Ditka’s family announced his death<\/a> on Friday. He was 86.<\/p>\n\u201cThis was the starting lineup, Aliquippa vs. Ambridge,\u201d Don Yannessa said, looking at photographs and recalling the year 1956, when his friendship with Ditka began.<\/p>\n
\u201cMike and I played ball together in high school, and I learned more from Mike about playing football than I ever would get from any coach. I’ll guarantee you that,\u201d Yannessa said.<\/p>\n
Both Yannessa and Ditka left Aliquippa as Division I college football players. Ditka played at Pitt and went on to the NFL and built a legendary career in coaching, while Yannessa, who played collegiately at New Mexico State, returned to coach the Quips for 17 years.<\/p>\n
Yannessa said Ditka never forgot about the Aliquippa football team.<\/p>\n
\u201cDitka was one of those guys that when he got a chance to come back home and give something back, he had no qualms about giving back, and he gave back generously, believe me,\u201d Yannessa said. \u201cHe was getting rid of [money] like he was printing it in his basement. Just a generous guy.\u201d <\/p>\n
But it wasn\u2019t the monetary donations, equipment, or new uniforms for which Ditka is remembered by Aliquippa head coach Michael Warfield and the Quips.<\/p>\n
\u201cMoney comes and it goes. But for his legacy, what he’s accomplished, what he stands for, what he’s proud of, and one of the things he’s most proud of, I believe, just hearing him talk, is being from Aliquippa has made him who he was. And just giving that sense of direction is priceless,\u201d Warfield said. <\/p>\n
Ditka\u2019s example continues to inspire Aliquippa athletes through a preserved door in the Quips\u2019 locker room. <\/p>\n
\u201cI put the door up in the ceiling as something to look at and memorialize, that every legend went through that door at some point in time,\u201d Warfield said.<\/p>\n
Ahead of Aliquippa High School’s football game Friday night against Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, the Quips were prepared to honor Ditka with a moment of silence.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe’ll always be a legend in Aliquippa,\u201d Yannessa said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aliquippa football coaches, current and former, honored Pro Football Hall of Famer Mike Ditka ALIQUIPPA, Pa. \u2014 Aliquippa…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":303445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[23900,124784,111,124781,124782,11290,303,4327,6704,113,35357,124783,124779,28,30,29,124780,124785,78],"class_list":["post-303444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-aliquippa","tag-aliquippa-football-coach","tag-death","tag-ditka","tag-don-yannessa","tag-door","tag-football","tag-friday","tag-high-school","tag-legacy","tag-legend","tag-legendary-football-career","tag-mike-ditka","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-quips","tag-warfield","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Kalea](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791591970_930_b4b63f68-33d8-4f90-870e-aa6060f8ddaa_1780432158.file.png\")
<\/a>ALIQUIPPA, Pa. \u2014<\/p>\n