Chicago Bears

Inaugural season: 1920

Home field: Soldier Field

Owner: Virginia McCaskey

Team colors: blue, orange

Overview

The Chicago Bears are one of the oldest football teams in the United States. They are a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division of the National Football League (NFL). The team, which is based in Chicago, Illinois, has won eight NFL Championships and one Super Bowl for a total of nine championship titles. The Bears hold the NFL record for the most Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrines—thirty-nine players by early 2024—and they had retired fourteen jersey numbers by 2023.

The team, which had recorded more regular season and overall victories than any other NFL franchise until being surpassed by the Green Bay Packers in 2022, has remained in the Halas family since 1920. Virginia McCaskey, the oldest daughter of George Halas, became owner after her father’s death in 1983. McCaskey said in 2016 that she would pass on the team to one of her ten children. Her son, George H. McCaskey, was team chair.

The Bears have a storied history and dedicated fans. Fans continue to flock to the stadium even when the team is not winning games, possibly because Chicago has produced many Hall of Famers. However, a period of struggle in the 2010s and 2020s resulted in the Bears being last of all thirty-two NFL teams in terms of fan attendance for the 2023 season.

The Bears are known for many “firsts.” In 1922, they became the first to buy a player from another team. The Bears played in the first NFL indoor game in 1932 and appeared in four consecutive NFL championships during the 1940s, winning three.

The Bears have won eight NFL Championships prior to the Super Bowl era. The team defeated Washington in the 1940 title game with a staggering 73–0 score. League wins came in 1921, 1932, 1933, 1940, 1941, 1943, 1946, and 1963. Only the Green Bay Packers have more league titles. The Bears' first Super Bowl victory came in 1986, when the team defeated the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XX.

Owner Halas was also a player, coach, and a general manager. As a player, he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame and had his jersey number retired. After four decades of coaching, he retired after the 1967 season. His record of 324 coaching victories stood for twenty-seven years.

History

The Staley Starch Company of Decatur, Illinois, decided to sponsor a football team after the creation of the American Professional Football Association (later the NFL). George Halas founded the Bears in 1920 in Decatur as a representative of the Staleys. The following year, the Staley Starch Company reached an agreement with Halas. For $5,000, he could have the team and move it to Chicago, if he kept the Staley name for a year. The team won the 1921 league championship as the Chicago Staleys and a year later was renamed the Chicago Bears. Halas chose the name because Chicago’s baseball team was named the Cubs—football players were larger than baseball players, so the football team, he reasoned, should be the Bears.

The team, which played its first season at Staley Field in Decatur, moved to Wrigley Field in Chicago in 1921 and remained based there until 1970. From 1971 to 2001, the team called Soldier Field its home. The Bears played in Champaign at Memorial Stadium in 2002 while Soldier Field was being renovated. Benjamin T. Wood of Boston’s Wood and Zapata architecture firm oversaw the renovation. The Bears returned to Soldier Field in 2003, and a year later, the redesigned stadium was recognized for excellence by the American Institute of Architects (AIA). While many have praised the reconstructed stadium, the changes reduced the seating capacity from 66,944 to 61,000, making it among the smaller NFL venues.

The team has largely remained in one family. From 1921 to 1933, Halas shared ownership of the Bears with Dutch Sternaman. Then Halas maintained sole ownership from 1933 until his death in 1983, after which his oldest daughter, Virginia Halas McCaskey, took over as majority owner. Her husband, Ed McCaskey, became chairman of the board, and their son Michael became the team’s third president.

Halas served as the coach of the Bears for forty years. Among the many athletes he coached was tight end Mike Ditka, who was a Bear from 1961 to 1966. Halas hired Ditka as coach in 1982 and quickly predicted that the Bears would win the Super Bowl in three years. He brought in young players and was a strong motivator. Ditka fueled the rivalry between the Bears and the Green Bay Packers in 1985 in a touchdown play when he used defensive tackle William “Refrigerator” Perry as a running back. Ditka had Jim McMahon as quarterback, Walter Payton as running back, and a defense that included Mike Singletary, Richard Dent, Dan Hampton, and Gary Fencik. When he slotted Perry as fullback, the fans noticed. Perry, a giant on the field at more than 300 pounds, scored three touchdowns. The winning continued as the Bears won its ninth NFC Championship after a near-perfect season.

