Tough and pugnacious, Ditka personified the hard-hitting team he led to a 46-10 thrashing of the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XX and was called \u201cIron Mike,\u201d both because of his gruff demeanor and because he hailed from a steel town in western Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
![\"Chicago](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/261009-super-bowl-shuffle-mn-1140-ac3df2.jpg\")
Ditka and defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan are carried around the field after they defeated New England 46-10 to win Super Bowl XX in 1986.Chicago Tribune \/ TNS via Getty<\/p>\n
Ditka, who was born Michael Dyczko on Oct. 18, 1939, became a beloved figure in the Windy City and the embodiment of Chicago\u2019s blue-collar, tough-guy identity.<\/p>\n
In the years after the Bears won the Super Bowl, Ditka was immortalized by \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d in the \u201cBill Swerski\u2019s Superfans\u201d sketches, which featured a group of fans singing his praises to the point of absurdity with tick Chicawgo ayccents.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I may shift gears for a moment gentlemen, coach Ditka vs. The Hurricane, who would win?\u201d the Bill Swerski character says in one skit.<\/p>\n
\u201cDitka! Ditka!,\u201d the others reply.<\/p>\n
Ditka was married from 1961 to 1973 to his first wife, Marge. That marriage produced four children: Mark, Matt, Mike and Megan. In 1977, he married Diane Trantham, who also survives him.<\/p>\n
The Ditka family has not yet announced any funeral arrangements. <\/p>\n
The oldest of four children, Ditka was the son of a welder of Polish and Ukrainian stock who changed his name to make it easier to pronounce. <\/p>\n
But growing up in the town of Aliquippa, Ditka excelled at the all-American sport of football and that earned him a scholarship and a ticket out of town to the University of Pittsburgh, where he initially planned to study dentistry.<\/p>\n
Instead, Ditka excelled on the gridiron and in 1961 he was drafted by the Bears as a tight end. There, Ditka redefined a position that mostly consisted of blocking for rushers by becoming a scoring machine who racked up a dozen touchdowns in his first season and was named Rookie of the Year.<\/p>\n
![\"Mike](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/261009-mike-ditka-mn-1155-f6d3b8.jpg\")
Mike Ditka when he was an All-American tight end with the University of Pittsburgh in 1960.AP<\/p>\n
Ditka was a star on the 1963 Bears championship, in the pre-Super Bowl era, and a pro-bowler in each of the five seasons he played for \u201cDa Bears.\u201d He also gained some infamy by decking a fan who ran out on the field in the middle of a championship game broadcast on national TV.<\/p>\n
\u201cDitka has been trained since high school to knock down anything that moves,\u201d famous Chicago newspaper columnist Mike Royko wrote in Sept. 1966<\/a>. \u201cThe young man flew into the air. He was limp when he landed and shaky when the police led him away.\u201d<\/p>\n Unable to reach a contract agreement with Bears owner and coach George Halas, Ditka signed with the Houston Oilers in 1967 for the then-princely sum of $300,000.<\/p>\n Halas, Ditka said disparagingly, \u201cthrew nickels around like manhole covers.\u201d<\/p>\n Ditka went on to play for the Dallas Cowboys, where in 1972 he caught a touchdown pass in their 24\u20133 victory over the Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl VI.<\/p>\n After retiring in 1973, Ditka was hired by the Cowboys as an assistant coach. And during his nine seasons there, Dallas made the playoffs eight times, won six division titles, three NFC championships, and a Super Bowl victory in 1977.<\/p>\n \u201cDitka was the first man enshrined in Canton who had won Super Bowls as a player, assistant coach and head coach,\u201d the Hall of Fame said in a statement.