Sneed: Ditka reaffirms support for Trump, rips GOPers who don’t

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Former Bears coach Mike Ditka has nothing but praise for Buddy Ryan. | Getty Images

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The Donald & Da Coach . . . 

Former Bears coach Mike Ditka rang the Sneed early Thursday morning to fill in the blanks on our three-way phone connection I organized with Donald Trump on Wednesday after my phone inexplicably went silent halfway through the chat.

“That was some phone call,” said Da Coach, who was teeing off from the legendary “no women allowed” Bob O’Link Golf Club when his cellphone rang.

Hmmm.

Sneed wondered.

Did the Trumpster pull the plug on Sneed’s extension just as Ditka was graciously explaining why he was rejecting Trump’s invite to speak at the Republican National Convention?

Ditka didn’t know, but stated: “Look, I told him I’m in his corner, but I’m not big on going to conventions or going to Cleveland or anywhere out of town for that matter, but that I support him.

OPINION

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“But I also told him I’m not big on a party that’s not behind him. Especially the crybabies who are former candidates who don’t want him. Let those crybabies cry. What’s the point of them if they aren’t going to support the guy people want?

“The last time I looked, there was freedom of speech in this country,” he said. “If you’ve got a candidate, support him. Get behind him. They should get off their asses and do it.”

Then he veered off Trump to the funeral Friday of legendary Bears defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan, who died this week at the age of 85.

“I don’t like to travel much these days, but I am traveling to Buddy’s funeral,” he said.

“There would have been no (Super Bowl XX) championship in 1985 without Buddy, who coached defense. He deserves a hell of a lot more credit than I do. There were two coaches of that game. We won it together. We both had our own way. It was right for the team.

“And Trump’s party better get behind him if he’s going to win.”

So Sneed asked Ditka one more time: “Is there any reason you might decide to go to the Republican convention?

“Well, there might be a reason to go, but that’s not on the agenda.”

Tee hee?

Sneed hears rumbles President Barack Obama, a golf devotee, was leaning toward placement of his presidential library on Chicago’s South Side at Jackson Park!

Why, you may ask?

A Sneed source claims the president, who golfs whenever he can find the time, likes the idea of his library being near a golf course.

Both the South Shore and Jackson Park golf courses are nearby.

• Backshot: The South Side location chosen by the first family in May 2015 was decided on after considering library sites close to Harlem, New York, and the president’s birthplace in Honolulu, Hawaii.

The final site is still a contest between Jackson and Washington Parks — which are near the Obamas’ Kenwood home and the University of Chicago.

Tee up?

Pass the putter and place yer bets!

It’s a heartbreak . . . 

An 8-year-old girl recently went up to Father Michael Pfleger, pastor of the South Side’s St. Sabina Church, to ask for a special prayer.

“What for?” he asked.

“That I live through the summer,” she said.

Trumpster dumpster . . . 

Glimmer gab.

The 7.45 carat diamond engagement ring Trump gave second wife Marla Maples just sold for $300,000 at an auction in New York to an anonymous phone bidder.

Maples, who was his mistress during his marriage to Ivana, the mother of Ivanka, auctioned off the glittery bauble to charity for $110,000 after her divorce, an action Trump called “tacky.”

The Lucas fracas . . . 

It’s a tale of two parking lots.

Amid criticism that Friends of the Parks lost the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art battling over a parking lot site on Chicago’s lakeside Museum campus comes this piece of irony.

Sneed is told the University of Southern California site in LA, which is on the school’s campus, is located on a parking lot!

And it’s not near a drop of water!

Sneedlings . . .

I spy: Recently traded Chicago Blackhawks player Bryan Bickell and wife Amanda, spotted guest bartending at Hugo’s Frog Bar last Wednesday. . . . Retired Blackhawks player Jerry “King Kong” Korab at Gibsons in Rosemont last Thursday night. . . . Happy retirement to the Sun-Times’ Nancy DeFrier after 13 years of service. . . . Today’s birthdays: Missy Elliott, 45; Pamela Anderson, 49, and Liv Tyler, 39.

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