As a player, trainer and then commentator, Mike Ditka has led one of the brightest and most successful careers in America's favorite sport - football. However, the powerful 6' 3 athlete started life out with a distinctly Ukrainian background. His father was from an immigrant family in the coal mining and steel manufacturing area of Western Pennsylvania. Born as Michael Dyzcko on 18 October 1939 in a suburb of Pittsburgh, Ditka would go on to become the only person to win a Super Bowl as a team member, assistant coach and head coach.
In 1960, in his senior year of college, 'Iron Mike' was selected as a member of the All-American team. Immediately thereafter, the Chicago Bears drafted him as a tight end - a new position in professional football, which Ditka would help define. In his first season, combing the strength of a defensive back with the speed and agility of a wide receiver, Dikta made 56 receptions (or catches). This earned him the NFL's prestigious Rookie of the Year award. Just two years later, he played on the 1963 NFL championship team.
In 1967, he was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles and then to the Dallas Cowboys two years later. It was with the Cowboys that he took part in his first Super Bowl (VI), catching a touchdown pass that helped them beat the Miami Dolphins 24 - 3. In 1987, with a career total of 427 receptions, Ditka became the first tight end ever to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
But long before that, in 1972, Ditka had retired to go into coaching. He didn't have to go far. The Cowboys offered him a position as assistant head coach for nine consecutive seasons, during which the team made the playoffs eight times, won six division titles, three NFC championships and another Super Bowl in 1977.
In 1982, the Chicago Bears, with a pitiful record of only two winning seasons in the previous nineteen, recruited him as a head coach. Ditka led the Bears to six NFC Central titles, three trips to the NFC Championship and a victorious Super Bowl in 1986. The year before, the Ukrainian American had been named coach of the year by Sporting News and the Associated Press.
Known for his hot temper, which sometimes made newspaper headlines, Ditka suffered a heart attack in 1988. In 1992, the Chicago Bears fired him. But five years later, he took over at the New Orleans Saints, a time that he described as "the three worst years" of his life.
Between the Bears and the Saints, Ditka started the third phase of his professional football career - live commentary of televised games. Then, from 2000 to 2001, he worked as a studio analyst for The NFL Today, on CBS sports. Iron Mike has also appeared in dozens of commercials and done cameo appearances in American television series.
Now a leading member of the Chicago business community with a chain of restaurants, Ditka still maintains his reputation as a tough competitor. He even came close to running for the U.S. Senate. Two sayings that characterize the sturdy Ukrainian American's attitude toward life are "Attack always" and "If you're not in the parade, you watch the parade. That's life."
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