It has been a tough few months in the sports world, as legendary icons are leaving us.

Tuesday morning I was greeted with the news on “Mike and Mike in the Morning” that Tennessee women’s basketball coach Pat Summit had lost her battle with Alzheimer’s at just 64 years old, and just hours later saw that NFL defensive guru Buddy Ryan had passed on.

Having recently done the feature story on the retirement of Dale Ann Meeker, who was the first female athlete to receive an athletic scholarship from the University of Wyoming after Title IX had passed, Summit’s passing brought about some interesting facts that further cement her legacy, aside from being Division I basketball’s winningest coach, men’s or women’s.

Summit was hired just two years after Title IX had passed, at just 22 years old, and at the time, women’s college basketball wasn’t even an NCAA sanctioned sport yet.

Her success in building a top program at Tennessee thus brought up the level of, and the attention to, the sport.

Not only to women’s basketball, but for generations of young women to realize they too could follow their athletic dreams.

The news of Ryan’s passing hit closer to home for me, as he was the defensive coordinator for the Chicago Bears in the ‘80s and brought about their dominance that climaxed in the Super Bowl XX win.

Living 20 minutes north of the city, and having followed Walter Payton’s career since his rookie season, the 1985-86 season was a literal dream come true.

Finally the team had surrounded Payton with players worthy of his talent, albeit 10 years into his career, and it was a cast of characters that made the season incredibly entertaining from start to finish.

The defense also finally had a crew of players who could fully put forth Ryan’s “46 defense” which ran roughshod over the league that season, allowing the fewest points, fewest total yards and fewest rushing yards.

They stormed through the playoffs, shutting out the New York Giants 21-0 and the L.A. Rams 24-0, the first and only team in NFL history to shut out both of their opponents in the playoffs.

They then went on to crush the Patriots in the Super Bowl, 46-10, at the time the largest margin of victory in Super Bowl history.

Bears fans, being most of the Chicago metropoliton area, knew all along that there were two head coaches on that team.

Mike Ditka was the head coach in title, but Ryan had virtually equal standing.

He wouldn’t allow Ditka to have any say in the deployment of his defense, and so it basically was Ditka as the offensive coordinator and Ryan as the defensive coordinator, each the head coach of their side of the ball.

The two often clashed, and nearly came to blows at halftime of the team’s only loss of the season at Miami.

But his defensive players were able to personify the ideal of the 46 defense, which was to attack, confuse and intimidate the offense, and those players loved him.

Anyone old enough to have seen that Super Bowl will remember that both Ditka and Ryan were hoisted up onto the players’ shoulders in celebration after the win.

Ryan would move on the very next season to become the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, and bringing his defensive prowess for a semi-succesful run there.

Of course, while most of the same players remained, the Bears were never able to continue their dominance, making that ’85-’86 team arguably the best single-season team in history, when it seemed there could have been so much more.

That particular team, and its cast of characters is still probably the most beloved among Chicago fans.

The Blackhawks and White Sox championships in ensuing years were great for their passionate fans, though as passionate as they are, they make up sections of the city’s fanbase.

The success of the Bulls in the ‘90s, of course, brought the city’s fans enormous joy, and will forever be a fantastic memory.

And if the Cubs are to win a World Series anytime soon, the city will likely implode in celebration.

But until that day comes, it is the 1985 Bears team that is remembered the most passionately for those of us of the age to have been witness to it.

When Payton died, a part of my youth was taken away, and another part pulled away when a safety on that team, Dave Duerson, whom I had met, killed himself as one of the first casualties of C.T.E. (chronic traumatic encephalopathy).

With Ryan now gone, there is the sadness, of course, but solace taken in knowing that he, having been debilitated by a massive stroke and battling cancer, as well as Summit no longer have to suffer.

And a certain joy can be taken in being able to learn more about Summit’s ground-breaking legacy, and in recalling Ryan’s accomplishments and the joy they brought to so many of us that one season 30 years ago.