Mike Ditka

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Mike Ditka

Date of birth	October 18, 1939
Place of birth	Carnegie, PA
Position(s)	Tight End Head Coach
College	Pittsburgh
NFL Draft	1961 / Round 1/ Pick 5th
Pro Bowls	4
Awards	1988 AP NFL Coach of Year 1985 AP NFL Coach of Year 1985 Sporting News NFL Coach of Year 1988 Pro Football Weekly NFL Coach of Year 1988 UPI NFL Coach of Year 1985 UPI NFL Coach of Year 1961 UPI NFL-NFC Rookie of Year
Honors	NFL 75th Anniversary All-Time Team
Career Record	121-95-0
Super Bowl Wins	1985 Super Bowl
Championships Won	1985 NFC Championship
Playing Stats	DatabaseFootball
Coaching Stats	DatabaseFootball
Team(s) as a player
1961-1966 1967-1968 1969-1972	Chicago Bears Philadelphia Eagles Dallas Cowboys
Team(s) as a coach/administrator
1982-1992 1997-1999	Chicago Bears New Orleans Saints
College Hall-of-Fame
Pro Football Hall of Fame, 1988

Michael Keller Ditka, Jr. (born October 18, 1939, in Carnegie, Pennsylvania, raised in the Pittsburgh suburb of Aliquippa, Pennsylvania), better known as Iron Mike Ditka or Da Coach, is an American former NFL player, television commentator, and coach. Ditka coached the Chicago Bears for 11 years. He and Tom Flores are the only persons to have won a Super Bowl as a player, assistant coach, and head coach; and was the only individual to participate in both of the Chicago Bears two championships in the modern era, as a player in 1963 and as head coach in 1985.

1 College career
2 NFL career
3 Coach
4 Broadcaster
5 Politics
6 Philosophy
7 See also
8 References
9 External links

[edit] College career

Ditka played for the University of Pittsburgh from 1958-1960. He started all 3 seasons and is widely considered one of the best tight ends in college football history. In addition to playing tight end, he also served as the team's punter. He led the team in receiving in all 3 of his seasons with them and was a first team selection on the College Football All-America Team in his senior year. In 1986, he was enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame. Mike Ditka is a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity.

[edit] NFL career

Ditka was drafted to play tight end by the Bears. His presence was immediately felt. In his first season, Ditka had 56 receptions, introducing a new dimension to a tight end position that had previously been dedicated to blocking. His success earned him Rookie of the Year honors. He continued to play for the Bears for the next five years, earning a Pro Bowl trip each season. He played on the 1963 NFL championship team. Many of the players from that team, including Ditka, were drafted by assistant coach George Allen, a future Hall of Famer, who was then in charge of the Bears drafts. Ditka was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles in 1967, where he spent two seasons, before being shipped off to the Dallas Cowboys in 1969. He spent four seasons with the Cowboys, highlighted by a touchdown reception in the Cowboys' 24-3 victory over the Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl VI.

In 1988, his fearsome blocking and 427 career receptions for 5,812 yards and 43 touchdowns earned him the honor of being the first tight-end ever inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Ditka also scored 2 touchdowns on offensive fumble recoveries, tying 7 other players for the most in NFL history. In 1999, he was ranked number 90 on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Football Players.

[edit] Coach

Retiring after the 1972 season, Ditka was immediately hired as an assistant coach by Cowboys' head coach Tom Landry. Ditka spent nine seasons as an assistant coach with the Cowboys. During his tenure, the Cowboys made the playoffs eight times, won six division titles and three NFC Championships, including the one preceding their Super Bowl victory in 1977.

In 1982, Chicago Bears founder George Halas personally sought out Ditka to take over the head coaching reins, and reverse what had been a mostly dreary performance by the team in the years since Halas retired as head coach. Reversing the Bears' pitiful record of only two winning seasons in the previous nineteen, Ditka led the Bears to six NFC Central titles and three trips to the NFC Championship. Ditka's coaching career hit its pinnacle in January 1986 with a 46-10 trouncing of the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XX. Football commentators widely regard the 1985 Bears defense as one of the best ever, which was masterminded by defensive coordinator, Buddy Ryan, with little oversight from Ditka. In an unusual gesture, following the Bears Super Bowl victory, Ryan was carried off the field by team members as well as Ditka.

He was awarded NFL Coach of the Year honors in 1985 and 1988 by the Associated Press, The Sporting News, and Pro Football Weekly.

