Ditka: Monster of the Midway

by Keteyian

A look at the life and career of football's Mike Ditka chronicles his childhood, education, football career, his tenure as coach, his troubled relationship with his children, and his controversial spats with reporters, players, and colleagues

Genres: Sports, Football

352 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1992

Reviews

[Jack Connelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book that I read was Ditka: Monster of the Midway. I think that was a very good biography about the football icon Mike Ditka. The book did a great job showing the side that you never really get to see of the man. It uses interviews of some of his players, former coaches and friends to go through the ups and downs of his career. I was disappointed though that the book really didn't discuss much about his best achievement the 1985 Super Bowl victory. The books more discusses his life before that and also the weird last season Ditka had coaching the Bears. The book has that 1991 season as the backdrop for the book.
This disappointed me because I would have like to hear more about the '85 year and his championship in '63 as a player. It was more about how he had always had a obsession with winning and how throughout his life he always wanted to win. Other then those little gripes I enjoyed hearing about how he grew up and how he wasn't that close with his children. One review said that he really enjoyed hearing about the 1991 season because that was the first season he payed attention to the Bears. He had fond memories of that team. I didn't live through that season so I don't have a personal connection with the topic. So I can understand why he enjoyed that part of the book more then I did. This is what I thought of Ditka: Monster of the Midway.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a longtime Bears fan and former Chicago resident, I was thoroughly disappointed with this book. I was hoping to read a very good account of some of the highlights of Mike Ditka, a very popular yet unstable man. This author only spent about 10 pages on each the '63 and the '85 seasons, which were by far his greatest moments in Chicago Bears football. I was specifically looking forward to reading about the Mike Ditka/Buddy Ryan feuds during the magical championship season in 1985. Except for about 4 or 5 passing references to how they didn't get along, the author didn't mention that at all. However, there were about 100 pages describing the 1991 season in excruciating detail (this book was written in 1992). I really would have liked to read less about how bad of a father and a leader he was and more about how great of a football player and motivator he was.

The only reason I gave this 2 stars instead of 1 was because there were a handful of pages briefly describing the life and coaching habits of Papa Bear George Halas. That inspired me to look more into his life and I will be reading his autobiography and an additional biography about the Old Man. I look forward to those and I hope they don't disappoint me as much as this one has.

[Tom Gase · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good biography on Mike Ditka, the former head coach for the Chicago Bears and a Hall-of-Fame tightend. I preferred the book "Da Bears" which came out recently, but this book told more about his life before the 1985 football season, including his playing days. I especially like the last 100 pages or so, when it detailed the 1991 football season for the Bears. That was the first year I played fantasy football with my buddies, so this book brought back a lot of great games we watched. I loved reading about Tom Waddle as well. What a fun player that guy was to watch. A good book to read after Da Bears like I did, because it answers a lot of questions on what happened to the Bears after they won the Super Bowl. How come they only won one with so much talent? This book explains. What this book could have easily done without was Ditka's adventures in business with his City Lights sports bar/club. Didn't really care about that. Started reading this book because I wanted to know about his football life, but that's about it. Didn't want to read a business book. Anyway, a good read for any Bears for Ditka fan. NFL fans, but not fans of the Bears should read Da Bears before this.