CHICAGO \u2014 Forty years ago, Chicago Bears Coach Mike Ditka stumbled upon a way to help the team win \u2014 and no, it wasn\u2019t rubbing a lucky rabbit\u2019s foot. It was eating alligator.<\/p>\n
In October 1985, a historic season for the Bears, Tribune columnists Skip Myslenski and Linda Kay wrote about a good luck ritual started two years earlier by Ditka and General Manager Jerry Vainisi.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat about that little tidbit that Dick Butkus offered during the Bears\u2019 broadcast on WGN-AM Sunday? The one about \u2026 eating alligator Saturday night? Yep, it\u2019s true,\u201d Myslenski and Kay wrote<\/a> in their joint column for the newspaper.<\/p>\n Ditka and Vainisi had had their first taste of the reptile in 1983, the night before the team faced off against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It was an away game, and the Bears won.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSince the team won that year, they\u2019ve eaten alligator on each succeeding visit,\u201d Myslenski and Kay wrote. \u201cYum, yum!\u201d<\/p>\n Ditka confirmed the story in his 1986 book, \u201cDitka: An Autobiography.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI do things a certain way because I get into a pattern, like a ritual,\u201d he wrote. \u201cWe went to Tampa Bay and Jerry Vainisi and I ate alligator meat and we won. So you better believe I\u2019m going to eat alligator meat every time we go to Tampa Bay. We even started serving it on the team plane.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI still have trouble remembering whether it\u2019s alligator or crocodile,\u201d Ditka wrote. Alligator is much more common and available to eat than crocodile, which is almost exclusively found in the southern tip of Florida in the United States and is typically only available as an imported delicacy.\u00a0<\/p>\n Once the public became aware of the team\u2019s good luck gator ritual<\/a> \u2014 and with the Bears headed to the Super Bowl in January 1986 \u2014 fans were sent into a \u201cfrenzy,\u201d according to newspaper headlines at the time.\u00a0<\/p>\n Reporter Andy Knott wrote in the Tribune<\/a> on Jan. 20, 1986, that alligator meat \u201chas become the unofficial victory victual for the Bears since a team official first offered players a couple of nibbles.\u201d<\/p>\n An ad in the Tribune<\/a> for Penelope Catering highlighted its upcoming Super Bowl party, telling readers to \u201cask about alligator appetizers.\u201d Burhop\u2019s Seafood restaurant touted<\/a> its Cajun-style \u2018Gator-Mates \u2014 seasoned meatballs made from \u201cgenuine Louisiana alligator\u201d \u2014 as the \u201csecret to the Bears\u2019 success.\u201d<\/p>\n Leading up to the big game, Bears fans across the city and suburbs were lining up for alligator pizzas, with eateries calling it \u201cthe original Mike Ditka alligator meat pizza,\u201d the Tribune reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter all, alligator meat to the Bears is like spinach to Popeye \u2014 superfood!\u201d Steve Locke, Hot Lips Pizza \u2018n\u2019 Ribs owner, told the paper.\u00a0<\/p>\n The suburban pizzeria said it delivered four of its alligator pizzas to the Bears\u2019 headquarters \u201cas a luncheon tribute to Ditka and his coaching staff.\u201d When asked how he liked it, Ditka told sportscaster Johnny Morris it was \u201cgreat!\u201d the Tribune reported.<\/p>\n