CHICAGO – The Chicago Bears family lost a defensive legend and NFL Hall of Famer.
Steve “Mongo” McMichael, who had been battling ALS for the last three years, died at 5:28 p.m. on Wednesday.
McMichael was 67.
“Mongo” was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame last February as a senior member alongside fellow former Bears Devin Hester and Julius Peppers. Earlier Wednesday, the McMichael family said Mongo would be moved into hospice care.
Diagnosed with ALS in 2021, McMichael drew admiration from those who played with him in the NFL, loved him outside the game and garnered both from those who idolized him during his playing days with the Bears.
“He’s a fighter, he’s a battler,” Former Bears linebacker Ron Rivera said in August 2021. “This struggle he is going through epitomizes who he is as a man.”
McMichael has been immortalized as a Bears fan favorite from the Super Bowl XX Champion Bears team. He was known for his larger-than-life personality. That’s how he earned the nicknames “Mongo,” “Ming the Merciless” and “Ming.”
That stemmed from his playing days, where he won two Super Bowls in his 15-year career. He was also a two-time NFL First Team All-Pro in 1985 and 1987, as well as a two-time NFL Pro Bowl selection in 1986 and 1987.
According to the Chicago Tribune, McMichael’s original moniker was “76” after he came over from the New England Patriots. That was customary for former Bears’ defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan, who only referred to new players by their number.
By the 1985 season, Mongo had earned the nickname “Tex,” which paid homage to his roots in Texas and deemed him as a key part of the 1985 Bears defense that would become one of the best in NFL history. McMichael entered the Hall of Fame alongside Bears teammates along the defensive line Richard Dent and Dan Hampton.
In his NFL career, spanning three teams, McMichael recorded 847 tackles, 95 sacks, three safeties, 13 forced fumbles, 17 fumble recoveries and one interception.
After his football career, McMichael was the 1997 WCW United States Heavyweight Champion. He ran for mayor in Romeoville, Illinois. He got 39 percent of the vote, but lost the race to incumbent John Noak. McMichael didn’t completely leave football, either. He was the head coach of the Chicago Slaughter of the Indoor Football League from 2007 until 2013.
His former teammates and those who knew him best remember him as a caring man in juxtaposition to the hard-hitting football player the public knew him as.
“It was an honor to call Steve a teammate,” Former Bears wide receiver and current ESPN 1000 radio host Tom Waddle wrote in a post on X. “He was a Hall of Fame player. He was tough as nails. He was a kind and caring, gentle giant of a man. One of the all time greats, on so many fronts.”
ALS took his ability to speak, but it didn’t take away McMichael’s personality.
“I was here a month ago and Misty said, ‘Hey, Steve wrote a, a message for you.’” Former Bears safety Gary Fencik said in August 2024. “It was, ‘Hey, hit man, how you doing?’ It was so fun, but the work that he had to do to get that and a lot.”
Now, McMichael can be remembered forever as a Hall of Fame player and a figure in Chicago sports whose stories will carry for future generations.
“ALS attacks the organs and has attacked all his organs except his heart,” Misty McMichael, his wife, told FOX 32 Chicago Wednesday morning. “His heart is perfect.”
