Honoring Mike Ditka: Da Coach

The Chicago Bears will take care of some long overdue business this coming Monday night when they retire Mike Ditka’s #89.  I’ve decided to do a little three part series to honor Mike Ditka – The Player, The Coach , The Legend.  Earlier this week, we looked at Mike Ditka: The Player, the first tight end to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.  Today, let’s look at the Ditka many of us grew up with, Mike Ditka: Da Coach.

In the Top 100 Players clip that we saw in the Player segment, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach talked about the importance of adding Ditka to his Cowboys team that went on to win Super Bowl VI.  Perhaps it was that leadership and mettle that Tom Landry saw in Ditka that compelled him to hire Ditka as a Cowboys assistant coach in 1973 immediately following his playing career ended with the Cowboys.