It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when the Bears became Da Bears, but whenever that was, Mike Ditka was there.
In fact, Ditka was there from the start. At his team’s first mini-camp in 1982 he shocked players, numbed by a tradition of losing, with a Super Bowl prediction.
“It was the culmination of a lifetime dream,” Ditka said of the 1985 season, when the Bears made his prediction come true. “I knew it was going to happen. I told the players from the first day I came in we were going to win the Super Bowl in three years.”
He got his Super Bowl wish, but Ditka felt the Bears should have been more successful from the start.
“We could have made the playoffs in ’82,” Ditka said. “Couldn’t score on a quarterback sneak in Detroit. Halas was ticked.”
In 1983, Ditka was so furious after a loss in Baltimore that he broke his hand while slamming it against a locker.
By 1984, Ditka’s rugged personality had come to symbolize the Bears. When they upset the 1982 champion Redskins in Washington with Steve Fuller at quarterback that season, the Bears were one game away from the Super Bowl. But they lost the NFC title game to the eventual champion 49ers 23-0.
“They played at a level we had never seen,” safety Dave Duerson said of the 49ers. “Mike tried to explain it, that guys in the playoffs were more intense. We were playing at 150 m.p.h., our best ball. The Niners played at 400 m.p.h. So when we came back for the ’85 season, we knew what it was going to take.”
“We were embarrassed on national TV and we never wanted it to happen again,” left tackle Jim Covert said.
The next season, Ditka saw to it that it didn’t happen again.
In Minnesota, he responded to Vikings coach Bud Grant’s challenge to look good during the national anthem by instructing the Bears not only to remove their helmets, as the Vikings had done, but also to slap their hands over their hearts.
“Don’t ever be upstaged by anything in life,” Ditka said.
The Bears went to San Francisco in ’85 loaded with a 5-0 record and with confidence.
Not only did they beat the 49ers 26-10, Ditka provided a hint of bigger things to come when he inserted 310-pound rookie defensive tackle William Perry into the backfield as a payback for the 49ers’ Bill Walsh using guard Guy McIntyre in a similar role in the 1984 title game.
Two years in a row the Bears had knocked off the defending world champions–they had beaten the Raiders, winners of the 1983 Super Bowl, the previous season–and were about to ascend to the throne. Of course, Ditka was the catalyst.
“When you put your stamp on a team and you can see it coming over the whole period of time, that becomes exciting,” Ditka said. “I guess I was the leader of that team, so I think I had enough to do with it.”
“He was so focused on our objective,” cornerback Leslie Frazier said. “Every word was centered on getting the Bears back to what they were in 1963.”
“From the day he came in until the day after the Super Bowl, he had my utmost respect because he had a vision and focus,” linebacker Mike Singletary said.
Riding back from San Francisco, the vision got impaired. On the way home from O’Hare Airport after the victory over the 49ers, Ditka was arrested for drunken driving just after midnight. He was later convicted, fined $300 and placed on court supervision for 12 months.
“They could have arrested any of us that night,” Duerson said.
Despite the incident, the players never lost confidence in their leader, and Ditka never stopped being Ditka.
“There’s a couple of guys you want in the foxhole, and he’s got to be one of them,” running back Matt Suhey said. “He’s not the most pleasant guy in the heat of battle, but it’s going to be tense and you’re not going to lose very often.”
“He really was a great motivator,” defensive back Gary Fencik said. “Before the playoffs against the Giants, he told us what a great season we had, but it wouldn’t mean anything if we lost.”
Quarterback Jim McMahon remembers Ditka reaming out the team after its 37-17 victory over the Lions in Detroit in the season finale.
“He was saying, `You guys aren’t worth a darn. I ought to fire all of you,’ ” McMahon said. “We’re thinking, `Didn’t we just win by 20 points?’ He said, `You guys better go home and find yourselves over the holidays.’ “
McMahon got on the public-address system in the plane and announced to his teammates: “When you find yourselves, come find me. I’ll be in the gutter somewhere.”
Fencik recalls the plane ride back from the Super Bowl:
“Ditka comes up to me and says, `You know, you’re a real jerk. I’m a jerk, too. This team needs more jerks like you and me.’ “
