Mike Ditka was born Michael Dyczko. His father was a welder. The family was Polish and Ukrainian, in the coal and steel country of western Pennsylvania, and nobody around them could pronounce Dyczko. So they changed it to Ditka. Rest in peace to the legend. His family announced today that Mike Ditka has passed away at 86 years old. He was born in Carnegie and grew up in Aliquippa, and he got out of there the way kids from those towns got out, which was football. The Chicago Bears took him fifth overall in 1961 out of Pitt. Before him a tight end was basically a sixth lineman who caught something once in a while. As a rookie Mike Ditka went for 1,076 yards and 12 touchdowns, which no tight end had ever done, and the job has never gone back to what it was. He spent six seasons playing for the Bears, and in 1963 he won the NFL Championship with them. Then he and George Halas fell out over money, and on his way out of town Ditka said the old man threw nickels around like manhole covers. Halas traded him to the Philadelphia Eagles in April of 1967 for a quarterback. He finished playing with the Dallas Cowboys. He caught a touchdown in Super Bowl VI. He retired in 1973, Tom Landry put him on the staff, and he got another ring there as an assistant. And then he wrote George Halas a letter. He told him he regretted the way it had ended in Chicago. He told him that when he was ready, he wanted to come back and coach the Bears. Halas gave him the job in 1982. Here is what Ditka said when he got there. "Give me three years, and if you walk with me, we'll get to the dance." They went 15 and 1 in 1985 and beat the New England Patriots 46 to 10 in Super Bowl XX. Here is how he described that team. "There are Smiths and there are Grabowskis. We're the Grabowskis." That is a welder's kid talking. In 1988 he had a heart attack during the season and blamed it on stress. He was back in weeks. The Bears went 12 and 4 and he was Coach of the Year for the second time. Chicago fired him in January of 1993. He took the New Orleans Saints job in 1997 and it did not work. He traded every pick New Orleans had in 1999, plus the following year's first rounder, to move up and take Ricky Williams. They let him go after a 3 and 13 season. None of that is what anybody is going to remember. In 1988 he became the first tight end ever put into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He is the only man who was part of both of the last two championships the Chicago Bears have won, as a player in 1963 and as the head coach in 1985. The Bears retired his number 89 in 2013. They changed the name so the neighbors could pronounce it. He turned it into the one that whole city still shouts. For more stories like this, follow us on any platform @thesportsontap