Ditka Carried Bears to an NFL Title in Playing Days, Too

When Mike Ditka was named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, a local columnist wondered if he would have made it if he hadn’t coached the Chicago Bears to a Super Bowl title.

The way Bill Utterback of the Pittsburgh Press tells it, Ditka deserved to go in on one play alone, a 63-yard pass play from Bill Wade that set up a game-tying field goal by the Bears against the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1963. The Bears went on to beat the Green Bay Packers by a half-game for the conference title and beat the New York Giants for the National Football League championship.

“If he doesn’t make that run, I don’t wear this championship ring today,” linebacker Ed O’Bradovich said later.

Sid Luckman, Bear assistant coach and Hall of Fame quarterback, said: “It was the greatest individual effort ever made by an athlete in the history of the National Football League. Seven guys actually had him tackled, but he ran through each guy.”

Said Bear assistant coach George Allen: “It was the greatest run I’ve ever seen. It wasn’t speed that got him down the field. It wasn’t his moves. It was just sheer determination. He literally carried defensive players on his back.”

Add Pittsburgh Press: Gerry Dulac, covering the Pitt-Boston College basketball game, came up with this pregame lead:

“BOSTON--The city has seen a lot in its time. History is as much a part of its charm as the seafood and 18th-Century landscape. As always, there is the proper blend of sports. One if by land, two if by sea, and three if by Larry Bird from the right corner.”

Idle Thought: Wonder what Bob Cousy and others of the old guard would have thought if they had heard Chick Hearn refer to the Indiana Pacers’ Vern Fleming as a “little guard” Tuesday night.

Fleming is 6 feet 5 inches.

Attention, Walt Hazzard, George Raveling and other Southland coaches. Aurang Zeb, a basketball player from Pakistan, is looking for a U.S. school to attend. Reportedly, a dozen schools, including Ohio State and Illinois, have shown interest, but he has told friends he wants to go someplace warm.

Zeb is 7-8.

Trivia Time: Prince Albert of Monaco, a member of his nation’s bobsled team at the Winter Olympics, is a nephew of what former medal winner in the Summer Olympics? (Answer below.)

Shortly after his marriage to actress Robin Givens, Mike Tyson was being interviewed by a group of Japanese newsmen on his title defense against Tony Tubbs March 21 in Tokyo.

Said Wallace Matthews of Newsday: “Predictably, one Japanese journalist asked him to introduce his new wife. Tyson did, and the Japanese TV station cut to a shot of a young Japanese woman with a downcast face, just another broken heart on the Ginza.”

Said Givens: “You see, women are in love with him everywhere. But now I’m Mrs. Tyson. The game’s over.”

Trivia Answer: Rower Jack Kelly, bronze medalist in the single sculls in the 1956 Summer Olympics at Melbourne. His sister, Grace Kelly, became Princess of Monaco.

Note: The gold medalist was Vyacheslav Ivanov of the Soviet Union. Ivanov, 18, was so thrilled when he got his gold medal that he jumped up and down and the medal flew off. It went into Lake Wendouree and sank to the bottom. Ivanov immediately dived to the bottom in an attempt to recover it but came up empty. The IOC later sent him a replacement.

Quotebook

John Elliott, University of Michigan offensive tackle, on the NFL scouting camp at Indianapolis: “The highlight was when Alan Zendejas, a placekicker from Arizona State, fainted during his blood test.”