‘We’ll never forget him, ever’: Chicago Bears fans reminisce on Mike Ditka’s legacy
As a child growing up in Poland during the ‘80s, Tom Godowski watched Bears football games on tapes sent from his father, who lived in Chicago.
When a teenage Godowski moved to the city, there was never a question of what team to root for.
That connection was further amplified after Godowski’s girlfriend bought him a team sweater a few years ago, and they noticed a striking resemblance to longtime player and head coach Mike Ditka.
To showcase his love for the team, he and a few friends began work eight months ago on a van. Quotes from Bears icons throughout history cover the exterior, turf obscures the floorboards and the names of the vehicle’s owners are stylized to look like jerseys on the backs of seats.
Godowski, now a 52-year-old Itasca resident, parks the van at Bears tailgates while rocking a mustache, cigar and sleeveless sweater, all famously associated with the coach he used to watch on his father’s tapes decades ago.
“Mike Ditka for us working-class people, he was always about the hard work, elevating yourself, doing the s— you got to do,” he said.
Ditka, the coach who led the Chicago Bears to their only Super Bowl victory, died at 86 years old, longtime family friend Jarrett Payton announced Friday.
Before his death, fans reminisced on Ditka’s career while tailgating outside recent Bears home games.
Passing the torch
Bears and Eagles fans ahead of a September game against Philadelphia squeezed between plastic tables as a marching band beat away at drums. Families tossed footballs while waiting for sausages cooking on grills. And political canvassers walked from tent to tent, attempting to catch the attention of anyone at the tailgate.
Football fans reflected on a tough coach whose spirit became synonymous with Chicago.
“I grew up in that period, ‘85 Bears, watching him come in and coach,” Dave Moisa of Antioch said. “He changed just the total outlook of the Chicago Bears from a personality perspective. I think really how he changed the city and how they viewed the Bears, that, you know, we became a city that backed them no matter what.”
When Moisa, 55, was born, his dad told his mom that the baby would be a fan of the Chicago Bears and linebacker Dick Butkus. Moisa’s father got team jerseys for the family, he said, and loved the Bears until the day he died.
If his dad was still around, Moisa, 55, said he’d tell you Chicago’s best football players were Butkus and Ditka, who played tight end.
Moisa also instilled Bears fandom in the next generation, as his son, Jacob, sat with him at the tailgate.
“I came out the womb. That’s how it worked,” said Jacob Moisa, 22.
Another father-son duo, Christopher Fioretto of DeKalb County, 49, and Liam, 14, checked out different tailgates before the game against the Eagles. For Christopher Fioretto, Ditka and his era represent more than just sports entertainment. He thought back to watching the Bears with his grandparents as a young child.
“Them hoisting Ditka up on their shoulders after they won the Super Bowl against the Patriots, it just was an experience,” Christopher Fioretto said. “And to be able to experience that with my grandfather because he’s somebody that I always looked up to, and I followed in his footsteps as a fireman.”
Ditka is the third member of the 1985 Bears to die in the past two years. Fullback Matt Suhey died Sept. 6, and defensive tackle Steve McMichael’s death in April 2025 especially affected Fioretto.
“To see what happened to (McMichael) and all these Monsters of the Midway and how they passed away … you can’t take life for granted, and you really have to cherish every moment,” he said.
‘We’ll have 1985 forever’
Ditka played for the Bears starting in 1961, went to the Philadelphia Eagles for two years, and then played for the Dallas Cowboys until 1973, when he switched to coaching.
Leaving Dallas, Ditka was hired as the Bears head coach for the 1982 season. He guided the team to a Super Bowl victory during the 1985 season and held the head coach role until being fired in 1993 after losing eight of his nine final games. Ditka later coached for the New Orleans Saints until 2000.
“He went to Dallas and all this other stuff, but he was a Bear, and he came back here and coached, and he was successful, and he gave us something that we’ll have forever — not just generational, we’ll have 1985 forever,” said Kelly Keaschall, who drove from Whiteside County to tailgate at Soldier Field.
Ditka had one way of coaching: his way, said Keaschall, 68, adding his hardcore style probably wouldn’t fly in 2026.
Rich Huss, who lives in Florida, sat next to Ditka on a plane ride to San Francisco in 2008. Huss, a former Palatine resident, was able to get Ditka’s original seatmate to switch places.
During the flight, they went back and forth about former head coach Lovie Smith, who led the 2006 Bears to the Super Bowl but lost to the Indianapolis Colts. Ditka was defending Smith, while Huss, 72, said he criticized Smith’s discipline.
The former coach was traveling to San Francisco for ESPN to interview Mike Singletary, the star linebacker when Ditka coached the Bears, who had recently been hired as the 49ers’ coach, Huss said. Ditka was complaining about going, Huss said, as he was an analyst and not an interviewer.
“When I sat next to him to talk to him, he was just the same as when he was interviewing and talking to people,” Huss said. “He was very funny.”
While Huss liked Ditka’s sense of humor and straightforwardness, he said he was an eccentric coach who made poor draft choices.
Fans from Chicago and elsewhere
Most people at recent Soldier Field tailgates tossed out accolades.
Carlos Uviedo, 51, of Norridge met the coach at one of Ditka’s restaurants about a decade ago, calling him a “Chicago legend.” Shaun Finn, a North Center resident who drove a motorbike around tailgates carrying a life-size replica of the Abominable Snowman from the “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” movie, said, “You can’t think of the Bears and not think of Ditka.”
The coach also made an impression on fans from other cities.
Gwendolyn Vance traveled from Philadelphia to see the Eagles play at Soldier Field. She said the former coach and the 1985 Bears team were “perfection,” and many in Philadelphia love their spirit.
“They’re like us, dirty, you know?” said Vance, 63. “Refrigerator (William) Perry, really, I mean who would give him the ball to make that touchdown? Only a very crazy coach would allow that.”
Ditka occasionally put the nearly 400-pound player on offense, culminating when Perry crashed through the Patriots’ defensive line to score a 1-yard rushing touchdown during the Bears’ winning Super Bowl game.
Before the Oct. 6 game against the New York Jets, Sal Antonelli, a 68-year-old Jets fan visiting from New Jersey, said Ditka “revolutionized the position of being a tight end.”
Ditka in his first season as a player totaled 56 receptions for 1,076 yards and 12 touchdowns — all NFL records for rookie tight ends at the time. The touchdowns still stand as the most for a rookie tight end.
Keeping the faith
This year, fans have high hopes that head coach Ben Johnson and the Bears can return the team to glory.
The Bears are absolutely capable of winning another Super Bowl this season, Godowski said. He has faith in Johnson, complimenting how the coach brings players together.
“I love what he’s about; I love that he’s taking accountability for people, that he’s very direct,” Godowski said. “You know, in a way, you cannot be like Ditka anymore, right? You cannot be just tough.”
For the season opener, Godowski traveled to North Carolina and wore his Ditka getup. He plans to attend every Bears home game this season.
At the Jets match, Godowski wasn’t the only one cosplaying the coach. Throughout the crowds, men walked around sporting the signature slicked hair, mustache and sweater.
“Guys like me, there’s plenty of us dressed up as Ditka,” Godowski said. “We’ll never forget him ever, because he meant so much to the city, to us, to people.”
fbelleau@chicagotribune.com