Remembering Super Bowl Champion Coach and Hall of Fame Tight End Mike Ditka

Mike Ditka, who passed away today just nine days before his 87th birthday, is perhaps best known as the coach of the dominant 1985 Chicago Bears team that won Super Bowl XX, but he was also one of the greatest tight ends in pro football history. Ditka was the first tight end inducted in the Pro Football Hall of Fame (1988), and he was also selected to both the NFL's 75th Anniversary Team (1994) and the NFL's 100th Anniversary Team (2019).

Ditka had a successful college career at the University of Pittsburgh, leading the team in receptions in all three of his varsity seasons (1958-60) while being named an unanimous First Team All-America selection in 1960, when he also finished sixth in Heisman Trophy balloting. Ditka was inducted in the College Football Hall of Fame in 1986.

The Chicago Bears selected Ditka with the fifth overall pick in the 1961 NFL Draft, while the Houston Oilers chose him with the eighth overall pick in the 1961 AFL Draft. Ditka signed with the Bears, and in 1961 he set the NFL's rookie tight end records for receptions (56), receiving yards (1076), and touchdowns (12) when the NFL season lasted just 14 games; he led all NFL tight ends in all three categories that season. Ditka was the first NFL tight end to have at least 1000 yards receiving and at least 12 receiving touchdowns in the same season, a feat that more than 60 years later has only been matched by four players: Todd Christensen (1983), Rob Gronkowski (2011, 2014), Jimmy Graham (2013), and Travis Kelce (2022). Ditka still holds the rookie record for touchdowns by a tight end, his rookie tight ends reception record stood until 1988, and his rookie tight ends yardage record lasted until 2024. The longevity of those records is remarkable considering not only that the NFL season was later lengthened but also that Ditka played in a run-dominant era before rules changes opened up the passing game in 1978 and again in the 2000s. 

Ditka led all NFL tight ends in receptions in each of his first four seasons. The Bears went 11-1-2 in 1963 before beating the New York Giants 14-10 to win the NFL Championship. Ditka led that team in receptions (59), receiving yards (794), receiving touchdowns (eight), and scoring (48 points) while earning the first of back to back AP All-Pro First Team selections. 

Ditka felt that the Bears did not compensate him adequately for his production, declaring that owner George Halas "threw nickels around like manhole covers." The Bears traded Ditka to the Eagles in 1967 and he had two forgettable seasons in Philadelphia before being traded to Dallas. He did not post eye-popping numbers with the Cowboys, but he started all three of their playoff games in 1971 as the Cowboys won a Super Bowl for the first time in franchise history, defeating Miami 24-3 in Super Bowl VI. 

Ditka retired after the 1972 season and joined Tom Landry's staff as a special teams/receivers coach, a position that Ditka held in Dallas for nine seasons (1973-81) as the Cowboys reached the Super Bowl three times, including a 27-10 win over the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XII. 

After the Bears won the 1963 NFL title, they missed the playoffs from 1964-76 and went 0-1 in the playoffs in 1977 and 1979. When the Bears hired Ditka as their head coach in 1982, he inherited a 6-10 club that went 3-6 under his direction during the strike-shortened 1982 campaign. The Bears improved quickly, going 8-8 in 1983 and then 10-6 in 1984 when they captured the first of five straight NFC Central Division titles. Under Ditka, the Bears reached reached the NFC Championship game three times, and won Super Bowl XX by the biggest margin in Super Bowl history at that time, routing the New England Patriots 46-10. That 1985 championship team is famous for the "Super Bowl Shuffle" video that the players made during the season, and for going 15-1 before winning their three playoff games by a combined margin of 91-10, including shutouts in two NFC playoff games before the Super Bowl. Defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan was a mastermind. Doug Plank, who played safety for the Bears, said that Ryan was playing chess with his defensive strategies. The Bears' legendary "46" defense featured Hall of Famers Mike Singletary, Richard Dent, Dan Hampton, and Steve McMichael and led the league in fewest points allowed during the regular season (198). The underrated offense with Jim McMahon at quarterback and Walter Payton (1551 rushing yards, third best in the NFL) at running back ranked second in the NFL in scoring (456 points, just 11 behind the "Air Coryell" San Diego Chargers). Even if you weren't a Bears fan, that team was fun to watch (unless they were pounding the daylights out of your favorite team). I was a freshman in high school at that time, and I must say that more than 40 years later I still consider the 1985 Bears one of the greatest and most entertaining NFL teams I have ever seen.

