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Mustache. Aviator sunglasses. Bears sweater vest. Though Mike Ditka‘s look may be iconic, his time as a player and coach is what cemented his name in NFL history.

Ditka, the first ever tight end to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame and coach of the legendary 1985 Chicago Bears, has died. He was 86.. His family announced his death in a statement Friday.

“It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved husband, father, grandfather, and friend, Mike Ditka,” The family said. “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.”

With nicknames “Iron Mike,” “Da Coach” and “The Hammer,” Ditka was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1988 after a 12-year playing career that featured five Pro Bowls, 427 receptions, 43 touchdowns and 5,812 receiving yards.

Ditka, who won two Super Bowls as a coach and one as a player, revolutionized the tight end position, transforming it from a primarily blocking-focused role to one that could pose a threat in receiving.

Notorious for his fiery personality, Ditka also took his stardom from field to screen, starring alongside Will Ferrell in “Kicking & Screaming,” in which he played himself. Though instead of coaching the championship-winning Bears, he helps coach a little league soccer team — but his competitive spirit remains the same. He also made several TV appearances, including in “Cheers,” “L.A. Law” and “Entourage.”

Born in Carnegie, Pa., on Oct. 18, 1939, Ditka was a first-round draft pick of the Chicago Bears in 1961. The team at the time was helmed by Bears founder, president and head coach George Halas, who later bestowed Ditka with his first NFL head coaching job in 1982.

Coming from the University of Pittsburgh, where he also played basketball and baseball and received All-America honors in football, Ditka immediately became a mainstay in the Bears lineup, going on to start 84 straight games. He was named rookie of the year with 56 catches for 1,076 yards and 12 touchdowns, becoming the first tight end to reach 1,000 yards receiving in his rookie season.

He also earned All-NFL honors from 1961 to 1964 and made the NFL Pro Bowl five times in his first six seasons. Ditka was enshrined into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1986.

Chicago Bears tight end Mike Ditka is tackled after a pass reception against the Green Bay Packers at Wrigley Field on Oct. 16, 1966.

(Associated Press)

The tight end eventually became a coach, famously leading the 1985 Chicago Bears. The team, one of the best in NFL history, went 15-1 and scored 456 points while only allowing 198. The Bears had plenty of personality that year as well, audaciously recording a rap-styled video called “The Super Bowl Shuffle” that was released during the regular season.

But it was not only a strong season on paper — Ditka is credited with leading the Bears back to relevance and luster after losing records in 1980, 1981 and 1982. He built them back to a team fans adored and competitors feared.

“I think that’s the way Mr. Halas always wanted it,” Ditka told The Times in 1985. “He wanted to have a ballclub with a certain personality, a team made up of, you know, rough, tough guys, a team that didn’t take any crap from anybody and could dish it out.”

Ditka and the team brought triumph to Chicago in Super Bowl XX in New Orleans with a 46-10 win against the New England Patriots.

Winning NFL coach of the year with the ’85 team, Ditka is one of only two who have won a Super Bowl as a player, assistant coach and head coach.

“I believe Mike Ditka represents us, in more ways than one,” then linebacker and captain Mike Singletary told The Times. “We know he’s not coaching the Chicago Bears because he needed a job. The Bears mean something to Mike Ditka. The team is part of him.”

His time in Chicago wasn’t all glitz and glamour, though. Ditka wasn’t immediately welcomed back to the Bears as a coach, with his temper a source of strain between him and the owners. He also had a DUI conviction in 1985 and suffered a heart attack in 1988.

Throughout his tenure, he faced complaints about his hotheaded disposition and outbursts on the sideline, notably having tumultuous relationships with several players and defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan, who left after the Super Bowl-winning season to become the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles. But Ditka didn’t seem to have an issue embracing his reputation.

“There was a (magazine) poll of 200 NFL players who said the coaches they would least like to play for were, first, (Tom) Landry and, tied for second, Don Shula and me. I was flattered. What a great compliment,” wrote Mike Ditka in his 1986 autobiography.

Ditka was entrenched in controversy, having been outspoken about Washington not changing its name from the Redskins, also facing backlash for comments he made in 2016 criticizing Colin Kaepernick and social justice protests, later apologizing.

Despite it all, his name is etched in NFL history.

“Ditka was proud and headstrong,” wrote former Times sports columnist Mike Downey. “He was common and condescending. … He did as he pleased. But he restored the reputation of the Chicago Bears, made them winners and made them watchable.”

During his playing career, he made an iconic 63-yard catch-and-run against the Steelers on Nov. 23, 1963, which stands in 69th place on NFL’s 100 Greatest Plays. The highlight helped the Bears to a 17-17 tie after being down 17-14 in the fourth quarter; the team later went on to win the NFL championship.

In 1967, he was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles and then to the Dallas Cowboys in 1969. During his time with the Cowboys, Ditka made it to two Super Bowls, with a loss in 1971 and finally a win the following year in which he scored the final touchdown in a 24-3 win against the Miami Dolphins.

After retiring in 1972, Ditka joined the Cowboys as an assistant coach. He got his hands on the Super Bowl trophy once again in 1977 with the team and stayed on until joining the Chicago Bears.

The Hall of Famer’s ties with Chicago were once again severed, this time with his firing in 1993 following a 5-11 season. But he refused to shed the navy and orange in the years after he went 106-62 and led the Bears to seven playoff appearances in 11 seasons.

“Yeah, I was fired by the Bears, but that’s life,” Ditka said during a visit to Chicago’s practice field in 2013. “There has never been a time I was not a Bears fan. I have a right to be a Bears fan as much as anybody. I played on a championship team and I coached a championship team.”

The Bears retired Ditka’s number, 89, in 2013.

