Mike Ditka, the legendary former Chicago Bears coach and Hall of Fame tight end, has died at 86, his family announced Friday.
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Ditka helped revolutionize his position, but it was as a coach that he built his legacy, leading the 1985 Bears to the franchise’s only Super Bowl victory.
He was a colorful iconoclast who at one point or another feuded with nearly everyone he encountered — including his own assistants and players. Even after the Bears fired him in 1993 and he spent three seasons with the New Orleans Saints, he remained synonymous with Chicago, where he opened a chain of restaurants.
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The classic recurring “Saturday Night Live” sketch “Bill Swerski’s Superfans,” which popularized the phrase “Da Bears,” was inspired in part by his signature look: thick mustache, aviator sunglasses, scowl.
When the Bears fired Ditka, The Washington Post’s Michael Wilbon eulogized his time there thus: “The NFL once had characters, all the Artie Donovans and Dick The Bruisers you could muster. But they’re virtually extinct now. Ditka was the tyrannosaurus rex, smoking his cigar, wearing his wide-brimmed hats and pin-striped suits, cussing and threatening, winking and charming. Who’s left now? Who’s worth watching on the sideline on the off chance that he’ll kill somebody during the game?”
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