<\/p>\n In 1982, Ditka and Halas made peace and the former Bears tight end became the Bears head coach. <\/p>\n With his bushy mustache, combed back hair, and growly voice, Ditka actually looked a bit like the bear on the team\u2019s logo, Chicago sports journalists noted<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cGive me three years, and if you walk with me, we\u2019ll get to the dance,\u201d Ditka reportedly vowed<\/a> at a team meeting. <\/p>\n It took Ditka four years to get the team to the Super Bowl. And he did so with an old-school type of hard-nosed play that relied more on running than passing, a hard-hitting defense, and which he called \u201cBears Football.\u201d<\/p>\n Powered by one of the most formidable defenses ever fielded by an NFL team and an offense led by unstoppable running back Walter Payton and gutsy quarterback Jim McMahon, the Bears quickly routed the Patriots in the championship game.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are teams that are fair-haired, and those that aren\u2019t so fair-haired,\u201d Ditka said at the time. \u201cSome teams are named Smith, some Grabowski. We\u2019re Grabowskis!\u201d<\/p>\n They were swaggering Grabowskis.<\/p>\n The Bears were so confident they would win it all the team recorded a championship anthem called the \u201cSuper Bowl Shuffle\u201d seven weeks before the Super Bowl.<\/p>\n Under Ditka, the Bears won several more divisional titles and played in seven playoff games. But Ditka never took the team back to the big dance.<\/p>\n Ditka suffered a heart attack during the 1988 season but the Bears mostly continued winning. Five years later, after the Bears won just five games and lost 11 during the 1992 season, Halas fired Ditka.<\/p>\n He went on to become a football analyst on TV and then coached the New Orleans Saints for three losing seasons before he was fired from that job in 1999.<\/p>\n But Ditka never coached another NFL team again. <\/p>\n Instead, Ditka returned to the broadcast booth, working for NBC, CBS and ESPN and opened a chain of steakhouses. <\/p>\n Never one to shy away from the camera, Ditka co-starred in the 2005 comedy \u201cKicking & Screaming\u201d alongside Will Ferrell and Robert Duvall, playing an over-the-top version of himself in the film. <\/p>\n Ditka also made numerous cameo appearances on various TV shows. And he embarked on a three-decade career as a ubiquitous TV pitchman for everything from Hanes underwear and erectile dysfunction medication to Campbell\u2019s Chunky Soups.<\/p>\n In 2004, Ditka seriously considered running as a Republican for an open U.S. Senate seat in Illinois. He declined and that seat was won by future president Barack Obama. <\/p>\n Ditka, though, was highly critical of Obama\u2019s presidency and considered himself an \u201cultra conservative.\u201d But Ditka did visit the White House in 2011 with members of the Super Bowl-winning Bears team where he presented the president with a Bears jersey with the number 85 on it and \u201cObama\u201d emblazoned on the back.<\/p>\n Traditionally, the Super Bowl-winning team visits the White House after the game, but in 1986 their scheduled visit was cancelled because of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I got to Chicago in the summer of 1985, Mike Ditka and the Chicago Bears were king,\u201d Obama posted on X<\/a>. \u201cCoach Ditka set the tone for a team that was punishing, dominant, and fun \u2014 and the city loved him for it. I\u2019m thinking of the Ditka family and Bears fans everywhere on the passing of a legend.\u201d<\/p>\n But Ditka also rankled many fans in deep blue Chicago with his early and outspoken support for Donald Trump\u2019s candidacy for president. And he sparked a backlash in 2017 when, during a radio interview, he criticized Black players for taking a knee during the singing of the National Anthem and said he wasn\u2019t aware of any racial oppression in the U.S.<\/p>\n The very next day, Ditka apologized.<\/p>\n \u201cI have absolutely seen oppression in society in the last 100 years,\u201d Ditka said in statement to WGN-TV in Chicago. \u201cThe interview was about the NFL and related issues. That\u2019s where my head was at.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2024, after several years of living in Florida, Ditka moved back to Chicago.<\/p>\n \u201cChicago is my home,\u201d he said<\/a>. <\/p>\n![\"Chicago](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/261009-Mike-Ditka-ew-1120a-b43e65.jpg\")
Focus On Sport \/ Getty<\/p>\n