My Favorite Mike Ditka Story

Ditka playing for Pitt in 1960

Today the NY Times announced that Mike Ditka has died. You might say he had a charmed career, but as everyone in the sports world knows, success is not handed to you on a silver platter. You have to earn it through hard work and discipline.

Ditka's nickname was "Iron Mike," in part because his father was a welder in the steel country outside Pittsburgh. In reviewing his story I was unaware that in high school and college he was a three-sport athlete playing baseball and basketball in addition to football. His goal in high school was to get a collegescholarship and use it to escape the small town where he grew up by becoming a dentist. Well his hard work paid off, providing him an education and a career, though not the one he imagined. 

The real lesson, from my perspective, is that excellence opens doors. In college he excelled (later being elected to the college football Hall of Fame) so that pro scouts noticed him.  The Chicago Bears scooped him up and he became Rookie of the Year that first season. Five years he was selected for the Pro Bowl and in 1963 the Bears won the league championship. Ditka ranks first among tight ends and fourth in Bears history with 4,503 yards, fifth in both receptions (316) and touchdown catches. 

All these experiences were stepping stones, each of them preparing him for the next level in his career. After eight years with the Bears he was then traded to the Philadelphia Eagles where he pounded out two years.

Though I can't recall which year it was, perhaps 2006 or so, Mike Ditka was the motivational  speaker at an AOCA Convention I attended. In telling this part of his story, he said that at the end of that second season and final loss with the Eagles, it seemed like his career was over. It was Christmastime and he was beat up and blue. Until the phone rang that following day. 

"Mike, this is Tom Landry."

When you give it your all, people notice. Landry believed the veteran tight end would be an asset, so he invited Ditka to Dallas where he played five years. Ditka began his playing career under the legendary George Halas in Chicago, and had the privilege of being part of the legendary Hall of Fame coach Tom Landry's squad at the end of his playing days. 

Landry something more than just an old veteran player. For the next nine years Ditka served as an assistant coach helping the Cowboys reach eight playoff appearances, six division titles, three NFC Championships, and a victory in Super Bowl XII.

Well, if you're going to have a mentor, you can't do much better than Landry. And when the Bears reached out to recruit him as head coach, he leveraged everything he'd learned from his own experiences and the masters he'd served under. From 1982 to 1992 Ditka compiled a 106-62 regular season record over 11 seasons. 

As a public speaker Ditka was incredibly down-to-earth. Just a guy telling it like it was. And his story about the 1985 Chicago Bears dream season (15-1) capped by a Super Bowl XX victory is what I wrote all the above in order to share.

He'd coached the Bears for three years, but each one begins with a new cast of characters. That is, you have the guys who have been around and the new faces acquired by trades or the college draft. Ditka was aware that this team had what it would take, and the time was now to make it happen.

So on the first day of Training Camp, in his first meeting with the team, he announced, "This is ur year. This year we're going to win the Super Bowl." 

Ditka said there were two kinds of responses to this proclamation. Some of the players smiled big, "Yeah, sweet," "Woohoo" and "Hot dog!" (And some other colorful language.) But the veteran players--Walter Payt0n, Dan Hampton, Mike Singletary, Jim McMahon--none of these guys hooted or hollered or even smiled. They slowly lifted their heads and looked Ditka in the eye as if to say, "If you're serious, we're all in." 

Ditka then told us that every one of those guys who laughed and hooted were traded by the start of the season. Ditka was dead serious. He knew he had a potentially great team, but he knew what's required to reach the pinnacle they all dreamed of. He only wanted men who were seriously on board for that.

Much more can be said, but that's the story I wanted to tell. 
If you have a Ditka story, share it in the comments.