Mike Ditka Dies: NFL Icon & Analyst Who Inspired Classic ‘SNL’ Skit Was 86

Mike Ditka, the fiery NFL legend and analyst who exuded toughness, was a part-time actor and inspired the classic recurring Saturday Night Live about “Da Bears,” died today. He was 86.

His family announced the news in a statement Friday, but did not provide a cause or place of death.

“It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved husband, father, grandfather, and friend, Mike Ditka,” his family’s statement reads. “While the world knew Mike as a Hall of Fame football player, legendary coach, and leader of the Chicago Bears‘ Super Bowl XX championship team, we knew him as the heart of our family.”

Ditka was a star player for the Chicago Bears and later two other teams from 1961-72, becoming the first tight end elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. That was followed by a legendary coaching career that saw him lead the 1985 Chicago Bears to a Super Bowl Championship. That team lost just one game all season en route to the title and is widely considered among the greatest in NFL history.

He also was a longtime NFL TV analyst, starting with NBC in 1993, shortly after his coaching career ended. He then worked for CBS in the early 2000s before joining ESPN in 2004, contributing to its Sunday NFL Countdown and Monday Night Countdown programs through 2015. Ditka also also did analysis during the cable’s Monday Night Football doubleheader games in 2007 and 2008.

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Born on October 18, 1939, in Cambridge, Pennsylvania, Ditka played his college ball at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was named an All-American in his senior year. Drafted fifth overall by the Bears in the 1961 AFL Draft, he became the pre-merger league’s Rookie of the Year. He went on to play with the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys before retiring after the 1972 season.

He was hired to coach the Bears in 1982 and led them to the 1984 NFC title game. The next season was the special one. Rife with colorful star players including Jim McMahon, Walter Payton, Michael Singletary and enormous rookie William “The Refrigerator” Perry, the 1985 Bears blew through the competition, losing only once en route to the championship.

The team also is famous — some would argue infamous — for recording “The Super Bowl Shuffle,” a tongue-mostly-in-cheek rap song released during that regular season. The charity project became a sensation, narrowly missing the Billboard Top 40 and earning a Grammy nomination.

Ditka was a popular TV pitchman and did some acting on the side. He played himself opposite Will Ferrell in the 2005 youth-soccer comedy Kicking & Screaming, in the 1993 finale of NBC’s Cheers and on episodes of L.A. Law, Coach, Becker and Entourage. He portrayed a football coach on two episodes of the network’s 3rd Rock from the Sun in the late ’90s.

He also guested on late-night talk shows hosted by Johnny Carson, David Letterman, Jay Leno and others and was interviewed for many documentaries including ’85: The Greatest Team in Pro Football History and Requiem for a Running Back.

But among his most famous TV moments were ones where he didn’t even appear. In 1991, NBC’s Saturday Night Live debuted “Bill Swerski’s Superfans,” a wildly popular recurring sketch about devoted followers of “Da Bears” and their iconic Coach Ditka. The likes of George Wendt, Joe Mantegna, John Goodman and SNL’s Chris Farley, Mike Myers and Robert Smigel and others downed beers and brats as they extolled their sports icons with a genuine reverence. The sketches remain embedded in pop culture lore.

Information on survivors and a memorial service was not immediately available.