Mike'd Up: How A Chicagoan's Ditka-Inspired Bachelor Party Went Viral

CHICAGO — Peter Archibald’s mission was seemingly simple enough: Plan a bachelor party for his best friend and long-time roommate that would create a weekend that wouldn’t soon be forgotten.

Having the whole thing go viral thanks to an homage to the groom-to-be’s beloved Chicago Bears was never the plan.

But when 19 Mike Ditka lookalikes showed up in Atlanta for Sunday’s Bears-Falcons game as part of Jake Mazanke’s bachelor party, not only did the NFL and Bears take notice of the photo of Mazanke and his friends all dressed like the coach who led the Bears to the 1985 Super Bowl championship, but so did the rest of the social media world.

For Mazanke, a 28-year-old St. Charles native who will marry his fiancée, Catie Coghlan, next September, the whole plan — and the craziness and hundreds of photo requests that followed — proved to be the perfect way to celebrate his upcoming nuptials in true Bears style. It was also done in a manner that Ditka — the hard-nosed, sweater-vest and sunglasses-wearing coach — would certainly provide his blessing.

“We knew it would be a funny scene, we figured that maybe some people would share a photo, our friends would like it and maybe one or two (people) would share it out,” Mazanke told Patch on Monday after he returned from Atlanta. “But it went above and beyond anything I could have even imagined. It was a blast."

The plan all started with Archibald, the Geneva native and one-time track-and-field rival of Mazanke’s. As Mazanke’s best man, creating a theme for the bachelor party seemed like the easy part. While a lake house get-together for 20 people may have originally seemed like a good idea, Archibald knew he needed something bigger and bolder.

After all, Mazanke had blown out planning Archibald's bachelor party before his wedding in June. So to repay the favor, Archibald set the plans in motion for the Ditka-inspired party last spring.

"I think as soon as he heard away Bears game and Coach Ditka in the same sentence, he was on board," Archibald said.

Knowing Mazanke’s affinity for the Bears and their Super Bowl-winning coach, Archibald arranged for the guests to arrive in their Ditka-themed Sunday best. That meant asking each of the attendees to grow a mustache that would make the coach proud, and then secure the Bears sweater vest that Ditka made famous during the Bears’ 1985 championship run.

Archibald sent all the attendees a link to the NFL Shop's Starter brand Bears sweater vest, made famous by Ditka. A text chain made certain that everyone ordered the same sweater to ensure that the look Archibald was going for would be played out to perfection. Sunglasses would be provided, but just for inspiration, everyone was sent a photo of Ditka to keep them on the right track.

With friends from St. Charles and Loyola University-Chicago, where both Mazanke and Archibald ran track, coming from all over the country, bringing the plan to fruition wouldn’t be a small feat. But by Sunday morning, there they all were — dressed and ready to go at a downtown Atlanta Airbnb.

"I'm sitting there and there's 19 guys dressed like Mike Ditka and there's kind of a shock factor," Archibald told Patch on Tuesday. "It's like, "Oh my God, I can't believe we pulled this off. When you see 19 people in a room dressed like that, it looks wild and incredible. It's a huge group of people, and to see it all come together was just completely shocking."

Most of the group of the 19 who showed up are Bears fans, with a few Packers fans thrown for good measure. Before the weekend, only two of the 19 had mustaches, which requires the rest of the group (Mazanke included) to spend time growing their facial hair out.

Archibald said that a few mustaches were posted in the group chat from time to time, while many of the working professionals grew beards to mask the bachelor party mustaches. Some attendees' facial hair took longer to develop than others, and some were even aided by a little Just For Men to make the mustaches come in darker.

One of Mazanke’s buddies was already scheduled to stand up in a wedding in Dallas on Saturday but made a 6 a.m. flight to Atlanta Sunday and was ready for the festivities, although he missed the now infamous photo.

“It just speaks to the group of friends I have,” Mazanke said. “They wanted to do it, and they wanted to do it for me because they knew how important it was to me. …that’s the type of guys I am friends with. They are amazing, amazing, dedicated friends. It is unreal.”

He added: “I think people see that, and they feel that. I think the idea of getting a group of guys together, going to a game, and doing something you love. I think that’s what resonates with people. People could see how much everyone put into it to make it a special weekend.”

The weekend also included an impromptu touch football game in the park, drinks, a tailgate and then the game. But after snapping the now-viral photo of the 19 Ditka lookalikes together in a group shot, Mazanke could have never imagined what happened next.

Sitting at the tailgate party outside Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Mazanke and his friends noticed that the NFL had tweeted the photo. The Bears' Twitter feed picked it up almost immediately, turning Mazanke and his friends into instant social media celebrities.

Mazanke's brother-in-law was the first to notice that the NFL had tweeted out the photo first posted by Jake's brother. It was just moments before the Ditka lookalikes had made the league take notice, before the attention continued to swell.

“It just kept getting more and more momentum, and you could feel it,” Mazanke said. “You could really feel it. I had adrenaline pumping the whole day.”

Said Archibald: "I don't think any of us realized how unique and crazy it was until we stepped outside of the house and from that moment on, it was go, go, go. People were in our face and loving it."

As the group walked through downtown Atlanta, strangers approached the group asking for photos. Mazanke estimates before the day was done, the group had posed for between 300 and 400 photos. On his return flight to Chicago on Monday, the two passengers seated next to Mazanke looked at him and said, “You’re the Ditka guy, right?”

Mazanke is here for all of it.

“It is beyond crazy,” Mazanke said.

Mazanke said his fiancée also enjoyed the idea of the bachelor party, herself being a big fan of both the Bears and Ditka. Ditka, who was unceremoniously fired by the Bears after failing to produce another Super Bowl title, has a standing invitation to the wedding, which will take place at a chapel on Loyola’s campus next fall.

Mazanke isn’t sure what the chances are that Ditka shows up, but he’s hoping that the coach that inspired his unforgettable weekend will at least consider the invitation. Although the Bears couldn’t pull out a victory in Atlanta, falling short after quarterback Justin Fields threw a late interception, Mazanke is holding out hope.

With the salary cap space that the Bears have to work with and an expected high pick in next year’s NFL Draft, Mazanke is ready to stake his claim that his beloved Bears will play for the NFC Championship in the next two years. But for now, Mazanke was glad that his team could play a major role in his weekend.

"For Jake, I think this is the biggest and best thing for him," Archibald said of the attention the bachelor party received. "I thought we would get a little media attention, that maybe we would be on TV, but this is something none of us expected. I think the shock factor is something Jake is going to remember the rest of his life."

As for the mustache, Mazanke said that he will keep it at least for the week so that his extended family members (including uncles that Mazanke says resemble the Super Fans from the classic "Saturday Night Live" skit) can see it at Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday. But whether the facial hair stays or goes after a week’s time, it will always be part of the legend of Mazanke’s viral bachelor party.

“I’m a massive Bears fan and the Bears have meant so much to me my entire life,” Mazanke said. “Being able to do that and be associated with the Chicago Bears on such an important day with so many people that I love and care about is just awesome.”