Mike Ditka, legendary NFL tight end and Chicago Bears coach, dies aged 86

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Mike Ditka, the legendary former tight end who led the Chicago Bears to Super Bowl glory as a coach, has died at the age of 86.

Ditka was the first tight end inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame after revolutionising the position during his NFL playing career with the Bears, Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys.

He then moved into coaching, spending a decade in Chicago that encompassed lifting the Lombardi Trophy with the 1985 Bears, the franchise’s only Super Bowl success.

“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 led the Bears to seven play-off appearances in his 11 seasons as head coach having been hired by his former coach and Bears owner George Halas. The ‘85 Bears are widely regarded as having possessed one of the best defences in NFL history.

Known as “Iron MIke” having been born in a steel town in Pennsylvania, Ditka was a collegiate star at the University of Pittsburgh and was drafted with the fifth overall pick of the 1961 NFL draft.

He was an NFL champion with the Bears in 1963 and Cowboys in 1972 after Dallas’ win in Super Bowl VI, before also winning as an assistant with the team. Ditka and Tom Flores are the only figures in NFL history to have won a Super Bowl as a player, assistant coach and head coach.

Ditka was the first tight end enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, being inducted in 1988, and an NFL head coach for 14 seasons (1982-1992 with the Bears; 1997-99 for the Saints), being twice voted AP NFL Coach of the Year (1985 and ’88).. He later became a prominent broadcaster and portrayed himself in several television commercials and films.

He survived a pair of heart attacks, including one in 1988 while he was Bears coach, as well as a minor stroke in 2012.

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