The Short Version
- Milwaukee's Hoan Bridge was lit Friday night in Packers green-and-gold and Bears navy-and-orange to honor Mike Ditka, who died Friday at 86.
- Light the Hoan's tribute: "I don't wear these colors often. But with great rivalries comes great respect" — and "Rivals on the field. Respect beyond it."
- The timing is perfect: the Packers host the Bears at Lambeau Field Sunday at noon (Oct. 11) in the NFL's oldest rivalry.
- Tributes poured in all day from Roger Goodell, Brett Favre, JJ Watt, Ben Johnson, the Saints, and even the Chicago Bulls.
MILWAUKEE — Leave it to the Hoan Bridge to say what nobody else could. On Friday night, with one of football's defining figures gone and his greatest rivalry two days away, Milwaukee's signature span lit up in green-and-gold and navy-and-orange — Packers colors and Bears colors, sharing the same sky, for Mike Ditka.
The people who run Light the Hoan don't do half of football's most bitter rivalry. They're Packers people. And they said it plainly: "I don't wear these colors often. But with great rivalries comes great respect."
The full tribute read like a letter to the man himself: "One of football's fiercest competitors, Ditka helped define the passion, intensity, and tradition of the Packers–Bears rivalry... Rivals on the field. Respect beyond it."
"I don't wear these colors often. But with great rivalries comes great respect."— Light the Hoan, on Friday night's tribute
The bridge lighting landed Friday evening, the same day Ditka's family announced his death at 86. No cause of death was announced, and funeral arrangements have not been announced. Ditka would have turned 87 on Oct. 18.
If you think the timing is a coincidence, the schedule says otherwise. The Packers host the Bears at Lambeau Field on Sunday at noon (Oct. 11) — the NFL's oldest rivalry, and the one Ditka embodied more than anyone. He was the rivalry for a generation: the Bears' tight end in the 1960s, then the prowling, sweater-vested head coach who made the Bears feared and the Packers' trips to Chicago miserable for a decade. There was no middle ground with Ditka in this rivalry. There still isn't — which is exactly why the gesture hit the way it did.
All day Friday, the tributes kept coming, and they came from every corner of the sport — including from people who once had to line up against him. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement: "Mike Ditka epitomized football... As a Hall of Fame player, Super Bowl-winning coach with his beloved and iconic Bears, and as a broadcaster..."
Brett Favre, who spent his career trading blows with Ditka's franchise from the other side of the rivalry, put it simply: "My condolences to the Ditka family... It was truly an honor to play against you." That's the thing about the rivalry Ditka built — the respect runs both ways, even when nothing else does. JJ Watt went even shorter: "Rest in Peace Legend."
The current Bears felt it closest. Head coach Ben Johnson said, "Coach Ditka is the gold standard in terms of this place... I feel humbled to be in that same chair." The New Orleans Saints, whom Ditka coached from 1997 to 1999, issued a statement honoring his tenure there. And the Chicago Bulls — yes, the basketball team — paid tribute too, which tells you something about how far past football's borders Ditka's shadow falls in that city.
The bridge tribute sits in a strange, fitting middle ground: a Milwaukee landmark, in a Packers town, glowing Bears colors for a Chicago icon. Nobody had to approve that from the league office. It's the kind of gesture that only happens when the thing being honored is bigger than the rivalry itself.
For those who came to this story late: Ditka was born Michael Dyczko on Oct. 18, 1939, in Carnegie, Pennsylvania, and starred at Pitt before the Bears took him fifth overall in 1961. He won NFL Rookie of the Year, played six seasons in Chicago (1961–66) plus stints with the Eagles and Cowboys, and became the first tight end ever inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1988.
As a head coach, he went 106–62 with the Bears from 1982 to 1992 and delivered the franchise's only Super Bowl title with the legendary 1985 team. Then came the broadcast years at CBS and ESPN, and the Saturday Night Live "Superfans" sketches — "Da Bears" — where he cameoed in 1993 and 1997, proving he could laugh at the legend he'd become. He is survived by his wife Diana and four children.
For the full story of his life and death, read our breaking writeup on Ditka's passing, and for more on the day's reactions, see our roundup of NFL and Chicago tributes. Sunday's game at Lambeau, meanwhile, will have a shadow over it that has nothing to do with the spread — here's the final Week 5 injury report if you need the on-field version.