Ditka was not a man prone to regrets, but one regret that he admitted publicly is that he did not make sure that Payton scored a touchdown in the Super Bowl; in a goal line situation late in the third quarter with the Bears ahead 37-3, the Bears gave the ball to defensive lineman William "Refrigerator" Perry instead of Payton, who at that time was the NFL's all-time leader in rushing yards and who later held the all-time rushing touchdowns record for nine years. Although Perry scored three rushing touchdowns during the regular season, many people--including Payton himself--thought that the play should have been designed for Payton. Ditka later said,  "It never, ever crossed my mind. Now is that wrong of me? Yes, probably. It should've crossed my mind, but it didn't. I didn't think it would ever mean anything to, I think, the greatest Bear ever. But then it did, so I was wrong. That, I regret a lot. I really do regret it a lot, because I didn't realize it was important to him, and it was very important to him."

Ditka was twice selected as the AP NFL Coach of the Year (1985, 1988) but all good things must end, and the Bears fired him after a 5-11 season in 1992, just one year after the debut of the famous "Saturday Night Live" skit about "Da Bears" that is still fondly remembered to this day.

Ditka spent four years as a football commentator for NBC Sports before returning to the sidelines in 1997 to coach the New Orleans Saints. The Saints did not come close to having a winning season with Ditka at the helm and they fired him after three losing seasons. That period is most remembered for the Saints' infamous decision to trade all of their draft picks for 1999 and 2000 in exchange for the number five pick in the 1999 NFL Draft, which they used to select running back Ricky Williams. Williams rushed for 884 yards as a rookie in Ditka's final season on the sidelines. Williams won the 2002 NFL rushing title with the Miami Dolphins and he finished his career with five 1000 yards seasons and 10,009 career rushing yards, but it is impossible to build a winning team after trading away that much draft capital. 

After his coaching career ended, Ditka became a popular NFL commentator on ESPN. He was known for his direct manner of speaking as both a coach and as a commentator. Perhaps the best example of this is what he told the Bears' players after becoming the team's coach in 1982: "I've got good news and bad news. The good news is we're going to the Super Bowl. The bad news is half of you guys won't be here when we do." Ditka was blunt--and he was right: the 1985 Super Bowl champion Bears had just 14 players who had been on the team in 1981, the year before Ditka became the team's coach.

Mike Ditka will be remembered as a Chicago icon, an all-time great tight end, and the coach of one of the NFL's greatest single season teams.

Journey to the National Master Title, Part 19

I scored 3/4 in the July 25, 2026 Cincinnati Tornado, gaining 12 rating points to lift my rating to 1944 while tying for first-third U2000. My daughter Rachel also played; she did not win a tournament game, but she had fun playing a lot of casual games in between rounds, and she won some of those.

I proudly wore my "Chess Dad" shirt when Rachel and I played in the July 25, 2026 Cincinnati Tornado
  

Rachel and tournament organizer Robert Chenault enjoyed a casual game before round two 

Rachel and I went to Grand Rapids to experience the whole week of the U.S. Open (August 3-9) plus the various invitational tournaments. I scored 4/8 in the Weeramantry National Tournament of State Champions speed chess (3+2) event. My first two wins were by forfeit, and my other opponents all had higher regular ratings than I do. I split my two game mini-match with Charlie Creswell, who tied for second-fourth in this event with 7/8. I drew a game with Landon Meadors, a 10 year old who went on to score 7/9 in the U.S. Open to earn the National Master title in style. My overall performance was solid, resulting in just a three point blitz rating loss to 1808.

