Some people play for a city. Mike Ditka became one with it.
He didn't grow up here. He came from a steel town outside Pittsburgh, and maybe that's why Chicago took to him so fast. He showed up with the same thing this city respects most: he worked, he didn't complain, and he never pretended to be anything other than what he was.
The player
Ditka arrived in Chicago in 1961 as a tight end and changed what the position could be. Before him, tight ends mostly blocked. He blocked, caught, and ran over people, and he was named Rookie of the Year. Two seasons later he was part of the 1963 team that won the championship. In 1988 he became the first tight end ever inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and the team later retired his No. 89.
The coach
When George Halas brought him back to coach in 1982, the team was searching for an identity. Ditka gave it one: tough, physical and a little bit loud. The sideline glare, the sweater vest, the sunglasses and the clipboard became as familiar to Chicago as the lakefront.
Then came 1985. A 15–1 regular season, a defense that frightened the whole league, a Super Bowl Shuffle that the entire city could sing, and a 46–10 win in Super Bowl XX. Ditka was carried off the field on his players' shoulders, and for a generation of Chicagoans that image is the definition of joy.
Da Coach
Ditka's reach went far beyond football. A Saturday night sketch about a group of very devoted Chicago fans turned "Da Coach" into a nickname the whole country knew, and Chicago wore it proudly. He opened a restaurant here, showed up at Chicago events for decades, and kept talking about this city like it was his hometown, because by then it was.
What he meant
Ask a Chicagoan what Ditka meant and you won't get a list of stats. You'll get a feeling. He was the guy who said what everyone in the bar was thinking. He made toughness feel like a virtue and loyalty feel like a duty. He reminded a working city that it was allowed to be proud of itself.
That's why his name still comes up at tailgates, in barbershops and around Sunday tables across Chicagoland. Teams change. Coaches come and go. Iron Mike stays.
Thank you, Coach.
Read our tribute to Coach Mike Ditka.
