CHICAGO — Three images of Mike Ditka filled the large screen outside the south entrance of Soldier Field Friday afternoon alongside simple text, “1939-2026.”

Michael Barone, 48, of New Jersey, stopped to take a picture.

“He was an icon. It’s tragic when you lose someone like that,” Barone said. “He embodies Chicago. He was that personality, that attitude.”

The Super Bowl-winning coach and Chicago Bears Hall of Famer died at age 86, his family announced Friday. A cause of death wasn’t given. Tributes from across the Chicago area and country immediately began pouring in, from across all walks of life.

Ditka was perhaps best known for coaching the 1985 Bears to the franchise’s sole Super Bowl championship. He also played for six seasons in Chicago and was the first tight end inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

To his family, though, he was more than a legendary coach. He was the “heart of our family.”

“Mike will be missed beyond measure and remembered forever,” they said in a statement.

Barone became a Bears fan when he was 7 despite growing up on the Jersey shore. It was watching Ditka coach the Super Bowl victory that sealed the deal, he said.

“He was a hard-nosed coach, but it reflected in that team,” Barone said. “When I started playing football, I just fell in love with that team and everything about them.”

By noon, news of Ditka’s death had reached Lottie’s Pub in Bucktown, where a solemn Alan Erickson nursed a frosty pint of beer. He pointed to the thick hair sprouting from his upper lip, which he said he keeps neatly trimmed to resemble the former coach.

“My mustache was in honor of Ditka,” said Erickson, 49.

Beside him, Tom Witschy gave a nod of approval. The two men had arrived at the Bucktown sports bar separately, and Witschy said he considers himself much less of a Bears fan than Erickson. But the Oak Park native said it doesn’t take much knowledge of football to understand Ditka’s legacy.

“I don’t know that another city has as much attachment to a coach,” he said.

Former President Barack Obama, likewise, said when he arrived in Chicago in the summer of 1985, Ditka and the Chicago Bears were “king.”

“Coach Ditka set the tone for a team that was punishing, dominant, and fun — and the city loved him for it,” he said in a statement.

Indeed, at Ditka’s Oakbrook, his Chicago-area restaurant, manager in training Elise Hoffman said at about 11:30 a.m. that their reservations had already jumped from 180 to 263.

“Coach was an incredible man who lived an extraordinary life,” Manager Justin Caterina said in a statement. “We loved him dearly and are honored to carry on his legacy.”

‘He’s Chicago’

Outside of the game, Ditka was ubiquitous on television and radio both during and after his coaching career. He challenged fans during radio shows and served as inspiration for a recurring “Saturday Night Live” skit. He even played himself in a 2005 Will Ferrell movie.

Democratic strategist and former Tribune reporter David Axelrod wrote in a post on the social media site X that in 1991 he filmed an ad for Mayor Richard M. Daley that featured Ditka.

“When he popped in to do the spot, I started to explain what we were going for,” Axelrod wrote. “He looked at me with a withering stare and said, ‘Just turn on the F-ing camera. I know what I want to say!’ He’s always did.”

Gracie O’Malley’s bartender Mike Stamp met Ditka once at Soldier Field and twice more at the former coach’s steakhouse. Each time, he said, Ditka was just as he seemed on television, enormously kind but with the old-school personality that fans loved him for.

“He was that gritty football past, that cigar-smoking, hot-tempered, big-shouldered, no-neck Mike Ditka,” said Stamp, who now lives in Ukrainian Village. “He’s Chicago.”

The news of Ditka’s death brought brought the Wicker Park bar its first customer Friday afternoon. He burst through the sports bar’s doors looking for someone to share his disbelief, Stamp said, and was gone before lunch.

As he sliced limes into perfect wedges, Stamp, the bar’s daytime manager, periodically glanced out towards the streets outside. He wasn’t sure what he was looking for, he said, but felt certain that a world without Ditka couldn’t possibly look the same.

“If I went back to my neighborhood, there would be half-mast flags and old women crying in the streets,” said Stamp, 53, who grew up in Belmont Cragin. “This is Mike Ditka we’re talking about. This is a big deal.”

When Stamp told the bar’s chef, who doesn’t speak English, about Ditka’s death, the man gasped and repeated the coach’s name in shock. For Stamp, that reaction from someone who has only lived in the country for a few years is proof of Ditka’s reach.

The bar’s second customer walked in just before 11:30 a.m., his jaw dropping at the news of Ditka’s death. Stamp poured him a Blue Moon, raising the pint glass high into the air.

“This one’s going to be on Coach Ditka,” Stamp declared. “The forever flame will burn for eternity.”

Sisters Hailey and Ashley Emalfarb were visiting the city Friday from Florida and browsing the Bears Pro Shop at Solider Field for Ditka jerseys following the news of his passing. They grew up in Riverwoods and came to the stadium to surround themselves with the Bears fandom, which included broadcasts with Ditka’s commentary.

“He’s was already a legend but I feel like people are going to double down,” Hailey Emalfarb, 32, said.

Politicians mourn Ditka

Numerous public officials who sent their condolences Friday seemed to agree.

Gov. JB Pritzker wrote in a post on the social media site X that “Da Coach was not only an icon in Chicago, but the entire football world.” He said his thoughts were with Ditka’s family and friends.

His Republican opponent, Darren Bailey, described Ditka as “a champion in ’63 as a player and in ’85 as our coach,” referring to his time as a tight end of the Bears’ 1963 championship team and coach of the 1985 Bears.

“Rest in peace, Iron Mike. The Bears will never have another one like you,” Bailey wrote.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said in a statement the city had “lost a titan of the game and a hero of Chicago.”

“Mike Ditka revolutionized football and delivered glory to our great city on and off the field,” Johnson said. “My thoughts go out to his family, the Bears faithful, and all who love Iron Mike.”

The Bears, in a statement, said, “Mike’s impact on the Chicago Bears organization, over decades as a player, coach, and proud icon and ambassador for our organization, is immeasurable.” They retired his No. 89 in December 2013.

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Chicago Tribune’s Rick Pearson and Daily Herald’s David Oberhelman contributed.

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