CHICAGO (AP) — Bill Tobin, a longtime NFL executive who helped construct the Chicago Bears’ famed 1985 championship team and later built a playoff team as the Indianapolis Colts’ general manager, has died. He was 83.

The Cincinnati Bengals announced Friday that Tobin had died, and the Bears also confirmed his death. Tobin spent the past two decades working for the Bengals as an area scout alongside his son Duke, the team’s director of player personnel since 1999.

“He was a true NFL success story,” Bengals owner Mike Brown said in a statement. “He was a good person and I considered him a good friend. With Bill, I respected everything he said. I just took it as a given. He had an eye for players and what they would develop into. If he said the guy was a good player, then he was a good player; that’s all I would need to know. We will miss him.”