Mike Ditka
Iron Mike: Hall of Fame tight end, Super Bowl-winning coach, and the only person to play and coach the Bears to championships.
Michael Keller Ditka (born Michael Dyczko; October 18, 1939) is an American former professional football player, coach, and commentator. During his playing career, he was UPI NFL Rookie of the Year in 1961, a five-time Pro Bowl selection, and a six-time All-Pro tight end with the Chicago Bears, Philadelphia Eagles, and Dallas Cowboys in the National Football League (NFL); he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1986 and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1988. Ditka was the first tight end in NFL history to reach 1,000 yards receiving in his rookie season.
Quick Facts
- Position
- Tight end
- Born
- 18 October 1939
- Birthplace
- Carnegie, Pennsylvania, U.S.
- High school
- Aliquippa (Aliquippa, Pennsylvania)
- College
- Pittsburgh (1958–1960)
- Draft year
- 1961
- Draft round
- 1
- Draft pick
- 5
Lore & Background
Ditka was an NFL champion with the 1963 Bears and is a three-time Super Bowl champion, playing on the Cowboys' Super Bowl VI team, winning as an assistant coach for the Cowboys in Super Bowl XII, and coaching the Bears to victory in Super Bowl XX. He has been named to the NFL's 75th- and 100th-Anniversary All-Time Teams. As a head coach for the Bears from 1982 to 1992, he was twice both the AP and UPI NFL Coach of the Year (1985 and 1988). He also was the head coach of the New Orleans Saints from 1997 to 1999.
Ditka and Tom Flores are the only people to win a Super Bowl as a player, an assistant coach, and a head coach. Ditka, Flores, Gary Kubiak, and Doug Pederson are also the only people in modern NFL history to win a championship as head coach of a team for which they played previously. Ditka is the only person to participate in both of the last two Chicago Bears' league championships, as a player in 1963 and head coach in 1985. In 2020, Ditka became the owner of the X League, a women's tackle football league that was originally the Lingerie Football League.
He is known by the nickname 'Iron Mike', which he has said comes from his being born and raised in a steel town in Pennsylvania.
Reader's Guide
Ditka played college football for Pitt from 1958 until 1960, and was a three-sport athlete, also playing baseball and basketball for the Pitt Panthers. He was selected by the Chicago Bears fifth overall in the 1961 NFL draft. In his first season, Ditka had 58 receptions, introducing a new dimension to a tight end position that had previously been dedicated to blocking. He also scored 12 receiving touchdowns, which was the most by a Bears rookie. 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. On April 26, 1967, Ditka was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles. On January 28, 1969, he was traded to the Dallas Cowboys. He played in Super Bowl VI and scored a touchdown in the Cowboys' 24–3 victory over the Miami Dolphins.
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