Chicago Bears
| Chicago Bears | |||
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| Founded in 1919 playing in Chicago , Illinois |
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Independent (1919)
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| Current uniforms | |||
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| Team colors | Dark navy blue, orange, white | ||
| mascot | Staley Da Bear | ||
| staff | |||
| owner | Virginia Halas McCaskey | ||
| General manager | Ryan Pace | ||
| Head coach | Matt Nagy | ||
| Team history | |||
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| successes | |||
NFL Champion (9)
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Conference winner (3)
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Division Winner (19)
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| Stages | |||
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The Chicago Bears (formerly Decatur Staleys and Chicago Staleys ) are a Chicago- based American football team that plays in the National Football League (NFL). Besides the Arizona Cardinals, they are the only team to have played in the championship since 1920.
The Bears play there in the National Football Conference (NFC) , in the Northern Division .
title
- NFL championships before the introduction of the Super Bowl
- 1921: no final
- 1932: no final
- 1933 : 23:21 against the New York Giants
- 1940 : 73-0 against the Washington Redskins
- 1941: 37: 9 against the New York Giants
- 1943: 41:21 against the Washington Redskins
- 1946: 24:14 against the New York Giants
- 1963: 14:10 against the New York Giants
- Super Bowl victory
- XX - 1985: 46:10 against the New England Patriots
history
Founding time
In 1919, AE Staley formed a corporate-funded football team called the Decatur Staleys. As a trainer and manager, he hired the employee George Halas . This took part on September 17, 1920 at a meeting of several football club owners. They met in a garage in Canton , Ohio , and formed the American Professional Football Association (APFA). On advice from Halas, the APFA was renamed the National Football League in 1922.
In 1921 the owner of the Staleys withdrew for economic reasons. George Halas and the player Dutch Sternaman each acquired half of the shares in the Staleys and moved the team to Chicago. For a start-up capital of 5000 dollars, the team name "Staleys" had to be used for another season. After the sponsor left, the team needed a new name. Out of gratitude to the owners of the Chicago Cubs , who provided the team with their Wrigley Field baseball stadium , Halas initially wanted to name the team Chicago Cubs as well. However, it was quickly realized that the name Cubs (bear children) was not aggressive enough for a football team and so Halas called his team the Chicago Bears.
That year, the Bears finished second in an 18-team league.
Halas recruited players who had failed other clubs and made them stars. In his second of 9 seasons as a player-coach, the Bears (then Chicago Staleys) won their first championship in 1921. After the end of the 1929 season, he retired as a player and initially also as a coach in order to concentrate on his own activities.
Golden 30s & 40s
In the 1930s and 1940s, the Bears were the football power. In 1932, under Head Coach Ralph Jones , the Bears won the first ever playoff game in NFL history 9-0 against the Portsmouth Spartans, securing the second title in their young history. A year later, George Halas returned as a coach and led the Bears to defend their title in the 1933 NFL Championship Game against the New York Giants.
In the 1940 final against the Washington Redskins , they secured the highest victory in NFL history to date. Thanks to the new T-formation and the extraordinary skills of their offense (especially running back Bill Osmanski and quarterback Sid Luckman), they won this game 73-0. Three more championships (1941, 1943 and 1946) were to follow in the 1940s.
It was around this time that the monsters of the Midway (finally revived in the 1980s) established itself , which the Bears took over from the University of Chicago football team, the Maroons, when the university suspended its football program, while the Bears became the dominant one Team of the NFL were.
Competition in the league got tougher and tougher, and before Halas resigned as coach for good in 1968, Chicago only won one NFL championship in 1963.
Hala's balance sheet and succession
In Halas' time, the Bears won 320 games, lost 147 and drew 30. His influence can still be felt today after his death. He brought Mike Ditka to the club in 1961, back then as a tight end. Despite other stars like linebacker Dick Butkus and running back Gale Sayers , who are all members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame , the Bears remained mediocre. Sayers' serious knee injury and the tragic death of Brian Piccolo also played a role, which was filmed in the award-winning TV drama Brian's Song (1971). When the NFL was remodeled in 1970, the Bears moved to NFC Central, and they moved to Soldier Field .
In 1982, Halas signed Mike Ditka as head coach. Ditka built a robust, body-hugging style of play, which was built in the offense around the powerful running back Walter Payton and the reliable quarterback Jim McMahon . Walter Payton held the record for most run yards until October 27, 2002.
