The NFL lost a giant on Friday with the passing of Mike Ditka. A Chicago icon, Ditka led the Bears to championships as both a player and a coach. He is just one of two men in history to win Super Bowls as a player, an assistant coach and as a head coach.
Ditka wasn't just a great player and coach. He was a legendary character who epitomized Chicago's tough, blue-collar spirit. He had a unique look, a fiery temper, and a humorous side that occasionally surfaced at press conferences. That side of him famously came out in 1999, when he shared a magazine cover with Ricky Williams depicting a wedding.
Ditka and the Saints' decision to trade a bounty of picks for Williams didn't work out, but most of Ditka's other football ventures did. Here's a look at his five greatest NFL moments.
Thanks for da memories, Coach 💙 pic.twitter.com/VITX0Dffzq
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) October 9, 2026
5. Redemption in Dallas
After a meteoric rise in Chicago, Ditka's NFL career seemed to be coming to a close in 1969 following three disappointing seasons in Philadelphia. But Cowboys coach Tom Landry thought that Ditka still had some gas left in the tank. "You think you can still play football?" Ditka recalled Landry asking him over the phone. "I think I can," Ditka said, to which Landry replied, "I hope you can, because I just traded for you."
In hindsight, Landry did more than add years onto Ditka's playing career. Ditka ended his playing career on a high note, catching a touchdown pass in Super Bowl VI, the Cowboys' first Super Bowl win. He retired the following season and immediately joined Landry's staff as special teams and receivers coach.
Mike Ditka, Super Bowl VI The legendary tight end hauled in a 7-yard touchdown from Roger Staubach to salt away the Dallas Cowboys' first Super Bowl championship. Iron Mike later made a nice 21-yard leaping snag on a crosser, and nearly scored again on a 17-yard end around. pic.twitter.com/ZPIezlZxvr
— Kevin Gallagher (@KevG163) October 9, 2026
Ditka won a second Super Bowl with the Cowboys in 1977, and in 1982, then-Bears owner George Halas felt that Ditka was ready to return to Chicago as the Bears' new head coach.
4. 1963 world champions
Ditka's role on the Bears' 1963 championship team undoubtedly paved the way for his future success as both a player and a coach. That was the Bears' eighth and final NFL title under Halas, who passed away in 1983, a year after he hired Ditka as coach.
The 1963 Bears were formidable, to say the least. They posted an 11-1-2 record that included season sweeps over Vince Lombardi's Packers and Johnny Unitas' Colts.
In the NFL Championship game, the Bears recorded a 17-14 win over the New York Giants and Y.A. Tittle, who was named the league's MVP that season. The Bears' win was the byproduct of six forced turnovers that included five interceptions of Tittle. Ditka, who was named to his third of five consecutive Pro Bowls that season, contributed to the cause with 38 yards on three catches.
Ironically, the Bears would not win another playoff game until 1984 (Ditka's third season as Chicago's coach) despite Halas drafting future Hall of Famers Gale Sayers and Dick Butkus in 1965. Butkus and Sayers never played in a postseason game.
3. Payback's a fridge
One of the stars of the '85 Bears was then-rookie William "Refrigerator" Perry, a 6-foot-2, 335-pound defensive lineman who bowled over defenders while lining up at running back.
The origin of Perry, the running back, dates back to the 1984 NFC Championship game. With the game out of hand, then-49ers coach Bill Walsh put offensive lineman Guy McIntyre into the game as a fullback. Walsh's usage of McIntyre in that situation drew Chicago's ire, Ditka's especially.
In October of that year, the Bears returned to San Francisco, but this time, they were the better team. Chicago's 26-10 win included Perry's offensive debut. Perry carried the ball twice through the teeth of the 49ers' defense during the game's final moments.
"It was calculated," Ditka said in 2015. "Believe me, it was payback time, and I don't apologize for it. I never would. What goes around comes around."
That day spawned the birth of the phenomenon that was Refrigerator Perry, the running back. The following week on Monday night, Perry ran for his first career touchdown.
"He would just grab [the football] like it was a cheesburger," quarterback Jim McMahon recalled years later. "He wanted it so bad. He would rip my arms off."
Perry's stardom reached its zenith in the Super Bowl, when he scored Chicago's fourth and final touchdown on a one-yard run.
A Super Bowl record: The first Refrigerator to score 😏 There's nothing like a lineman TD and this one from William "Refrigerator" Perry will never get old. 👊#SuperBowlNBCSN | @ChicagoBears pic.twitter.com/WlQoqJurJ9
— Sunday Night Football on NBC (@SNFonNBC) June 7, 2020
Unfortunately, Perry's score came at the expense of Walter Payton, the Bears' iconic running back who was hoping to score on football's biggest stage. At the time, Ditka didn't know that scoring a touchdown meant that much to Payton, who was almost inconsolable afterward.
Bears players from that team have mixed emotions on the situation. While some feel that Ditka should have known better, others don't fault him for not thinking about an individual player during a game of that magnitude.
"It never, ever, crossed my mind," Ditka said decades later. "Now was that wrong of me? Yes, probably, but it didn't. I didn't think it would mean anything to, I think, the greatest Bear ever, but it did. So, I was wrong. That I regret a lot. I really do regret it a lot, because I didn't realize that it was important to him, and it was very important to him."
2. Record-setting season
Ditka's Hall of Fame career as a player started with arguably the greatest rookie season in NFL history. In a 14-game regular season, Ditka caught 56 passes for 1,076 yards and 12 touchdowns and averaged a whopping 19.2 yards per catch en route to winning the NFL Rookie of the Year.
Ditka's record for most receiving yards by a rookie tight end lasted for 63 years until it was broken by the Raiders' tight end Brock Bowers in 2024. His receptions record for a rookie tight end stood for 27 years until it was broken by then-Eagles tight end Keith Jackson. Ditka's 12 touchdown receptions that season remain the single-season tight end rookie record.
That season served as a springboard for the next 50-plus years of Ditka's life. It contributed to him becoming the first tight end to earn Hall of Fame induction in 1988.
Mike Ditka was the NFL's modern right end when he entered the league in 1961, he is the first tight end into the hall of fame. His signature play as a TE was against the Steelers, two days after the JFK Assassination with this catch and run to set a GT FG (I believe) pic.twitter.com/glSZrNHQjD
— Gus Da Bus (Chud) (@GusSolano44) October 9, 2026
1. Da Coach of the 1985 Bears
As great a player as Ditka was, he is largely remembered for being the coach of the Bears' only Super Bowl-winning team.
Ditka first planted the seeds to becoming the Bears' coach when he was still working for Dallas. He wrote a note to Halas, who had traded Ditka away as a player over a contract dispute.
"It said, 'Coach, I know I left the Bears on bad terms, but I've always had a great love for the Chicago Bears. I would love the opportunity to come back and coach the Bears someday,' " Ditka recalled.
Halas ultimately did hire Ditka, and in a twist of irony, made him the NFL's lowest-paid head coach. Ditka no longer cared about money, though. He just wanted to win, and he quickly made that clear to his new players.
"The first practice, he gets us all together, and he said, 'Boys, I've got some good news, and I've got some bad news,'" recalled Hall of Fame defensive lineman Steve McMichael. "The good news is, you give me three years, we're going to the Super Bowl. The bad news is half of you aren't gonna be here to see it."
Super Bowl XX#Bears pic.twitter.com/LVaGM6sksD
— Old Time Football 🏈 (@Ol_TimeFootball) May 18, 2023
Ditka's words proved to be prophetic. The Bears won it all three years later, and when it was over, he was carried off the field by his players and into NFL immortality.
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