Mike Ditka Days Until Chicago Bears Season Opener

We at Bear Goggles On have decided to count down the days until the Chicago Bears’ regular season opener on September 13th against their arch-rivals, the Green Bay Packers. As of today, there are 89 days until the big day, giving us a reason to give you a profile of a Chicago Bears legendary coach and player, Mike Ditka.

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We’ve profiled Mike Ditka plenty on this site, but it’s always fun to look back at the Chicago Bears icon especially as 2015 marks the 30th anniversary of that magical 1985 season. But Ditka’s Chicago Bears career started long before that season, back in 1961.

Mike Ditka was selected by George Halas and the Bears with the 5th pick in the 1961 draft out of Pitt. Ditka was a star on both sides of the ball, but it was his play as a tight end and his unique ability as a pass catcher that caught Papa Bear’s eye. Before Ditka, the tight end was mostly just a glorified tackle, an extension of the offensive line. Ditka entered the league and immediately became Jimmy Graham. He was unstoppable. How unstoppable?

In 14 games, Ditka pulled in 1076 yards on 56 catches for an average of nearly 20 yards per catch while scoring 12 TD’s. How good were those stats? They were good enough to have Ditka ranked 5th among ALL pass catchers in the 1961 season. And that was just in his rookie year. Ditka was Jimmy Graham before Jimmy Graham.

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Over his six seasons with the Bears, Ditka started 70 games and caught 316 passes for 4500 yards with 34 touchdowns. For his career, Ditka appeared in 158 games and had 427 catches for 5800 yards and 43 touchdowns. It was a career that led him to be the first tight end ever to be enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1988.

Ditka was named to five Pro Bowls from ’61 – ’65 and named an All Pro those same years. He helped lead the Bears to a championship in 1963 and went on to help the Cowboys win Super Bowl VI.

Ditka’s dream was to return to Chicago to coach the Bears, so he wrote a letter to George Halas that he wanted to coach the Bears when he was ready. Following the 1982 season, Halas took Ditka up on the offer, making him the tenth head coach in Chicago Bears history.

Ditka had a plan to get the Bears to a title within three years:

"Shortly after his hiring, as recounted by Mike Singletary in 2006, Ditka called a team meeting. In the meeting he warned that the team would experience some turnover, but if they were all willing to work hard for him and stand with him, Ditka promised a trip to the Super Bowl within three seasons. Specifically Ditka said “Give me three years, and if you walk with me, we’ll get to the dance.”"

And dance they did in 1985, as Ditka led the Bears to the franchise’s only Super Bowl victory in team history. Each week leading up to the season, we’re looking at each of the 1985 Bears games for #TBT (that’s Throwback Thursday for those not familiar with the popular social media hashtag). Check out some Chicago Bears history.

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During his time as Chicago Bears head coach, Mike Ditka led the Bears to the postseason in seven of his ten seasons, won two Coach of the Year awards, one Super Bowl, and suffered one heart attack, my friend.

Ditka went on to coach the New Orleans Saints from 1997-1999, but his tenure there will be best remembered from trading away his entire draft class for the right to draft Ricky Williams. Williams could not possibly become the Payton component to the formula. Of course, he couldn’t reproduce what he had in Chicago.

At a recent pre-draft event hosted by Gatorade, I asked Ditka about that trade and if he regretted that trade. In true Ditka fashion, he told me that he does’t live that way and didn’t regret it, but did admit that he screwed up and gave away way too much for Williams, but went on to say that the trade wasn’t the reason the Saints were a bad team. It was that they had a different quarterback every week that caused the Saints to struggle.

We’re 89 days from the Chicago Bears season opener!

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