I defeated FM Peter Bereolos in the first round of the Irwin National Tournament of Senior State Champions, and then I earned the second round upset prize for my win versus IM Tim Taylor, a 1977 U.S. Open co-champion. Chess Life Online mentioned my second round win in their U.S. Open coverage. In my game versus Taylor, my K boldly marched up the board, munching pawns along the way. Objectively, I was lost, but in time pressure he faltered by playing ...Bc5+??:

After Kc3, my K safely completed a tour from g1-g2-f2-f3-f4-f5-e4-d4, dodging enemy fire along the way! White is up three pawns, and now Black's K is exposed while White's K is safe behind a pawn armada. Taylor resigned 14 moves later.

I played very strong players in the remaining four rounds, losing to FM Steve Van Enk, GM Alonso Zapata, Expert Leonid Gavrysh, and NM Randy Canney, whose peak USCF rating was over 2400. My score of 2/6 is very respectable considering the opposition that I faced, and I gained 23 rating points to lift my rating to 1967.

Rachel and I played in the four day U.S. Open schedule, and we each took byes for the first two rounds. Our first four games were contested with a G/60 time control plus five second time delay. I scored 2/4 in those games. Our final three games were contested with a 40/100, G/30 time control plus 30 second increment. I scored 2/3 in those games to finish with 4/7 (5/9 overall including the two half point byes), losing 32 points to drop my rating to 1935. Overall, for the U.S. Open week I lost nine regular rating points, lost three blitz rating points, and created memories with Rachel that will last a lifetime. Rachel gained 16 rating points. The only down note is that for the first time in 2026 I lost to a player rated below 1800; my fifth round U.S. Open loss to a player rated 1587 is the main reason that I lost points instead of gaining points during an otherwise most enjoyable week of nearly nonstop chess. The week was not all about chess, though. Rachel and I went to several bookstores, and we toured the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum. Here is a picture of us in a room modeled after the White House Cabinet Room:

On August 22-23, 2026, I scored 3.5/5 in the U2100 section of the Indianapolis Open, gaining nine points to push my rating back to 1944. I won my first three games, drew in the fourth round, and turned down a draw in the fifth round before losing to end my bid for back to back Indianapolis Open U2100 titles (I won the 2025 event with 4.5/5). When my fifth round opponent offered a draw on move 16, I stood slightly better:

I declined the draw offer by playing ...Nxd5. Eight moves later, I was clearly winning:

 

The best move is 24...d5, when 25. Rxd5 loses to ...e3 followed by ...Rxd5 and ...Bxa3, winning the Exchange with a dominant position. 

Black wins after 25. cxd5 by playing ...Rxb5. If White plays Qxb6 then ...Rxb6 leaves Black up an Exchange. 

If in response to 24...d5 White plays 25. Qd4 (the move that concerned me during the game when I analyzed this position) then Black wins after 25...Rxb5 because of the threat of ...Bc5 pinning White's Q to his K on the long diagonal. I think that when I tried to calculate these lines during the game, I played two moves in a row for White and did not "see" that ...Bc5 wins in this line. Thus, instead of playing 24...d5, I played 24...e3, and after 25. Qe2 (the only move) Black is still clearly better but does not have an immediate forced win. On move 29, I blundered, and after a long fight I resigned on move 93.

On Saturday night, I scored 4/8 in the Indianapolis Open Blitz; two of my losses in the four round, double round format (i.e., you play one game with white and one game with black versus each opponent) were to Aidan Baker, a 13 year old National Master who scored 7.5/8 to take clear first before scoring 4.5/5 in the Major section to finish equal first with Grandmaster Semen Khanin.

This year, Robert Chenault organized the Ohio Chess Congress, which was held in Cincinnati for the first time since 2018. Chenault, Arbiter/TD Alan Hodge, and their team did an extraordinary job running this large event that had 279 players (including re-entries and house players) in six sections. My research about the history of the Ohio Chess Congress indicates that both the main event and the Ohio Chess Congress Blitz side event had a record number of participants. Attendance figures are not available for every year, but it is known that the 1972 Ohio Chess Congress--boosted by the "Fischer boom"--had a then-record 201 players, a mark surpassed in 1973 (209). The 1973 record stood until the 1987 OCC had 224 players. In most of the years since I started playing in the OCC in 1989, any number north of 150 was considered successful. 

