’Burgh's Best to Wear It, No. 89: Mike Ditka came to Pitt to be a dentist, left a legendary football player
The Tribune-Review sports staff is conducting a daily countdown of the best players in Pittsburgh pro and college sports history to wear each jersey number.
No. 89: Mike Ditka
Mike Ditka forged his reputation on toughness, running over defenders as a tight end and challenging his players as a Super Bowl champion coach.
But he was so much more than a football player.
Born in Carnegie and raised in Aliquippa, he initially committed to coach Rip Engle at Penn State. He changed his mind and went to Pitt, planning to become a dentist.
He ended up participating in four sports at Pitt from 1958-60. Try that today and see how far you get.
He was on the basketball team with the legendary Don Hennon and scored 88 points and grabbed 82 rebounds in two seasons.
“He’ll hit the first guy he sees,” coach Bob Timmons said in a Ditka biography on the Pitt website.
Ditka also was an intramural wrestling champion and played outfield on the baseball team.
He first wore a No. 89 football jersey while playing tight end and defensive end as a sophomore. In those days, freshmen weren’t eligible so Ditka had to wait his turn.
During a 29-26 victory against Notre Dame on Nov. 8, 1958, at Pitt Stadium, Ditka made big plays on both sides of the ball. He recovered a fumble to set up Pitt’s first touchdown and made two crucial receptions during the winning drive. Ditka ended his Pitt career 3-0 against the Irish.
Pitt assistant coach Ernie Hefferle said Ditka used to raise a fuss, even in practice.
“He used to forearm our own guys,” Hefferle said. “He used to complain that our practices weren’t tough enough.”
Another assistant, Lou Cecconi, said Ditka tried to block a punt in his last game — a 14-3 loss to Penn State — and played the rest of the day with a dislocated shoulder.
After leading Pitt in receptions all three years on campus, he was a unanimous All-American selection in 1960 and a first-round draft choice of the Chicago Bears in 1961.
He played tight end for 12 seasons in the NFL (Bears, Philadelphia Eagles, Dallas Cowboys), scoring a touchdown an average of every 10 catches (43/427). He earned four All-Pro designations. He was an assistant coach with the Cowboys for nine seasons, head coach of the Bears for 11, including a victory in Super Bowl XX, and the New Orleans Saints for three.
In one two-year stretch from 1986-88, he was inducted into the College Football and Pro Football halls of fame.
As a head coach, he prodded his teams to 121 victories — and, perhaps, one more for the Chicago Cubs on July 5, 1998. While the Cubs were trailing the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5-0, at the seventh-inning stretch, he sang “Take Me Out To The Ball Game,” a Wrigley Field tradition.
The Cubs rallied to win 7-6.
No one in Pittsburgh wore No. 89 better than Ditka, but Pittsburgh Steelers tight end Bennie Cunningham did OK inside it, recording 202 receptions for 2,879 yards and 20 touchdowns in 10 seasons from 1976-85. A first-round draft choice from Clemson, Cunningham was good for at least one score in all but his last season.
Also, wide receiver Ernie Mills, another 89, made two of the biggest plays in Steelers postseason history in the AFC championship game in January, 1996.
In the fourth quarter, he broke up what looked like a sure interception by the Indianapolis Colts’ Quentin Coryatt during the Steelers’ winning touchdown drive. Later, he made a lunging, 37-yard reception at the 1, dragging his feet to stay in bounds. Bam Morris’ subsequent 1-yard touchdown burst sent the Steelers to Super Bowl XXX.
Mills played six seasons in Pittsburgh, grabbing 127 catches for 2,003 yards and 15 touchdowns.
‘Burgh’s Best to Wear It
Jerry DiPaola is a TribLive reporter covering Pitt athletics since 2011. A Pittsburgh native, he joined the Trib in 1993, first as a copy editor and page designer in the sports department and later as the Pittsburgh Steelers reporter from 1994-2004. He can be reached at jdipaola@triblive.com.
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