Mike Ditka, whose excellence as an NFL player and coach and larger-than-life personality immortalized him as one of football’s true titans, has died at 86, his family announced Friday.
The Hall of Famer’s cause of death was not released.
Ditka, a game-changing tight end, played 12 NFL seasons for the Chicago Bears, Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys, earning five Pro Bowl selections.
He is perhaps best remembered, though, as the mustachioed head coach of the storied 1985 Bears, who won the Super Bowl behind one of the greatest defenses in NFL history.
“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,” Ditka’s family said in a statement.
“Mike will be missed beyond measure and remembered forever.”
Born in Carnegie, Penn., Ditka was a collegiate standout at Pittsburgh before the Bears selected him in the first round of the 1961 draft.
Ditka immediately emerged as a star, making the Pro Bowl in each of his first five seasons and earning first-team All-Pro honors in two of them.
His 1,076 receiving yards in 1961 made Ditka the first tight end to eclipse 1,000 in his rookie season. His 12 touchdowns that year prevailed as his career-best.
Ditka totaled 427 receptions, 5,812 yards and 43 touchdowns during his playing career from 1961-72, spending six years with the Bears, two with the Eagles and four with the Cowboys.
In his second-to-last season, Ditka became a Super Bowl champion as part of the Tom Landry-led Cowboys team that defeated Don Shula and the Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl VI.
Ditka transitioned to coaching after his playing career, serving as an assistant on the Dallas staff from 1973-81. He was the wide receivers/special teams coach on the 1977 Cowboys team that won Super Bowl XII over the Denver Broncos.
The Bears hired Ditka to be their head coach in 1982, and four seasons later, they became the class of the NFL.
The ’85 Bears started 12-0 and finished 15-1, with Ditka’s offense and Buddy Ryan’s defense proving to be perfect complements that even in-fighting between the big-personality coaches couldn’t derail.
Behind an all-time talent-laden roster that included Hall of Famers Walter Payton, Mike Singletary, Richard Dent, Dan Hampton and Steve McMichael, the Bears shut out the Giants and Los Angeles Rams in the NFC playoffs before dominating the New England Patriots, 46-10, in Super Bowl XX.
The image of Ditka — in a striped Bears sweater — being carried on the shoulders of McMichael and William Perry after that Super Bowl victory in New Orleans became a lasting one.
“It was more than a team,” Ditka said. “It was a team of characters that had character that played for a crazy man, who let him be crazy and had fun doing it and don’t apologize for it ever.”
Ditka’s persona transcended football, with his hard-nosed attitude, Midwestern sensibilities and distinct accent turning him into a pop-culture staple.
NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” parodied the phenomenon with its recurring “Superfans” sketch in which cast members, including regular guest George Wendt, portrayed heightened Bears diehards resembling Ditka — right down to their mustaches.
Those sketches coined the now-omnipresent phrase “Da Bears.” They became so popular that Ditka even made a pair of “SNL” cameo appearances.
Ditka coached the Bears for 11 seasons from 1982-92 and the New Orleans Saints for three seasons from 1997-99. Overall, Ditka went 121-95 (.560) as a head coach.
He is one of only two people to win a Super Bowl as a player, a head coach and an assistant, with Tom Flores being the other.
Later in his career, Ditka worked as a football analyst for NBC and ESPN, appearing on the latter’s “Sunday Morning Countdown” from 2006-15.
Ditka was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1988.
“‘Iron Mike’ brought an unrivaled level of toughness to an era already defined by physicality, but he also was much more gifted as a pass catcher than many realized and became the ideal player for Coach George Halas to reimagine the tight end position,” Jim Porter, the Hall of Fame’s president & CEO, said in a statement Friday.
“Mike’s captivating personality and leadership qualities will be preserved and celebrated forever in Canton.”