This tournament traditionally happens on Labor Day Weekend, but this year it took place a week before Labor Day Weekend. I scored 1/5 in the Open (top) section, losing 21 rating points to drop my rating to 1923, and tying my worst score ever in this event; I also scored 1/5 in 1996. This marked my 32nd appearance in the Ohio Chess Congress over the five decades from the 1980s through the 2020s. IM Evan Park took clear first with 4.5/5, but as a Pennsylvania resident he is not eligible to be the Ohio champion. Sharath Radhakrishnan and Dalton Perrine tied for second-sixth overall with 4/5 and are Ohio co-champions. This is Perrine's second Ohio title in a row, while Radhakrishnan is one of the youngest Ohio champions ever; he was born in 2013, and the only Ohio champion who I can confirm to be younger is Kasun Waidyaratne (2004 co-champion born in 1992). The only other Ohio champions 15 or younger who my research has uncovered are Arjun Soni (2024 champion born in 2010) and Elton Cao (2019 champion born in 2004).

On Saturday night after round three, I scored 6/10 in the Ohio Chess Congress Blitz. GM Jianchao Zhou won the Ohio Chess Congress Blitz with 9.5/10, while Radhakrishnan finished clear second (top Ohio scorer) with 8/10. 

On September 26-27, 2026, I scored 4.5/5 to win the Ohio Senior Open for the second year in a row, joining Charles Diebert (2016-17, 2019) and Tom Britt (2021-22) as the only players to win the event more than once. This victory qualifies me to play in the 2027 Irwin National Tournament of Senior State Champions.

I gained 62 rating points to increase my rating to 1985. I won my first four games before a last round draw clinched clear first, which is the same route that I took to clear first in 2025. Here I am holding the 2026 Ohio Senior Open first place trophy while standing next to tournament organizer/tournament director Grant Neilley, who did his usual outstanding job making sure that everything ran smoothly:

The 2026 Ohio Senior Open continued the event's tradition of having a contest for the most interesting or unusual chess set, with the winners determined by anonymous polling of the tournament's participants. Steve Charles' display featuring a scoresheet signed by Bobby Fischer and Carlos Bielicki from their 1960 game at Mar del Plata won in the Staunton category. Here is a closeup of the signed scoresheet:

 Here is a chessboard showing an opening position from that game:

Here is a closeup of the move list:

Richard Hayes' wood and bone set won in the Figurine/Theme category:

This year, my rating has taken a roller coaster ride, soaring as high as 2072 in April and as low as 1923 in August. The challenge that I face is not figuring out how to play Master-level chess; the challenge that I face is figuring out how to consistently play Master-level chess. Prior to the Ohio Senior Open, I started utilizing some different training/preparation techniques, but before I say more on that topic I must prove that my performance in the Ohio Senior Open was the first step toward sustained rating growth. I have won the Ohio Senior Open before, and I have even gained more than 60 rating points in a tournament before, so the only way to prove that my training/preparation is working is to string together a series of tournaments with consistently positive results.

In Journey to the National Master Title, Part 16, I listed four chess goals for 2026. Here are those goals, with notes about how I have performed so far this year:

1) Gain 25 rating points per quarter. I gained 83 rating points in the first quarter of 2026, improving my rating from 1980 to 2063; I lost 131 rating points in the second quarter of 2026, dropping my rating from 2063 to 1932; I gained 53 points in the third quarter of 2026, improving my rating from 1932 to 1985.

2) Do not lose more than eight games to players rated below 1800. I lost 0 games to players rated below 1800 in the first quarter of 2026; I lost 0 games to players rated below 1800 in the second quarter of 2026; I lost one game to players rated below 1800 in the third quarter of 2026.

3) Accumulate more draws than losses. I had eight draws and eight losses in the first quarter of 2026; I had 12 draws and 15 losses in the second quarter of 2026; I had four draws and 12 losses in the third quarter of 2026.

4) Maintain a winning percentage of at least .700. My winning percentage through the first three quarters of 2026 is .638.

In 2026, I have scored 71 wins, 24 draws, and 35 losses in regular rated tournament games with seven first place finishes in 29 events. I lost one game to players rated below 1800. My net rating gain for 2026 is +5, so I need to gain 215 points to reach my goal.