THE BIG W : Dave Wannstedt’s Un-Ditka Attitude Has Bears Climbing the Standings

The greatest achievement of Dave Wannstedt’s football coaching career will not occur here, no matter how much this city wishes to hoist him on its big shoulders.

And it did not occur last year in Dallas, no matter how often it is said that he was the brains behind Jimmy Johnson’s bluster.

There is a hill behind a football field on the south side of Pittsburgh. That is where Dave Wannstedt’s mark will endure.

The town is Baldwin, the main industry used to be steel, the beer is Iron City, the expressions are hard, the hearts are soft.

When Wannstedt went home last summer to where he grew up as the son of a mill worker, he did something that let everyone know he had never really left.

He organized a block party at the local fire hall.

While surrounded by a group that included everyone from former high school buddies to Johnny Majors, no doubt the conversation eventually turned to the hill.

When Wannstedt was an overachieving senior lineman for the Baldwin High Fighting Highlanders, he grew bored with the usual conditioning exercises that occurred on that 40-foot incline.

So one day he crawled up the hill, then sprinted back down, not terribly abnormal except for one thing:

The path he followed was in the shape of a W, for Wannstedt.

Soon he persuaded his teammates to follow him.

And even after he had gone on to the University of Pittsburgh, he would return every summer and lead the newest Baldwin High players in the same drill.

For three or four years in the 1970s, the results could be seen by everyone on that side of the Monongahela River.

“An amazing thing to watch,” said Richard Bechtold, Wannstedt’s former line coach.

Winning a Super Bowl with the Dallas Cowboys or turning around a struggling Chicago Bear franchise is one thing.

Persuading dozens of teen-age boys to carve one of your initials into a hillside on their hands and knees is quite another.

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The weight room in the basement of Halas Hall in Lake Forest is quiet except for the panting of three coaches.

Dave Wannstedt is one of them, riding an exercise bike after practice, pushing himself to level 9 until the sweat is pouring from his face.

When his 24-minute program is completed, Wannstedt pushes some buttons and rides for five more minutes. Either he wants to cool down--or he wants to make certain he really hurts.

It may very well be the latter.

“The key here is to surround yourself with people who will do whatever it takes to win,” he said.

Since Wannstedt became the rookie coach of the Bears last January, they have become a team filled with those players.

Intimidated after playing for Mike Ditka, devoid of self-esteem after being told that they had no talent, last year’s 5-11 group now looks in the mirror and sees something else.

With a 7-5 record, a piece of first place in their division, and a final-month schedule that includes games against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Rams, the Bears are suddenly favored to win the title in the NFC Central.

And just look at those warts. The Bear offense ranks last in the league, and their defense gave up 466 yards to the Green Bay Packers last week.

“I know all about numbers and statistics and everything, but the bottom line is, you’ve got to make the plays,” Wannstedt said. “This team makes the plays.”

Wannstedt, 41, hired after a successful four years as the Cowboys’ defensive coordinator, knows all about bottom lines and making plays.

In fact, he has known about them for 20 years.

He still vividly remembers being a struggling junior linebacker at Pitt when Majors became the coach.

The bottom line was that if Wannstedt didn’t make the plays, he figured to find himself standing alongside his father at the J & L steel mill, thinking about his grandfather, who died of black lung.

“Suddenly there were 89 freshmen brought into the program,” Wannstedt recalled. “We were all ordered to report to the weight room at 6 a.m. every day during the summer. They wanted to find out who wanted to win.”

Many players threw up. Some got into fights. Some quit. Wannstedt was not one of them.

“I endured,” he said. “I thank God I did.”

The next year he was one of the team’s captains. Then after spending a year on injured reserve with the Packers, he began a coaching career that took him as an assistant to Pittsburgh, Oklahoma State, USC (1983-85), then the University of Miami with Jimmy Johnson.

After following Johnson to the Cowboys and helping turn a 1-15 team into a Super Bowl champion last year, he could have become the head coach of either the New York Giants or the Bears.

With the Giants, he would have been replacing Ray Handley, a guy who was keeping the chair warm.

With the Bears, he would be replacing a legend.

With that knoll at Baldwin High long since overgrown, he must have figured he needed another hill to climb.

“I liked the town,” Wannstedt said. “I liked the tough mentality. No, I’m not trying to carry on Bear tradition . . . because Mike Ditka is Bear tradition. And I’m not embarrassed to say that.”

Having watched Johnson replace Tom Landry in Dallas, Wannstedt knew what to do. Beginning March 30, he started establishing his own tradition.

His era began, typically, with the players walking through drills in a hotel parking lot in Arizona before an innovative spring mini-camp.

“There has been no magic formula here,” said quarterback Jim Harbaugh, who constantly feuded with Ditka. “This is about a work ethic.”

Wannstedt grew up 30 miles from Ditka, both have thick mustaches and imposing figures, with built-in swaggers.

But Wannstedt is the toughness without the tactlessness.

He is the smarts without the smart mouth.

He is the strong public symbol without the TV show, two radio shows and countless billboards.

He sees the big picture without coaching from a perch.

“In the NFL, a lot of head coaches cannot handle the hype,” veteran safety Shaun Gayle said. “Dave is down to earth.”

Not that his earth isn’t somewhat shaky.

Reminding people of the early days in with the then-sorry Cowboys, Wannstedt has gone through players faster than Ditka went through styling gel.

In their 12 games, the Bears have used 61 players, including 21 starters on offense and 15 on defense.

Seven players who began the season have been released, among them veterans William (Refrigerator) Perry, Anthony Morgan, Jim Morrissey and Tom Thayer.

When asked about putting the fear of unemployment into his players, Wannstedt shrugs.

“They know what’s going on,” he said. “They know if they can’t help us win, they are going to be gone.”

But if they stay, players say they are treated to a respect not generally seen on teams in such pressurized, big-city markets.

“What happened under Ditka, some of his bad qualities, that got tiresome,” safety Mark Carrier said, referring to Ditka’s habit of berating players. “With Dave, we feel enthusiastic and positive again.”

Wannstedt orders his Bears to work on all the little things, to take all the extra steps.

They don’t just practice causing turnovers, they practice scoring from turnovers.

“Some of our biggest things in practice are working on defensive guys blocking after a turnover,” said Tony Wise, offensive line coach.

Result? The Bears are tied for the NFL lead with four touchdowns on turnovers. The Cowboys, post-Wannstedt, don’t have any.

Once the mechanics have been worked out, the only thing left is for Wannstedt to deal with 47 different minds. Players say he is at his best in that area, and proved it when the Bears suffered three consecutive dismal losses.

“I can’t tell you how many times he walked into the locker room and said, ‘You guys did not play as bad as it seemed. I know you want to make those plays,’ ” Gayle said. ‘He really makes guys want to play for him.”

After missing two short field goals in the Bears’ 16-14 loss to the Raiders, including a 30-yard attempt in the final seconds, Kevin Butler was accosted by Wannstedt in the locker room.

Would he be given a Ditka-like lecture? Would he be embarrassed in front of reporters? Would he be released?

“Hey, see ya tomorrow,” Wannstedt said. “Get ready to win a game for us next week.”

Relieved, Butler did just that, kicking three field goals--one a 54-yarder--against the San Diego Chargers in a 16-13 victory.

Wannstedt finishes riding the Lifecycle and climbs off, sweat-soaked but not short of breath. He smiles as you imagine a young man once smiled while leading others to immortalize his last name in the soil.

“It’s amazing the mileage you can get out of people,” he said.