10/10/2026
BREAKING: Mike Ditka, the Hall of Fame tight end who played on the Bears’ 1963 NFL championship team and coached the team to its only Super Bowl championship after the 1985 season, has died. He was 86.
He died about 9 a.m. Friday surrounded by family and friends, a family spokesperson said.
A statement issued by the family said that “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.”
As a player, a coach and a larger-than-life personality who invigorated a generation of Bears fans, Ditka left an indelible mark on the Chicago sporting landscape — from the playing field to sports talk to pop culture — that few can match. Of Chicago’s impressive list of Hall of Fame athletes — Sid Luckman, Walter Payton, Bobby Hull, Ernie Banks, Stan Mikita, Frank Thomas among the all-time greats — only Michael Jordan can challenge Ditka’s legacy as a local sports icon.
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Story: Mark Potash and Patrick Finley/Sun-Times
Photos: Sun-Times file; Ralph Arvidson, Richard A. Chapman, Jean Lachat, Dom Najiola, Michael Schmidt, Phil Velasquez/Sun-Times; AP Photo
