Mike Ditka, Bears Legend Who Defined an Era of Chicago Football, Dies at 86

Mike Ditka, the Hall of Fame tight end and head coach who became one of the most recognizable figures in Chicago sports history, has died at 86. The Ditka family announced his death on Friday afternoon.

Ditka’s football life stretched across nearly four decades, first as a punishing pass-catcher and later as the leather-jacketed, vest-wearing head coach who delivered the Chicago Bears their only Super Bowl title.

A Trailblazing Player

Houston selected Ditka, an All-American at the University of Pittsburgh who finished sixth in the 1960 Heisman Trophy voting, with the No. 8 pick in the 1961 AFL Draft. He chose instead to sign with the Bears, who took him fifth overall in the 1961 NFL Draft.

As a rookie that year, Ditka became the first tight end in NFL history to top 1,000 receiving yards in a season, catching 56 passes for 1,076 yards and 12 touchdowns. He made the Pro Bowl in each of his first five seasons and earned All-Pro honors in 1963 and 1964. Over his first four years in the league, he averaged 62 receptions, 917.8 yards and 7.5 touchdowns a season.

Ditka was part of the Bears’ 1963 NFL championship team, the franchise’s first title since 1946. After six seasons in Chicago, he played two years with the Philadelphia Eagles before finishing his playing career with the Dallas Cowboys from 1969 to 1972. With Dallas, he caught a 7-yard touchdown pass from Roger Staubach in the fourth quarter of Super Bowl VI, helping the Cowboys win their first championship.

He went on to spend nine seasons as an assistant under Hall of Fame head coach Tom Landry in Dallas, serving as assistant head coach and special teams coordinator from 1973 to 1981.

Building the 1985 Bears

After the Bears fired head coach Neill Armstrong in 1982 following losing seasons in three of the previous four years, Ditka interviewed for the job and got it. The early years were rocky — a 3-6 strike-shortened 1982 season and an 8-8 record in 1983 — but by 1984 the Bears won their division for the first time since 1963 and reached the NFC Championship Game, where they were shut out by Bill Walsh’s San Francisco 49ers.

The following season produced one of the most dominant teams in NFL history. The 1985 Bears went 15-1, with their only loss coming to Dan Marino and the Miami Dolphins on Monday Night Football. Chicago recorded 70 sacks that season after posting 72 the year before, shut out opponents twice in the regular season, and held foes to 10 points or fewer in 11 of 16 games.

The Bears then shut out both the New York Giants and Los Angeles Rams in the playoffs before crushing the New England Patriots 46-10 in Super Bowl XX.

That defense included four future Hall of Famers — defensive end Richard Dent, linebacker Mike Singletary, and defensive linemen Steve McMichael and Dan Hampton — along with Pro Bowl linebackers Otis Wilson and Wilber Marshall and defensive lineman William Perry, better known as