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AirChicago Profile:
Mike Ditka
Mike Ditka is a former football player, coach and television commentator. He is a member of the College Football (1986) and Pro Football Hall of Fame (1988). He was the 1961 UPI NFL Rookie of the Year, a 5-time Pro Bowl selection and 5-time All-Pro tight end with the Chicago Bears, Philadelphia Eagles, and Dallas Cowboys.
Mr. Ditka was an NFL champion with the 1963 Bears, and is a 3-time Super Bowl champion—Cowboys Super Bowl VI team and as the winning assistant coach for the Cowboys in Super Bowl XII. He coached the Bears to victory in Super Bowl XX. He was named to the NFL’s 50th and 75th Anniversary All-Time Team.
As a coach for the Bears for 11 years he was twice the AP and UPI NFL Coach of Year (1985 and 1988). He also coached the New Orleans Saints for three years. Ditka and Tom Flores are the only people to win an NFL title as a player, an assistant coach, and a head coach. 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 he played for previously. Mr. 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. 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.