Legendary NFL Coach and Player Mike Ditka gone at age 86: Led 1985 Chicago Bears to Super Bowl Title
from www.nfl.com
A flat-topped freight train from Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, Mike Ditka became a Chicago sports icon.
He was a tight end made of iron, a rumbling wrecking ball who cemented himself as one of the greatest at his position in NFL chronicle. Years later, he returned to the Second City as a coach; a slick-haired, thick-‘stached leader of men who was at the forefront of a 1985 Bears Super Bowl triumph that stands as one of the most heralded seasons in league history.
He was “Iron Mike,” he was “Da Coach,” he was a Hall of Famer who died on Friday. Ditka was 86.
The death was announced by Jarrett Payton, son of Hall of Fame running back Walter Payton, who played under Ditka in Chicago.
“It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved husband, father, grandfather, and friend, Mike Ditka,” Ditka’s family said in a statement, via Jarrett Payton. “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.”
Enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1988 after a decorated playing career, Ditka was amid a storied coaching run with the Bears at the time of his induction. As a player, he was a 1963 NFL champion with the Bears and a Super Bowl VI winner with the Cowboys. He went on to claim a pair of Super Bowls in the coaching ranks, winning Super Bowl XII as a Dallas assistant under Tom Landry before he was carried off the field following the Bears’ Super Bowl XX conquest in January of 1986.
On the field, Ditka was a five-time Pro Bowler and two-time first-team All-Pro who played 12 NFL seasons: six with Chicago, two with Philadelphia and four with Dallas. The 1961 Associated Press NFL Rookie of the Year, Ditka was later recognized as a member of the league’s 75th Anniversary and 100th Anniversary All-Time Teams. His playing career spanned 158 regular-season games, producing 427 receptions for 5,812 receiving yards and 43 touchdowns.
Ditka was an NFL head coach for 14 seasons (1982-1992 with the Bears; 1997-99 for the Saints) and was twice voted AP NFL Coach of the Year (1985 and ’88). Ditka produced a 121-95 career record. He and fellow Hall of Famer Tom Flores stand as the only people to win Super Bowls as a player, assistant coach and head coach.
After decades of competing in NFL, Ditka continued to entertain football fans by analyzing the league. With his signature persona shining through the TV airwaves, it was a fitting coda for an extraordinary football life.
Born on Oct. 18, 1939 in Carnegie, Pennsylvania, Ditka honed his toughness in the Keystone State. He starred at Aliquippa High before shining in college at Pittsburgh.
Ditka was a first-round pick of the Bears in the 1961 NFL Draft, taken fifth overall, and was the eighth overall pick of the 1961 AFL Draft, selected by the Oilers. He chose Chicago and made an instant impact, piling up statistics from the get-go and pulverizing the opposition in the process.
In 1961, Ditka turned in one of the greatest debut seasons in NFL lore. Earning Pro Bowl honors right off the bat, he set rookie TE records in receptions (56), receiving yards (1,076) and receiving touchdowns (12) over 14 games, with all three figures leading the entire league at the position. Keith Jackson broke the receptions record in his rookie season of 1988, while Brock Bowers finally topped the yardage mark in 2024, 63 years after Ditka took the league by storm. Meanwhile, Ditka’s TD figure remains unmatched among rookie tight ends.
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