The heart of the defense was the so-called 46 Defense (based on the shirt number of Strong Safety Doug Plank ). In this innovative tactic, eight of the 11 field players stood on the line of scrimmage and overwhelmed the opposing offensive line so quickly that neither their running nor their passing game could unfold. Extremely strong tackling of the defensive line around Richard Dent and Dan Hampton and linebacker Mike Singletary minimized the risk that the opponent could play off the advanced 46 defense with a long throw. With this style of play, the Chicago Bears won Super Bowl XX against the New England Patriots in January 1986 with 46:10. The Bears were so confident they would win the Super Bowl that the team recorded the Super Bowl Shuffle in the studio before the playoffs. Names like Richard Dent, Mike Singletary, Dan Hampton, William "The Fridge" Perry and Steve McMichael go down in history as the "Monsters of the Midway" of the 80s. Singletary was also involved in the bizarre Fog Bowl in 1988, in which the Philadelphia Eagles were beaten 20:12 in thick fog.
George Halas died of pancreatic cancer on October 31, 1983. His eldest daughter Virginia Halas McCaskey took over as the owner of the Bears.
In the 1990s, the Bears were one team among many. The Bears regularly changed their coaches, but none of them could continue Hala's successes.
1990s
After the team had belonged exclusively to members of the Halas / McCaskey family for decades, two business people from Chicago, Andy McKenna and Patrick G. Ryan, acquired almost 20% of the shares in early 1990. After the 1992 season, which the Bears finished with 5-11 wins, coach Mike Ditka had to leave. The Bears had become too weak. After Super Bowl XX , Ditka was unable to prove that he alone was the guarantor of the Super Bowl title in 1986 . He was assisted by Defensive Coordinator Buddy Ryan at the time . He invented the 46 defense that the Bears used to terrorize their opponents. It was also defender Richard Dent who was voted MVP (Most Valuable Player) in Super Bowl XX . Ryan left Chicago after Super Bowl XX to become the Philadelphia Eagles head coach. After the Super Bowl, various personal problems were largely responsible for the fact that the Bears could not convert their dominance into further Super Bowl victories. Departures like Wilber Marshall and quarterback Jim McMahon's ongoing injuries , for whom no equivalent replacement could be found, are only mentioned here as examples.
For the 1993 season Dave Wannstedt was hired as the new head coach, who as defensive coordinator of the Dallas Cowboys had a large part in their resurrection. First, Wannstedt switched the offense from a strongly running-oriented to a more balanced offense, in which the passing game played a larger part. After it initially looked as if the team under Wannstedt was getting better, the crash came. The Bears started the 1997 season with the worst record in their club's history. They lost their first seven games in a row. This surpassed the year 1945 when they started the season with five losses. Just one playoff appearance (1994) in six years and two seasons with only four wins in a row was not enough. After the 1998 season was over for Wannstedt.
The new man on the sideline in Chicago was Dick Jauron , who had previously worked for the Jacksonville Jaguars as Defense Coordinator for four years. However, he was only able to win two games more than his predecessor. The bad 90s were overshadowed by the death of Bears legend Walter Payton on November 1st, 1999.
21st century
13 wins, three losses, first with NFC Central, with one of the worst teams in years. Because of this record, Dick Jauron was voted the best head coach of the 2001 season, even if the end came in the Divisional Playoffs against the Eagles.
In 2002 another sign of instability. The Bears only managed four wins. After another mixed season in 2003 (7 wins and 9 losses) the Bears parted ways with Head Coach Dick Jauron and signed Lovie Smith on January 15, 2004 , who was previously Assistant Head Coach and Defensive Coordinator at the St. Louis Rams .
In the first season under Lovie Smith, the Bears managed only the yield of 5 wins and 11 losses, but in the 2005 season they developed into a defensive power and came after 11 wins and five losses as division winners of the NFC North in the playoffs, from which they were eliminated in the Divisional Playoffs against the Carolina Panthers . Since the Chicago Bears were previously considered by many analysts as possibly the worst team in the NFL, the 2005 season can be rated as a great success. Lovie Smith's performance was rewarded with the election of the season's best head coach.