Chicago’s first Super Bowl victory took place on January 3, 1986, in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Super Bowl XX win proved Ditka’s prediction to be true. The Bears had lost only one game, the thirteenth, to the Miami Dolphins. The Bears faced the New England Patriots and took an early lead, scoring 13 points in the first quarter to the Patriots’ 3. Chicago held New England scoreless through the second and third quarters while scoring 10 and 31 points respectively. The Patriots rallied in the fourth quarter with 7 points to Chicago’s 2, but it was too little too late. When the dust cleared, the Bears had a 46–10 victory. Jim McMahon, Matt Suhey, William Perry, and Reggie Phillips were credited with the Bears’ touchdowns. Tony Franklin and Kevin Butler kicked for extra points and field goals.

The Bears were widely known for having a strong defensive line. Bill George, Dick Butkus, Mike Singletary, and Brian Urlacher are regarded as among football’s best linebackers of all time.

The 1985 Chicago Bears were also noted in pop culture. Ten players, including wide receiver Willie Gault, recorded a song, “The Super Bowl Shuffle,” six weeks before the Bears’ slot in the big game was assured. The novelty recording caught the fancy of the public, and more than seven hundred thousand copies of the single were sold. Many of the athletes also appeared in a music video. Despite some disagreements with the record label, $331,000 was eventually donated to charity; the ten players with speaking parts were paid $6,000 each, all of which they also donated to the Chicago Community Trust.

The team has a fight song, “Bear Down, Chicago Bears,” that dates back to 1941. It was written by composer Al Hoffman using the pseudonym Jerry Downs. Hoffman is renowned for creating the words and music for songs including several from Disney’s Cinderella. The team adopted a mascot, Staley Da Bear, in 2003.

The Bears have struggled in the twenty-first century, recording fewer than ten winning seasons between 2000–2023. Their league-worst record of 3–14 in 2022 earned the Bears the first overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, which the team traded to the Carolina Panthers for what would later become the first overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft.

Notable Players

Many athletes inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame spent significant seasons in Chicago. These include Harold “Red” Grange, Bronko Nagurski, Sid Luckman, Dick Butkus, Gale Sayers, Walter Payton, Clyde “Bulldog” Turner, Danny Fortmann, and Halas. Players whose jersey numbers have been retired are Nagurski (3), George McAfee (5), Halas (7), Willie Galimore (28), Payton (34), Sayers (40), Brian Piccolo (41), Luckman (42), Butkus (51), Bill Hewitt (56), Bill George (61), Turner (66), Grange (77), and Mike Ditka (89).

In 2019, as the Chicago Bears celebrated a century of football, the team announced its top 100 players of all time. Hall of Fame writers Don Pierson and Dan Pompei compiled the list, which put running back Payton in the top spot.

Payton played thirteen seasons in Chicago, from 1975 to 1987. He was a first-round draft who went on to have a career 16,726 rushing yards gained, 110 rushing touchdowns, and 3,838 rushing attempts.

Linebacker Butkus intercepted 22 passes on defense. The first-round draft pick in 1965 was fast and strong and credited with being a solid leader. Following a knee injury that ended his football career, Butkus turned to coaching. His leadership pulled the Bears out of a losing streak and back into the championships.

Nagurski was a steamroller on the field. He was known for simply running through the opposition. He was equally effective as a blocker and was known for a jump pass, which involved faking a plunge, stepping back, jumping, and tossing a pass to a receiver. He left the Bears to become a pro wrestler when he was denied a wage increase but returned as a tackle when World War II created a shortage of athletes. Nagurski proved his worth yet again when he scored the touchdown against Washington that clinched the 1943 NFL title.

Brian Urlacher, a career-long Bear and eight-time Pro Bowler, was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame during his first year of eligibility in 2018 after playing thirteen seasons with the Bears.

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