Mike Ditka, the Hall of Fame tight end, Super Bowl-winning coach of the Chicago Bears and TV analyst whose gruff  Iron Mike  style was parodied on Saturday Night Live, has died. He was 86.

 It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved husband, father, grandfather and friend, Mike Ditka,  his family said in a statement.  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. Mike will be missed beyond measure and remembered forever. 

No cause of death was announced.

Ditka had a minor stroke in 2012 and suffered heart attacks in 1988 and 2018.  The thing about me,  he told Rick Telander in April 2019,  is that people didn't think I had a heart. Now they found out I got one. 

Emerging from Carnegie, Pennsylvania, a manufacturing community five miles southwest of Pittsburgh, Ditka coached the Bears from 1982-92, guiding the 1985 team to a Super Bowl rout of the New England Patriots 22 years after winning an NFL championship with Chicago as a standout player.

The cigar-smoking Ditka said his  Iron Mike  nickname derived from his upbringing in a steel town, but his brusque manner and short temper contributed to his tough image. He became a larger-than-life character, whether he was sticking a wad of gum on a photographer's camera lens or berating a referee behind his trademark sunglasses.

His persona was so large that he inspired a recurring sketch on SNL in the early '90s known as  Bill Swerski's Superfans. 

Created by Robert Smigel and Bob Odenkirk, the skit had several Chicago sports fans (played by Smigel, George Wendt, Joe Mantegna, Mike Myers, Chris Farley, et al) sitting around a table at Ditka's sports bar, drinking, smoking and gorging themselves on assorted meats while extolling the greatness of  Da Bears  and the Windy City's other teams.

The faithful wore dark sunglasses and thick mustaches as a homage to their hero, a member of the College and Pro Football halls of fame.

Ditka himself appeared twice on SNL and on other s
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