His involvement with the NFL expanded off the green as he explored TV commentating, even earning Sports Emmy nominations for outstanding sports personality in 1994 and 1996.

Ditka did have one more head coaching stint in the NFL from 1997 to 1999 with the New Orleans Saints. After two 6-10 seasons, the Saints traded all of their draft picks — plus a first-round selection in 2000 — to move up and select running back Ricky Williams. But the team went 3-13 in 1999 and Ditka was fired after the season.

He finished his coaching career 121-95 after the 15-33 stint in New Orleans.

“I’ve been to the top of the mountain and I’ve seen it,” Ditka told The Times in 2004. “And I’ve been to the bottom of the mountain and I’ve seen that too. I don’t want to get anywhere between them anymore.”

Professional football would not see the last of him, however, as he went on to do radio and TV broadcasting for programs such as The NFL Today, Monday Night Football and SportsCenter. His passion for football would never fade, apparent in his launch of X Football, women’s tackle football competition league, in 2021.

And his mark on Chicago was not confined to the stadium gates; he was a partner in Ditka’s Restaurant Group which first opened a steakhouse in downtown Chicago in 1997, boasting its signature dish, “Da Pork Chop.” While the original location closed in 2020, there are still locations in Oakbrook, Ill., and Pittsburgh.

After a short stint living in Florida, Ditka and his wife, Diana, replanted roots in Chicago at the end of 2024.

‘‘I was born in Pennsylvania and raised in Pittsburgh, but Chicago is my home . . . and it is my life,” Ditka told the Chicago Sun Times.

Philadelphia Eagles coach Nick Sirianni was livid.

Chicago Bears linebacker D’Marco Jackson had just delivered a hard hit on Jalen Hurts as the Eagles star quarterback was running out of bounds. Hurts had to leave the game under the NFL’s concussion protocol.

So Sirianni decided to let Jackson know exactly how he felt about him. ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” cameras showed the sixth-year coach screaming an extremely NSFW word apparently at the opposing player — twice — while Eagles backup quarterback Andy Dalton prepared to enter the game.

Hours later, following the Eagles’ 27-7 loss to the Bears, Sirianni expressed regret for how he behaved.

“I always come away when I have a moment like that with remorse,” Sirianni told reporters during his postgame news conference. “I shouldn’t have let my emotions get the best of me. Those guys are out there trying to make a play. It was close on the sideline, ended up being a penalty. Obviously you never want to see your quarterback get hit like that, but it’s in the heat of the moment. I know nobody’s trying to hurt anybody out there, and I always have remorse when I act that way.”

He added: “The emotion of the game probably got the better of me today and I have to learn from that in that particular moment. I have to be more steady in that situation and be able to — like I say to the guys all the time, be able to move on and go to the next play. I didn’t like how I handled that.”

Trailing 7-0 midway through the second quarter, Hurts was forced to scramble out of the pocket on second down for a short gain to the Bears’ 13-yard line. As he was stepping out of bounds, Hurts was hit hard in the shoulder area by Jackson and knocked backward onto the ground. Jackson was flagged for unnecessary roughness, but the penalty was offset by an offensive holding call on Philadelphia’s Lane Johnson.

After the game, Jackson joked that he received “some feedback” over that hit but said that he thought he was making the appropriate play at the time.

“I’m seeing him, I see the first down right there and in my head I’m trying to stop him from [getting] the first down and reaching the ball out,” Jackson told Marquee Sports Network. “I thought it was a clean hit. In the second of the game, I thought it was clean.”

Hurts was able to jog back to the Eagles huddle but was then called to the sideline for concussion testing. Out on the field, Dalton handed the ball off to star running back Saquon Barkley three times to get the Eagles to the Bears’ 2-yard line. But on third and goal, Dalton’s pass intended for Dontayvion Wicks was intercepted by Chicago’s Dillon Thieneman in the end zone to stop the drive.

In his postgame news conference, Hurts didn’t address the hit by Jackson but did express frustration about not being able to clear the concussion protocol and re-enter the game sooner.

“I wish they could have expedited things,” Hurts said. “I felt fine.”

The Bears — led by third-string quarterback Case Keenum, who started in place of injured starter Caleb Williams and backup Tyson Bagent, who was recovering from a conncussion — then drove the ball down the field for a field goal. Hurts returned to the game on the next drive and led the Eagles to their only touchdown of the game.

Championship titles are constructed on a bedrock of solid sessions interspersed with the occasional spectacular one – and Hain and Barnard’s efforts were the epitome of solid.

Resuming on 130-4, already five runs in front, they added 51 without loss in a morning session truncated by bad light.

Hain and Barnard did exactly what their team required, advancing steadily to lay the platform for a big lead and potential innings victory.

The Bears’ fifth-wicket pair continued to concentrate hard after lunch until, with the lead already 126, Barnard departed livid with himself at edging a big drive at a wide ball from Ben Green – just 12 shy of a century.

Chris Woakes chipped his second ball to mid-on, but Kai Smith and Manny Suthar enjoyed useful cameos before also falling to the persevering Hull.

They had accompanied the excellent Hain towards his century which was greeted by a standing ovation from the big audience, then Bamber added further useful runs before being bowled by a beauty from Patel.

Even then the Foxes’ frustration went on as last pair Hain and Olly Hannon-Dalby added 35.

Leicestershire opener Sol Budinger then came out firing, hitting 43 not out off 36 balls, But Bamber struck twice in three balls, trapping Sheridon Gumbs and then flattening Rishi Patel’s off-stump two balls late.

After a bad-light interruption, Woakes then pinned Steve Eskinazi lbw in the gloom to leave Warwickshire maybe only one strong session away from the title.