Trending
CHICAGO -- Mike Ditka, who personified the toughness and grit of Chicago in a Hall of Fame career as a player and coach of the Bears and the leader of arguably the most dominant team in NFL history, has died. He was 86.
Ditka’s family announced his death on Friday in a statement.
“It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved husband, father, grandfather, and friend, Mike Ditka,” the family said. “While the world knew Mike as a Hall of Fame football player, legendary coach, and leader of the Chicago Bears’ Super Bowl XX championship team, we knew him as the heart of our family. Mike will be missed beyond measure and remembered forever.”
Nicknamed “Iron Mike” as a player, Ditka helped revolutionize the tight end position and in 1988 was the first to play at the spot to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
After his playing days, he moved to the sidelines and later took over as Chicago’s coach. His 1985 team featured one of the game’s most dominant defenses ever. It also had enough outsized personalities to record a rap video, “The Super Bowl Shuffle,” and back up their boasting in the championship game three months later.
He was arguably the NFL’s most recognizable -- and imitated -- personality during his time as Chicago’s coach with his thick but neatly groomed mustache and sweater vest with “BEARS” emblazoned across the chest. The iconic look is still mimicked by fans at Bears games decades later. That along with his fiery, red-faced sideline tantrums inspired the popular “Da Bears” skit on “Saturday Night Live” during the 1980s.
After retiring as a coach, Ditka became a restaurateur, pitchman and TV personality, as well as a forceful advocate for improved medical and retirement benefits for former players.
Ditka was tough and gruff, the quintessential Chicago Bear. He did everything from order off the menu to knock defensive backs on their butts with a growl. His adopted hometown reveled in every minute.
Revered as “Da Coach,” Ditka was the ringmaster of the 1985 Bears, one of the most dominant and perhaps the zaniest Super Bowl-winning team in league history.
“When I got to Chicago in the summer of 1985, Mike Ditka and the Chicago Bears were king,” former President Barack Obama wrote on X. “Coach Ditka set the tone for a team that was punishing, dominant, and fun -- and the city loved him for it. I’m thinking of the Ditka family and Bears fans everywhere on the passing of a legend.”
Ditka was enshrined in the College and Pro Football Halls of Fame and the Bears said during a ceremony in 2013 that his “No. 89” jersey will be the last one retired by the team.
Mike Ditka