Mike Ditka, the Hall of Fame tight end and coach whose battles with the Green Bay Packers helped define a fierce stretch of football’s oldest rivalry, died Friday, Oct. 9. He was 86.
His family announced his death, saying he would be “missed beyond measure and remembered forever.”
Packers coach Matt LaFleur also made a statement about Ditka at his Friday press conference.
Per Jason B. Hirschhorn: “I just wanted to offer my condolences to the Bears and to the Ditka family in memory of Mike Ditka. Obviously, a true legend of the game as a player, as a coach, and just wanted to throw that out there.”
“I just wanted to offer my condolences to the Bears and to the Ditka family in memory of Mike Ditka. Obviously, a true legend of the game as a player, as a coach, and just wanted to throw that out there.”
Given the Packers are hosting the Chicago Bears at Lambeau Field on Sunday, it’s a good trip back to old-school football to think about Ditka vs. Packers.
As Chicago’s head coach from 1982 through 1992, Ditka went 15-5 against the Packers, according to the Bears’ own account. That record is for his coaching tenure; he also faced Green Bay as a Bears player in the 1960s.
Ditka Turned the 1985 Meetings Into Bears Lore
Ditka knew the rivalry from the field.
A Bears retrospective recounts his battles with Packers linebacker Ray Nitschke, including a 1963 block that knocked Nitschke out of a game. Years later, Ditka’s sideline clashes with Green Bay coach Forrest Gregg carried that same animosity into the 1980s.
The rivalry was at its most vivid during Chicago’s 1985 championship season.
In an October Monday night game, Ditka sent rookie defensive tackle William Perry into the backfield. “The Refrigerator” cleared a path for Walter Payton and scored on a 1-yard run as the Bears won 23-7. Perry’s unlikely offensive role became one of that team’s signatures.
For the November rematch at Lambeau, Ditka found another way to use him.
Perry caught a 4-yard touchdown pass from Jim McMahon. Green Bay made the Bears work for the 16-10 victory. Payton rushed for 192 yards and broke free for the go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter, amid a game marked by late hits and confrontations.
The Bears went on to win Super Bowl XX, but their trip to Green Bay had felt like a fight for every yard.
The Rivalry Gave Ditka Wins, Fury and an Asterisk
Its ugliest moment came the following season.
Packers defensive end Charles Martin slammed McMahon to the turf after a pass in their November 1986 meeting. Martin was ejected, and McMahon missed the rest of the season. The incident remains part of the rivalry’s history, and a reminder of how far its hostility went.
Ditka’s response to Green Bay could be memorable even after a loss. In 1989, the Bears led 13-7 in the final minute when Packers quarterback Don Majkowski threw an apparent touchdown to Sterling Sharpe.
Officials initially ruled Majkowski had crossed the line of scrimmage before throwing. Replay reversed the call, and the Packers won 14-13. Ditka and Chicago’s management were so angry that they put an asterisk beside the result in the Bears’ media guide, labeling it the “instant-replay game.”
The Packers’ own history of the rivalry still singles out the Gregg-Ditka feud, Perry and that replay decision as defining pieces of its character. Ditka was an adversary Green Bay rarely beat during his coaching years, and one the rivalry would have been hard to imagine without.
Sunday’s game also recalls an emotional meeting at Lambeau.
Six days after Payton died in 1999, Chicago beat Green Bay 14-13 when Bryan Robinson blocked Ryan Longwell’s field-goal attempt on the final play.
Ditka was no longer coaching the Bears, but Payton had been the central component of his greatest team.
This weekend, the same rivalry will unfold with the loss of its most recognizable former coach still fresh.
Remembering NFL Great Mike Ditka Facing Off Against Green Bay Packers