welcomed him in 1988 as the first tight end enshrined there, and as Bears coach he later won Super Bowl XX.
A playing career that changed the tight end position
Born Michael Dyczko in Carnegie, Pennsylvania, on October 18, 1939, Ditka was taken fifth overall by the Bears in the 1961 draft out of Pitt. He was named NFL Rookie of the Year that season and became the first tight end to pass 1,000 receiving yards in a season. His 75 catches in 1964 set a single-season mark for tight ends that lasted until 1980, and he reached it in a 14-game schedule.
Those totals came over 158 games across 12 seasons, and he retired after the 1972 season. His stops were laid out as follows.
| Team | Seasons | Notable |
|---|---|---|
| Chicago Bears | 1961 to 1966 | Rookie of the Year, 1963 NFL championship |
| Philadelphia Eagles | 1967 to 1968 | Traded after a falling out with George Halas |
| Dallas Cowboys | 1969 to 1972 | Super Bowl VI title after the 1971 season |
In that Super Bowl, Dallas beat the Miami Dolphins 24-3 and Ditka caught the last touchdown. Over his career he earned two First-Team All-Pro selections and five Pro Bowl nods. Hall of Fame president and CEO Jim Porter said Ditka “brought an unrivaled level of toughness to an era already defined by physicality.”
From a letter to Halas to the Bears sideline
His coaching career began in Dallas in 1972, working with the special teams and the tight ends under Tom Landry, and he collected another Super Bowl ring there as an assistant. The route back to Chicago started with a letter. During the 1981 season he wrote to Halas, the Bears owner and his former coach, saying he hoped to be considered one day for the head coaching job, despite the bitter way he had left as a player, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
- Ditka writes to Halas about the head coaching job.
- Halas hires him to replace Neill Armstrong; the Bears go 3-6 in a strike-shortened season.
- The team finishes 8-8.
- Chicago wins its first playoff game in more than 20 years, then loses the NFC title game to San Francisco.
1985 and the peak of “Da Coach”
The 1985 Bears finished 15-1, then crushed the New England Patriots 46-10 in Super Bowl XX, still the only championship of that kind in franchise history. That win made him the first man to hold a Super Bowl title in all three roles, player, assistant and head coach, and the first head coach to win one with a club he had once played for. He and Tom Flores are the only two men in the Hall of Fame to have done so as player, assistant and head coach.
Voters named him Coach of the Year in 1985 and again in 1988, a season in which he steered the Bears to the NFC title game even after suffering a heart attack. Over 11 seasons in Chicago he went 106-62 before being fired after 1992. Former US President Barack Obama said of that team: “They changed the laws of football.”
“Da Coach. Hall of Famer. The heartbeat of the ’85 Bears and a Super Bowl champion,”
Jarrett Payton, son of Walter Payton
New Orleans, television and later years
Ditka was hired by the New Orleans Saints and spent three seasons there, going 15-33. That stint is best remembered for 1999, when he traded his entire draft class to move up to No. 5 and select running back Ricky Williams.
On television, he first appeared as an NBC analyst and then moved to ESPN. He suffered a stroke in 2012 and a second heart attack in 2018, and in 2017 he stirred controversy by speaking out against the anthem protests started by Colin Kaepernick. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said Ditka “brought intensity, authenticity, and an unmistakable personality to everything he did,” and praised his efforts for the Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund.
Featured image. Source: Wikimedia Commons, Soldier_Field,_Chicago,_Illinois_(14207354361).jpg. Credit: Ken Lund from Reno, Nevada, USA. License: CC BY-SA 2.0.