In the 2006 season, the Chicago Bears were division winners of NFC North with a record of 13 wins and 3 losses. In the Divisional Playoffs they then prevailed just under 27:24 after extra time against the Seattle Seahawks . With a clear 39:14 in the subsequent Conference Championships against the New Orleans Saints , the team moved back into the Super Bowl XLI for the first time since 1986 . There, however, the team lost in the pouring rain of Miami with 17:29 against the Indianapolis Colts .
On October 7, 2012, the Bears set an NFL record. In the 41: 3 win against the Jacksonville Jaguars they got two interception- return touchdowns by Charles Tillman and Lance Briggs . That means the Bears have scored five in their past three games. They share the record with the Cleveland Browns (established in December 1960). The 38 point difference was achieved after a tie at halftime. This also means a new NFL record.
Rivalry with the Green Bay Packers
The rivalry between the Bears and the Packers is the longest in NFL history. It began in 1921 when the Packers entered the NFL and has since included 200 regular season and post season games. After the 2019 season , the Packers won 99 times and the Bears 95 times. The two teams separated six times without a winner. However, it is not the longest running rivalry, as there were no games between the two teams due to the players' strike in 1982. Both teams have together won 22 NFL titles (five of which since the introduction of the Super Bowl in 1967). 64 former members of these two teams are represented in the Pro Football Hall of Fame (33 from the Bears and 31 from the Packers). Since both play in the same division, they meet at least twice each season. Since 2013, some fans of the Bears have been wearing shredded cheese as headgear , alluding to the Packers' cheeseheads . That the rivalry between the two teams is also receiving attention from the NFL can be seen in the fact that the 100th season of the NFL began with the game of the Chicago Bears against the Green Bay Packers on September 5, 2019. The league broke its long tradition that the defending champions, in this case the New England Patriots, opened the season.
player
Bears / Staleys in the Hall of Fame
With 34 people, the Bears, next to the Washington Redskins , make up the most members in the Hall of Fame . With Red Grange , Bronko Nagurski and the co-founder of the Bears and the NFL George Halas , the Bears also have three founding members in the hall. With the linebacker Brian Urlacher was 2018, the date last player aground for Chicago, inducted into the Hall.
| Pro Football Hall of Fame members | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jersey number | Surname | position | Active for the Bears | Year of admission |
| 77 | Red grange | HB | 1925, 1929-33 | 1963 |
| - | George Halas | Owner, founder trainer |
1920-83 | 1963 |
| 3 | Bronko Nagurski | HB , DT | 1930-37, 1943 | 1963 |
| 1 | Jimmy Conzelman | QB | 1920 | 1964 |
| 16 | Ed Healey | T | 1922-1927 | 1964 |
| 11 | William R. Lyman | T | 1926-1934 | 1964 |
| 13 | George Trafton | C. | 1920-1932 | 1964 |
| Guy Chamberlin | End | 1920-1921 | 1965 | |
| 1 | John "Paddy" Driscoll | QB | 1920, 1926-29 | 1965 |
| 21st | Dan Fortmann | G | 1936-1943 | 1965 |
| 42 | Sid Luckman | QB | 1939-1950 | 1965 |
| 35 | Walt Kiesling | G | 1934 | 1966 |
| 5 | George McAfee | HB | 1940-1941 1945-1950 |
1966 |
| 66 | Bulldog Turner | C. | 1940-1952 | 1966 |
| 22nd | Bobby Layne | QB | 1948 | 1967 |
| 13 | Joe Stydahar | T | 1936–1942 1945–1956 |
1967 |
| 56 | Bill Hewitt | End | 1932-1936 | 1971 |
| 61 | Bill George | LB | 1952-1965 | 1974 |
| 81/71 | George Connor | LB | 1948-1955 | 1975 |
| 40 | Gale Sayers | RB | 1965-1971 | 1977 |
| 51 | Dick Butkus | LB | 1965-1973 | 1979 |
| 22/16 | George Blanda | QB , K | 1949, 1950-58 | 1981 |
| 81 | Doug Atkins | DE | 1955-1966 | 1982 |
| 16 | George Musso | OIL | 1933-1944 | 1982 |
| 89 | Mike Ditka | TE | 1961-1966 | 1988 |
| 82 | Alan Page | DT | 1978-1981 | 1988 |
| 78 | Stan Jones | G , DT | 1954-1965 | 1991 |
| 34 | Walter Payton | HB | 1975-1987 | 1993 |
| - | Jim Finks | official | 1974-1982 | 1995 |
| 50 | Mike Singletary | LB | 1981-1992 | 1998 |
| 99 | Dan Hampton | DL | 1979-1990 | 2002 |
| 95 | Richard Dent | DE | 1983-93, 1995 | 2011 |
| 76 | Orlando Pace | T | 2009 | 2016 |
| 54 | Brian Urlacher | LB | 2000-2012 | 2018 |
Withdrawn jersey numbers
The Bears have 14 jersey numbers that are no longer awarded. This gives them the largest number of blocked jersey numbers in the NFL. Outside of the NFL, only three teams have more banned jerseys (The Boston Celtics at 21 , the New York Yankees at 20, and the Canadiens de Montréal at 15 ). On December 9, 2013, Mike Ditka withdrew the previous number with the number 89.
