Chicago Remembers Buddy Ryan and the Greatest Chicago Bears Defense

Many of the obituaries and encomiums for Buddy Ryan that will appear online and in print this week upon word of his death will share a singular, iconic image — a photograph of his Chicago Bears defense hoisting the legendary coach upon their shoulders and carrying him off the field where they won Super Bowl XX.

Put simply, they loved him.

Ryan, who spent three decades in the NFL coaching ranks, died at the age of 82 on Tuesday morning.

The image of his defense celebrating their win together and honoring their coach is a collector's item for many a Chicago Bears fan. And it's symbolic of the inspirational role he played in his players' lives, too.

Ryan coached for the New York Jets, Minnesota Vikings and Houston Oilers, and he was head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles and Arizona Cardinals, but he's known and loved best in Chicago for teaming with head coach Mike Ditka to lead the 1985 Bears to the NFL championship.

Ryan's "46 Defense" was one of the most dominant in the game's history. "Some say the 46 is just an eight-man front," Ryan once said. "That's like saying Marilyn Monroe is just a girl."

The Bears lost just one game that season, and they handily defeated the New England Patriots 46-10 in the Super Bowl.

Two strong-willed gridiron greats, the relationship between Ryan and Ditka was a tempestuous one. So much so that NFL.com includes their relationship among its Top 10 NFL Feuds. But for one season, they dominated the league together with some of the game's greatest names running their plays.

George Halas hired Ryan in 1978. Ditka came later and Ryan remained on staff. In many ways, they were like co-head coaches, with Ditka running the offense and Ryan the defense.

Ryan's health was failing in recent years. He was twice diagnosed with cancer and suffered a stroke.

"It's sad. It's always sad when a friend passes," Ditka said on the NFL Network Tuesday morning. "There's no way we win anything without his defense, without his coaching. ... We won because of our defense. We can never forget that. That's just the way it was."

Ron Rivera, now an NFL head coach, played for Ryan and learned from him.

“He and Mike Ditka were two personalities that were very similar yet very opposite," Rivera told Brad Biggs, Bears beat writer for the Chicago Tribune. "That is why they were so good together. Who knows if maybe they had been together a few more years, we may have won a couple more. Buddy had earned the right to be a head coach."

Ryan left the Bears to become head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles.

The 1986 Bears were still a strong team. A record-setting team. But without Ryan, the defense wasn't the same. Had the coaching tandem stayed together, the Bears may have won more championships and be remembered as a dynasty.

The Bears weren't the same without Ryan, and he wasn't the same without the Bears, either. Ryan never achieved the success as a head coach that he did as a defensive coordinator with the Bears. His record as a head coach was 55-55-1.

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Before the championship season, however, Bears players were afraid they'd lose Ryan when Ditka came aboard as head coach. They were so worried, they wrote a letter to Halas begging him to retain Ryan as their defensive coordinator.

The story is shared in ESPN's "30 for 30" documentary titled "The '85 Bears." The film aired in February, with Ryan as its focal point.

Even more special is the letter Ryan penned to his players three decades later.

To my guys,

In 1981, many of you signed a letter to George Halas that saved my job. Now I’m writing a letter to all of you to say thanks. I wish I could be there to say it in person, but this will have to do.

Thank you to the Super Bowl champion 1985 Chicago Bears, the greatest team in NFL history. You gave me the best memories of my coaching life.

I’ll love every one of you until the day I die. I told you this a long time ago, and it’s still true.

You guys will always be my heroes.

Coach Buddy Ryan, 46

Had Halas not respected the wishes of his players, the magical 1985 season may never have come to pass. Even with the great Walter Payton and punky QB Jim McMahon leading the offense, Ditka today acknowledges Ryan's defense secured their championship.

"Buddy was such an integral part of the Chicago Bears," Ditka said Tuesday.

Ditka felt somewhat differently back in 1986 upon Ryan's departure when he said: “I’m not happy he’s gone — I’m elated. ... Never again in history will an assistant coach get as much credit as Buddy did.”

Which is probably true.

Ryan's great defense grew out of his earlier experience in the NFL as an assistant coach, notes NFL.com

His innovation as a blitz-crazed defensive line coach for the New York Jets lifted the team to its only Super Bowl victory in franchise history back in 1969 on the heels of such gems as the "Cheeseburger Blitz" and "Taco Bell Blitz." He was also one of the creative forces behind Minnesota's "Purple People Eaters" defenses back in the mid-1970s.

Ryan's defenses were tough and mean ... because he was tough and mean. Ryan served in the Army as a master sergeant and saw combat during the Korean War.

"He's someone that you meet, and you think he's the toughest, meanest guy that you'll ever meet," said linebacker Mike Singletary, who also went on to coach in the NFL, talking about Ryan in the ESPN documentary. "But he loves you. He just doesn't know how to express it. But you know it when he looks at you."

In their old age, both Ditka and Ryan softened. Ditka suffered a heart attack in 1988, and Ryan checked in on him. In 2010, as they celebrated the 25th anniversary of their Super Bowl win together, all the meanness went out of their relationship.