Mike Ditka died Friday, Oct. 9, at 86. Chicago lost the coach whose most lasting gift, the Chicago Tribune wrote, was turning the Bears into beloved “Grabowskis,” the city's name for the tough, unglamorous team that wins anyway.
He arrived in 1961, the Bears’ first-round pick out of the University of Pittsburgh, born Michael Keller Dyczko in Carnegie, Pennsylvania. He was named NFL Rookie of the Year after catching 56 passes for 1,076 yards and 12 touchdowns, rookie records for a tight end. He made five straight Pro Bowls in Chicago and helped win the 1963 NFL championship. Then he left: two seasons in Philadelphia, four in Dallas, a Super Bowl VI ring as a player, and another title as an assistant under Tom Landry.
In 1982 he wrote to George Halas. “I want to come back,” the letter said. “I am a Bear.” Halas hired him. Asked whether that made him senile, the owner replied, “Nuts to you. There's no goddamn senility in this carcass.”
What came next is the season Chicago still recites. The 1985 Bears went 15-1, shut out the Giants and Rams in the playoffs, and beat New England 46-10 in Super Bowl XX. Ditka remains the only person in the modern NFL to win a league title with the same team as both player and head coach. He was Coach of the Year in 1985 and again in 1988, the season a heart attack kept him off the sideline for 11 days. Over 11 seasons he went 112-68, by the team's count. When the Bears fired him in January 1993, he cried.
He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1988, the first tight end enshrined. The Bears retired his No. 89 in 2013.
He never really left. In 1997 he opened Ditka’s on East Chestnut Street in the Gold Coast, where menu prices ended in .20, .63 and .89, nods to his Bears years. The restaurant closed in 2020, citing the pandemic, while suburban locations stayed open. His name went on wine, cigars, sausages, steaks, mustard and barbecue sauce. He sold hearing aids and antifreeze on television. He was "Da Coach" at the center of “Saturday Night Live’s” “Bill Swerski's Superfans” sketches and appeared in the “Cheers” finale. In 2004 he was approached to run for the U.S. Senate and declined.
He gave back, too. He backed Gridiron Greats, which helps retired players in need, along with Misericordia, Maryville Academy in Des Plaines, and Little City in Palatine.
“He was larger than life,” former Bears receiver Tom Waddle said. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said Ditka “epitomized football over so many years.” His family called him “the heart of our family.”
He is survived by his wife of 49 years, Diana, and four children: Mark, Matt, Mike and Megan. Even the Green Bay Packers, whom he beat 15 times in 20 tries, announced a moment of silence for him at Lambeau Field.