He also was an intramural wrestling champion. He was a three-sport athlete at Pitt, playing baseball (outfielder) and basketball (forward). Planning to become a dentist, he was recruited by Notre Dame, Penn State, and the University of Pittsburgh.Ĭollege career Ditka in 1960 playing for Pitt.ĭitka played for the University of Pittsburgh from 1958 until 1960, where he also became a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity. Ditka hoped to escape his hometown's manufacturing jobs by attending college with a football scholarship. Ditka is quoted as saying, "Doc Miller patched me up many times". John L Miller, took Mike and other players to Pitt games and encouraged them to play for Pitt. Under head coach Press Maravich, Ditka was a three-sport star at Aliquippa High School. The Ukrainian surname "Dyczko" was difficult to pronounce in his hometown, so the family name was changed to "Ditka". His ancestry on his mother's side is Irish and German. His father, a welder, was one of three brothers of a Polish and Ukrainian family in the coal-mining and steel-manufacturing area in Western Pennsylvania. he grew up in nearby Aliquippa with siblings Ashton, David, and Mary Ann. The oldest child of Charlotte (Keller) and Mike Ditka Sr. Early years ĭitka was born as Michael Dyczko in the Pittsburgh-area town of Carnegie, Pennsylvania on October 18, 1939. 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. In 2020, Ditka became the owner of the X League, a women's tackle football league that was originally the Lingerie Football League. Ditka is the only person to participate in both of the last two Chicago Bears' league championships, as a player in 1963 and as head coach in 1985. 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. He also was the head coach of the New Orleans Saints from 1997 to 1999.ĭitka and Tom Flores are the only people to win an NFL title as a player, an assistant coach, and a head coach. He was named to the NFL's 75th- and 100th-Anniversary All-Time Teams.Īs a head coach for the Bears from 1982 to 1992, he was twice both the AP and UPI NFL Coach of Year (19). He 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. During his playing career, he was UPI NFL Rookie of 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. Michael Keller Ditka (born Michael Dyczko October 18, 1939) is an American former football player, coach, and television commentator. NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year (1961).Assistant head coach/special teams coordinator
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