The Chicago Bears will spend Thursday night making sure Mike Ditka is impossible to miss.
For the first home game since Ditka died on Oct. 9, the team has lined up a series of tributes before its Thursday Night Football matchup with the New England Patriots at Soldier Field. The game kicks off at 8:15 p.m. ET on Amazon Prime Video, and the Bears are planning a stadium-wide salute to the Hall of Famer who played for Chicago from 1961-1966 and coached the club from 1982-1992.
Fans walking into Soldier Field will be greeted with fake mustaches, a nod to one of Ditka’s most recognizable looks. The first 10,000 in the building will also receive a headband inspired by the Bears sweater vest he used to wear while stalking the sideline as head coach. Inside the stadium, the Bears will observe a moment of silence and run a video tribute on the boards.
The tributes won’t stop there. The Pro Football Hall of Fame, which inducted Ditka in 1988, is putting together a display on the south courtyard at Soldier Field. There will also be a Ditka stencil on the grass.
The matchup itself adds another layer, even if it’s purely by coincidence. Ditka’s defining achievement as a coach came at the end of the 1985 season, when the Bears beat the Patriots 46-10 to win their only Super Bowl championship. Chicago is honoring him with more than just Thursday’s in-game tribute, too; the team will wear a number 89 patch on its jerseys for the rest of the season.
Ditka’s place in football history goes well beyond one iconic season. He became the first tight end ever inducted into the Hall of Fame, and when the Bears retired his number in 2013, they said no other players’ numbers would be retired.
Now the current Bears are trying to carry some of that spirit forward. At 4-2, they’re tied with the Green Bay Packers and still chasing the 5-0 Minnesota Vikings.
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