Mike Ditka, Bears’ Only Super Bowl-Winning Coach, Dies at 86
Mike Ditka, the Hall of Fame tight end who played on the Chicago Bears’ 1963 NFL championship team and later coached the franchise to its only Super Bowl victory, has died. He was 86.
A family spokesperson said Ditka died about 9 a.m. Friday, surrounded by family and friends, according to WBEZ and the Chicago Sun-Times. No cause of death was announced; his health had been in decline in recent years.
In a family statement, relatives said that “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.”
A player who redefined his position
Born Michael Keller Dyczko on Oct. 18, 1939, in Carnegie, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh, Ditka grew up in Aliquippa and starred in football, basketball and baseball before choosing the University of Pittsburgh over Notre Dame and Penn State. A first-team All-American at end in 1960, he was drafted by the Bears with the fifth overall pick in 1961 after the team won a coin flip with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
As a 6-foot-3, 230-pound rookie, Ditka caught 56 passes for 1,076 yards and 12 touchdowns, becoming the first tight end ever to surpass 1,000 receiving yards and earning NFL Rookie of the Year honors, the Chicago Bears recounted. Combining size, strength and relentless aggressiveness, he transformed the position into a pass-catching, big-play role rarely seen before in the NFL.
Ditka made the Pro Bowl his first five seasons and was named first-team All-Pro in 1963 and 1964. His 75 receptions in 1964 set an NFL record for a tight end that stood for 16 seasons, until the Chargers’ Kellen Winslow broke it in 1980. He helped lead the Bears to the 1963 NFL championship, catching a team-high 59 passes for 794 yards and eight touchdowns.
After a falling out with founder and owner George Halas, Ditka was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles in 1967. He finished his playing career with the Dallas Cowboys, winning Super Bowl VI after the 1971 season. When he retired in 1972, his 427 career receptions were the most by an NFL tight end at the time.
From the sideline to a Super Bowl
Ditka became a Cowboys assistant under Tom Landry and, in 1978, wrote Halas a letter expressing his wish to return to Chicago as head coach. In 1982, after consecutive losing seasons, Halas hand-picked him to lead the Bears.
The timing proved fortuitous. With general manager Jim Finks assembling a roster of young talent and a stellar 1983 draft class that included future Hall of Famers Richard Dent and Jimbo Covert, the Bears reached the NFC Championship Game in 1984 before storming to a 15-1 record in 1985. That team blanked the New York Giants 21-0 and the Los Angeles Rams 24-0 in the playoffs before crushing the New England Patriots 46-10 in Super Bowl XX.
Ditka compiled a 112-68 record across 11 seasons, winning six NFC Central titles and reaching three NFC Championship Games. He was named NFL Coach of the Year in 1985 and 1988. His eight-season run from 1984 to 1991 produced a 90-37 record and seven playoff appearances.
He is the only person in the NFL’s modern era to win a league title with the same team as both a player (1963) and a head coach (1985).
Ditka’s own personality and ego played a part in the end of the Bears’ dominant era, and he was fired by team president Michael McCaskey after a 5-11 season in 1992. He later coached the New Orleans Saints from 1997 to 1999, going 15-33.
Tributes from across the game
News of Ditka’s death drew remembrances from figures across football, politics and popular culture.
Former President Barack Obama said Ditka “set the tone for a team that was punishing, dominant, and fun, and the city loved him for it.”
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell called Ditka a man who “epitomized football over so many years,” adding that “as a Hall of Fame player, Super Bowl-winning coach with his beloved and iconic Bears, and as a broadcaster, Mike served as an ambassador for the game and inspired generations of fans,” CBS News Chicago reported.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker called Ditka “not only an icon in Chicago, but the entire football world,” while Pro Football Hall of Fame President and CEO Jim Porter said Ditka’s “captivating personality and leadership qualities will be preserved and celebrated forever in Canton.” The Hall said its flag would fly at half staff.
Even the Green Bay Packers, with whom Ditka had a fierce rivalry, released a statement calling him “one of the fiercest competitors in NFL history” and crediting him with helping define “the intensity and tradition of the Packers-Bears rivalry, the oldest in professional football.”
Former Bears who played for Ditka remembered a demanding but deeply loyal leader. Linebacker Ron Rivera, part of the Super Bowl XX team, called him “probably the ultimate Chicago Bear” and “emblematic of the City of Broad Shoulders.” Former safety Gary Fencik recalled that before the 1985 season Ditka told his players, “We had a good year last year, but second best is not good enough,” setting the tone for the entire year.
A life beyond the sideline
After coaching, Ditka became one of the most recognizable figures in American sports as an analyst for NBC, CBS and ESPN, including a decade on Sunday NFL Countdown. He opened restaurants, endorsed wine, cigars and sausages, appeared in commercials and television shows, and inspired the Saturday Night Live “Superfans” sketches of the 1980s and 1990s.
The Bears retired his No. 89 in 2013, the last number the franchise has retired. He was ranked the sixth-best player in Bears history in 2019.
Ditka was also a forceful advocate for improved medical and retirement benefits for former players through the Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund, and a longtime supporter of Misericordia Heart of Mercy in Chicago, where a residence hall is named in his honor.
Ditka suffered two heart attacks, one in 1988 while coaching the Bears, and a minor stroke in 2012. He had been largely absent from major Bears events in recent years because of his declining health.
He is survived by his wife, Diana, and his family, who said he would be “missed beyond measure and remembered forever.”
What’s next
The Bears are scheduled to play the Packers in Green Bay this weekend — an opponent tied to Ditka’s most storied rivalry. The team had not announced memorial plans as of Friday, though tributes continued to accumulate across Chicago, where the Willis Tower was set to light its antennas in Bears blue and orange.
As former receiver Tom Waddle put it, Ditka gave him the chance to live his dream. “I’m 59 years old,” Waddle told ChicagoBears.com, “and I wouldn’t have been able to live the blessed life I’ve lived without him believing in me.”