Mike Ditka, whose identify and likeness turned synonymous with the historical past of the Chicago Bears each as a participant and coach, has died on the age of 86.
His household confirmed the information in an announcement to NBC Chicago Friday morning.
“It’s with profound disappointment that we announce the passing of our beloved husband, father, grandfather, and buddy, Mike Ditka,” the assertion learn. “Whereas the world knew Mike as a Corridor of Fame soccer participant, legendary coach, and chief of the Chicago Bears’ Tremendous Bowl XX championship staff, we knew him as the guts of our household. Mike will probably be missed past measure and remembered endlessly.”
Ditka spent the primary six seasons of his NFL enjoying profession with the Bears and was employed by the staff as a head coach in 1982, establishing himself as one of many biggest sporting legends town of Chicago has ever identified.
Born in Carnegie, Pennsylvania, in 1939, Ditka was a three-sport athlete in highschool and earned himself a soccer scholarship on the College of Pittsburgh, the place he launched into a profession that noticed him win first-team All-American honors. He was inducted into the School Soccer Corridor of Fame in 1986.
Ditka was then drafted fifth general by the Bears within the 1961 NFL Draft, and he instantly started smashing information and dazzling the soccer world. He was elected to 5 consecutive Professional Bowls to start his NFL profession and was twice named as a first-team All-Professional.
In six seasons with the Bears Ditka racked up 316 catches for 4,503 yards and 34 touchdowns, and he would later end his profession with the Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys, profitable a Tremendous Bowl with Dallas in 1972.
Ditka would in the end function an assistant coach underneath legendary Cowboys coach Tom Landry till 1981, and it was then that legendary Bears proprietor George “Papa Bear” Halas introduced Ditka house, hiring him as head coach of the Bears in 1982.
For sure, the choice paid off handsomely for Halas and the Bears, as Ditka gained 106 video games throughout his tenure, the second-most of any coach not named Halas in Bears historical past.
He additionally coached 12 playoff video games for the Bears, greater than every other coach within the staff’s historical past, and he posted a 6-6 file in these video games.
His most well-known season with the staff got here in 1985, when the Bears went 15-1 after which steamrolled by the playoffs, thrashing the New England Patriots in Tremendous Bowl XX for his or her first and solely Tremendous Bowl championship in staff historical past.
That season’s Bears staff will endlessly be referred to as one of many biggest ever put collectively within the historical past of the game, topping the league in speeding yards and touchdowns whereas additionally placing collectively the most effective defensive seasons ever with legends like Mike Singletary, Richard Dent and Dan Hampton terrorizing opposing offenses.
Throughout his teaching profession Ditka was elected to the Professional Soccer Corridor of Fame in 1988, and he spoke eloquently about his perspective towards the game, and towards life.
“In life, many males have expertise, however expertise in itself is not any accomplishment,” he mentioned. “Excellence in soccer and excellence in life is bred when males acknowledge their alternatives after which pursue them with a ardour.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSqdRMi3TNw
Ditka did have a well being scare in the course of the 1988 soccer season when he suffered a light coronary heart assault, however he solely missed one recreation because the full-time head coach and returned to the sidelines a short while later, additional cementing his popularity as Chicago robust.
Sadly the Bears started to slip within the last years of his tenure, and in January 1993 the staff fired him after 11 seasons on the helm.
After his time with the Bears ended, Ditka went on to teach for the New Orleans Saints, however his run there was far much less profitable, going 15-33 in three seasons earlier than he was fired after the 1999 season.
He additionally produced and endorsed numerous merchandise, together with wine and cigars, and he even did some work in Hollywood, showing as himself as a coach in 2005’s “Kicking and Screaming” with Will Ferrell, amongst different initiatives.
Ditka by no means forgot his soccer roots nonetheless, and he used his platform to push onerous for healthcare and different help for retired gamers on a wide range of fronts, together with by the Gridiron Greats Help Fund, which offers grants and professional bono medical help to retired gamers.
Ditka has had a wide range of media jobs, together with serving as an analyst on ESPN’s NFL Countdown, however he has all the time maintained a presence in Chicago, and he holds the excellence of being the final Bears participant to have their quantity retired by the staff, as his No. 89 jersey was formally taken out of circulation by the Bears in 2013.
For sure, Ditka by no means let go of his time as a Bears coach and participant.
“I do know one factor: I’m a Bear,” he mentioned. “Whether or not individuals don’t prefer it or they prefer it, I’m a Bear.”
