Mike Ditka once said he was going to live to be 150 years old. The legendary former Chicago Bears coach and Hall of Fame tight end had a very specific (and very Ditka appropriate) reason whenever asked why he wanted that to be the case.
“There’s a lot of people I haven’t (ticked) off yet,” Ditka declared in an interview published by the Los Angeles Times in 1996, “so I want to get them all.”
Ditka died on Friday, Oct. 9, his family announced. He was 86 years old.
“It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved husband, father, grandfather, and friend, Mike Ditka,” his family said in a statement. “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. Mike will be missed beyond measure and remembered forever.”
Ditka’s legacy in football, and especially the role he played as a player and coach with the Bears, will endure long after his life. He will be remembered as one of the seminal figures in league history, both due to his exploits as a revolutionary pass-catching tight end for the Bears in the 1960s and his 11-year run as coach with the franchise.
Here is a look back at some of the defining coaching moments from Ditka’s remarkable career:
Mike Ditka’s best coaching moments
Mike Ditka’s coaching roots: Tom Landry and the Dallas Cowboys
Mike Ditka got his coaching start in 1972 working as a special teams and tight ends coach for the Dallas Cowboys under legendary coach Tom Landry, who had helped rejuvenate the end of Ditka’s playing career. Ditka, who won the Super Bowl as a player with the Cowboys in the 1971-1972 season, eventually won a Super Bowl with the Cowboys as an assistant coach in 1977.
Chicago Bears hire Mike Ditka
During the 1981 season, Ditka famously wrote a letter to his former coach and Bears owner George Halas expressing a desire to one day be considered for the team’s head coaching position despite Ditka’s acrimonious exit from Chicago as a player. Halas then hired Ditka ahead of the 1982 season to replace former coach Neill Armstrong after back-to-back losing seasons.
Mike Ditka leads Chicago Bears back to NFL playoffs
Ditka went 3-6 during the 1982 season that was shortened by a players’ strike and improved to 8-8 in his first full season as Bears’ coach in 1983. But Ditka’s breakthrough arrived in 1984, when he led the Bears to their first postseason win in more than 20 years. Chicago lost in the NFC Championship game to the San Francisco 49ers, the eventual Super Bowl champions.
Mike Ditka wins Super Bowl with 1985 Bears
The 1985 NFL season is the seminal moment of Mike Ditka’s coaching career, as he led the Bears to a 15-1 regular season and then a win over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XX. Ditka became the first person in NFL history to win a Super Bowl as a player, assistant coach and head coach, and also the first head coach to win a Super Bowl for a team in which he played for. He is the only person to take part in the Bears’ last two titles – the 1963 NFL championship as a player and 1986 as coach.
Helped by future Pro Football Hall of Famers like running back Walter Payton, linebacker Mike Singletary and the famed ‘46’ defense created by coordinator and antagonist Buddy Ryan, Ditka’s quotable personality and trademark intensity, combined with his success with the Bears, turned “Da Coach” into one of the NFL’s most unforgettable characters. The 1985 Bears are widely considered one of the greatest teams in league history.
Mike Ditka’s last playoff run
The same year Mike Ditka was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame for what he did as a player also coincided with him winning NFL coach of the year for the second time in 1988. Ditka, despite suffering a heart attack during the season, took the Bears to the NFC championship game for the third time in five seasons. The playoff run included a win over Ryan, who was coaching the Philadelphia Eagles and had a rivalry with Ditka dating back to their time working together in Chicago.
Mike Ditka coaching record
- 121-95 overall record over 14 seasons (11in Chicago, 3 in New Orleans)
- Second-most wins in Bears history (106) behind only George Halas
- 1 Super Bowl win
- 3 NFC Championship game appearances
- 7 NFL playoff appearances
- 6 NFC Central division titles
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Mike Ditka’s defining coaching moments: Remembering the Bears legend
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