Ditka was noted for making headlines regardless of what happened on the field. In 1983, he broke his wrist after punching a locker in an angry halftime tirade. In 1985 he was arrested and convicted of DWI after returning from a game with San Francisco^[1]. In the midst of a very successful 1988 season, Ditka suffered a heart attack, but bounced back quickly. On another occasion in 1987, he threw a giant piece of used chewing gum at a San Francisco 49ers fan who had heckled and thrown a drink at him during a Monday night match-up^[2].

In 1991, Ditka cooperated with Accolade to produce the computer game Mike Ditka's Ultimate Football.

Following the 1992 season, the Bears fired Ditka. In 1997, he returned to coach the New Orleans Saints, which he refers to as the "three worst years" of his life. Ditka was roundly criticized for the trading of all of the team's 1999 draft picks (plus their first round draft pick in 2000) to the Washington Redskins in order to move up in the draft and select Texas RB Ricky Williams. Over a total of 14 seasons as a head coach, Ditka amassed a regular season record of 121-95-0 and a postseason record of 6-6.

Ditka and Tom Flores are the only people who have won Super Bowl rings as both a player and head coach. He is also the only person in the 75 year history of the Chicago Bears to have won an NFL championship as a player and as a head coach.

Ditka is also one of the owners of the Chicago Rush, an Arena Football Team. After the Rush's epic victory at ArenaBowl XX, Ditka could be seen celebrating on the field.

[edit] Broadcaster

After leaving the Bears in 1992, Ditka took a broadcasting job with NBC, working as an analyst on NFL Live and as a color commentator for many other NBC broadcasts. From the 2000 to the 2001 season he was a studio analyst on The NFL Today on CBS Sports. He is currently a commentator on ESPN NFL Live and CBS Radio-Westwood One's Monday Night Football pregame show. On his radio show, Coach Ditka is called "America's Coach" by well known sidekick Jim Gray. Ditka has also done guest spots and cameos on shows from L.A. Law to Saturday Night Live. In 2005, Mike Ditka portrayed himself in the comedy Kicking & Screaming.

[edit] Politics

In July 2004, Ditka, a self-described "ultra-ultra-ultra conservative," [1] was reportedly considering running against Democrat Barack Obama for an open seat in the U.S. Senate for Illinois in the 2004 Senate election. The seat was being vacated by Peter Fitzgerald, a Republican, and Republican nominee Jack Ryan withdrew from the race amid controversy at the end of June, leaving the Republicans in a bind. Local and national political leaders, from Illinois Republican Party Chair Judy Baar Topinka to Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee Chair Sen. George Allen, whose father by the same name was an assistant coach with the Bears in the 1960s when Ditka played, met with Ditka in an effort to persuade him to fill the spot on the ticket.

On July 14, however, Ditka announced he would not seek the nomination, citing personal and business considerations (his wife was against the run and he operates a chain of restaurants)^[3]. Barack Obama went on to defeat former ambassador Alan Keyes in the November 2004 election.

[edit] Philosophy

Ditka is known in the sports world for his gritty approach to winning and a fiery temper. Mike leads by his code word ACE: Attitude, Character and Enthusiasm. Documented Ditka witticisms include:

"Success isn't measured by money or power or social rank. Success is measured by your discipline and inner peace."
"Attack always."
"If you're not in the parade, you watch the parade. That's life."
"You're never a loser until you quit trying."
"He throws nickels around like manhole covers." – in reference to George Halas during a contract dispute in his playing days.
"There are teams that are fair-haired, and those that aren't so fair-haired. Some teams are named Smith, some Grabowski. We're Grabowskis!" – A reference to the Bears' blue collar background.
"It's better to keep your mouth shut and have people wonder if you're stupid than to open your mouth and confirm it." (ESPN, 2006)

[edit] See also

Bill Swerski's Superfans
Featured Athlete on Fox Sports Net's Beyond the Glory

[edit] References

^ Ditka's Defense Falters
^ http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DEED81738F934A25751C1A961948260 Ditka Cuts Interviews
^ http://www.local6.com/news/3532156/detail.html

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Mike Ditka

Preceded by: Rick Venturi	New Orleans Saints Head Coaches 1997–1999	Succeeded by: Jim Haslett
Preceded by: Neill Armstrong	Chicago Bears Head Coaches 1982–1992	Succeeded by: Dave Wannstedt

Chicago Bears Head Coaches

v • d • e

Halas • Jones • Halas • Anderson • Johnsos • Halas • Driscoll • Halas • Dooley • Gibron • Pardee • Armstrong • Ditka • Wannstedt • Jauron • Smith

New Orleans Saints Head Coaches
Fears • Roberts • North • Hefferle • Stram • D. Nolan • Stanfel • B. Phillips • W. Phillips • Mora Sr. • Venturi • Ditka • Haslett • Payton

National Football League | NFL's 75th Anniversary All-Time Team

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