* Sun-Times…

Mike Ditka, the Hall of Fame tight end who played on the Bears’ 1963 NFL championship team and coached the team to its only Super Bowl championship after the 1985 season, has died. He was 86.

He died about 9 a.m. Friday surrounded by family and friends, a family spokesperson said.

A statement issued by the family said that “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.”

As a player, a coach and a larger-than-life personality who invigorated a generation of Bears fans, Ditka left an indelible mark on the Chicago sporting landscape — from the playing field to sports talk to pop culture — that few can match. Of Chicago’s impressive list of Hall of Fame athletes — Sid Luckman, Walter Payton, Bobby Hull, Ernie Banks, Stan Mikita, Frank Thomas among the all-time greats — only Michael Jordan can challenge Ditka’s legacy as a local sports icon.

* The Tribune…

The last coach Halas hired, Ditka was the Bears’ most successful other than Halas, bringing the city the NFL title in January 1986 for the first time since he played for Halas’ last championship team in 1963. It’s fair to surmise that without Ditka’s combative, passionate playing and coaching style, the Bears would be without a championship since 1946.

Ditka thrived on contradictions he often created. After criticizing Bears quarterbacks when he played — a pattern that persisted as a coach — and commenting that Halas “threw around nickels like they were manhole covers,” it was Ditka’s heartfelt letter that persuaded Halas to take a chance and hire the Cowboys special teams and tight ends coach to restore the Bears to glory.

Former quarterback Jim McMahon nicknamed Ditka “Sybil” after the 1970s book and movie character with a split personality. But Ditka’s ability to turn the Bears into beloved “Grabowskis” became a more enduring legacy.

* RIP…