Da Coach Is Gone: Mike Ditka, the Man Who Gave Chicago Its Only Super Bowl, Dies at 86

Some football guys are legends. Mike Ditka was a whole genre.

The Hall of Fame tight end, Super Bowl-winning coach, owner of the most famous mustache in sports and patron saint of the sweater vest died Friday morning at 86. His family announced it, and the Chicago Sun-Times reported that he died around 9 a.m. surrounded by family and friends. He was nine days short of his 87th birthday.

"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," the family said in a statement. "Mike will be missed beyond measure and remembered forever."

He basically invented the modern tight end

Before Ditka, tight ends mostly blocked, like an extra offensive tackle. Then George Halas took the kid from Aliquippa, Pa., fifth overall in 1961, and Ditka put up 1,076 receiving yards as a rookie.

According to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, that was the first 1,000-yard season by a tight end in NFL history. No tight end topped his rookie number until Brock Bowers did it in 2024. That's 63 seasons. Sixty-three.

He won Rookie of the Year, won the 1963 NFL title with the Bears and made first-team All-Pro in 1963 and 1964. Then he went to Dallas and caught the final touchdown of the Cowboys' 24-3 win over Miami in Super Bowl VI. In 1988 he became the first tight end ever inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Then he did it all again from the sideline

Ditka coached under Tom Landry in Dallas, won another ring as an assistant (Super Bowl XII), and in 1978 wrote Halas a letter asking for a shot at the Bears job someday. Halas hired him in 1982.

"I believe everyone has a destiny in life, and mine is with the Chicago Bears," Ditka said that day.

He wasn't kidding. The 1985 Bears went 15-1, then crushed the Patriots 46-10 in Super Bowl XX. McMahon, the Fridge, Sweetness, the '46' defense. That team is still the yardstick for every defense that came after it.

Ditka is one of only two men to win a Super Bowl as a player, an assistant and a head coach. Tom Flores is the other.

Over 14 seasons with Chicago and New Orleans he went 121-95, plus 6-6 in the playoffs. In 1988 he had a heart attack during the season and was back on the sideline soon after. That's peak Ditka.

Our take (opinion)

Hot take that isn't really a hot take: no NFL coach has ever been bigger than his city the way Ditka was in Chicago.

The Sun-Times wrote that among Chicago sports icons, only Michael Jordan can challenge him, and we won't argue. He was an SNL sketch ("Da Bears"), a restaurant, a hot sauce and a Halloween costume, and he was still somehow more real than any coach working today.

The Bears haven't won another Super Bowl in the 40 years since. That says a lot about the franchise. It says even more about him.

The tributes

They poured in Friday, including from the other side of the rivalry.

"As far as I'm concerned Coach Ditka is the gold standard," Bears coach Ben Johnson said. Barack Obama wrote that Ditka "set the tone for a team that was punishing, dominant, and fun — and the city loved him for it." Even the Packers said his contributions "will always be respected and remembered by the Green Bay Packers."

Sunday at Lambeau just got heavier

The timing is almost too much. On Sunday the Bears (3-1) visit Green Bay (2-2), kickoff at 10 a.m. PT.

Last updated Oct. 9, 2026, 8:00 p.m. PT: Caleb Williams (hamstring) returned to practice on a limited basis Friday and is officially questionable, per the AP, but ProFootballTalk's Charean Williams reports he is not expected to play. Tyson Bagent is expected to start for a second straight week.

Whoever takes the snaps, expect a sea of sweater vests in the visiting section. We'd honestly be disappointed by anything less.

Rest easy, Iron Mike.