| Retired Numbers of the Chicago Bears | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | player | position | Period | |
| 3 | Bronko Nagurski | FB , T , DT | 1930-37, 1943 | |
| 5 | George McAfee | FB | 1940, 1941, 1962-1975 | |
| 7th | George Halas |
End , HC owner of the Bears |
1920-1983 | |
| 28 | Willie Galimore | RB | 1957-1963 | |
| 34 | Walter Payton | RB | 1975-1987 | |
| 40 | Gale Sayers | RB | 1965-1971 | |
| 41 | Brian Piccolo | RB | 1965-1969 | |
| 42 | Sid Luckman | QB | 1939-1950 | |
| 51 | Dick Butkus | MLB | 1965-1973 | |
| 56 | Bill Hewitt | End | 1932-1936 | |
| 61 | Bill George | MLB | 1952-1965 | |
| 66 | Clyde Turner | C , LB | 1940-1952 | |
| 77 | Harold Grange | HB , DB | 1925, 1929-34 | |
| 89 | Mike Ditka |
TE Head Coach |
1961-1966 1982-1992 |
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Current squad
Trainer (Head Coaches)
| # | Order of trainers |
| Games | Play as a coach |
| S. | Victories |
| N | Defeats |
| UE | draw |
| Won% | Win rate |
| * | Exclusively active as head coach for the Bears in the NFL |
| # | Surname | Period | Regular season | Play-offs | Achievements / Awards | reference | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Games | S. | N | UE | Won% | Games | S. | N | ||||||||||
| Chicago Staleys / Chicago Bears | |||||||||||||||||
| 1 | George Halas * 1 | 1920-1929 | 134 | 84 | 31 | 17th | .744 | - | - | - | NFL Championship (1921) | ||||||
| 2 | Ralph Jones * | 1930-1932 | 41 | 24 | 10 | 7th | .706 | - | - | - | NFL Championship (1932) | ||||||
| - | George Halas * 1 | 1933-1942 | 110 | 84 | 22nd | 4th | .799 | 6th | 4th | 2 | NFL Championships (1933, 1940, 1941) | ||||||
| 3 | Hunk Anderson * 2 | 1942-1945 | 36 | 23 | 11 | 2 | .676 | 1 | 1 | 1 | NFL Championship (1943) | ||||||
| 4th | Luke Johnsos * 2 | ||||||||||||||||
| - | George Halas * 1 | 1946-1957 | 119 | 75 | 42 | 2 | .641 | 2 | 1 | 1 | NFL Championships (1946) | ||||||
| 5 | Paddy Driscoll | 1956-1957 | 24 | 14th | 9 | 1 | .609 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |||||||
| - | George Halas * 1 | 1958-1967 | 134 | 75 | 53 | 6th | .588 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
NFL Championships (1963) AP NFL Coach of the Year (1963, 1965) Sporting News NFL Coach of the Year (1963, 1965) UPI NFL Coach of the Year (1963, 1965) |
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| 6th | Jim Dooley * | 1968-1971 | 56 | 20th | 36 | 0 | .357 | - | - | - | |||||||
| 7th | Abe Gibron * | 1972-1974 | 42 | 11 | 30th | 1 | .268 | - | - | - | |||||||
| 8th | Jack Pardee | 1975-1977 | 42 | 20th | 22nd | 0 | .476 | 1 | 0 | 1 | UPI NFL Trainer of the Year (1976) | ||||||
| 9 | Neill Armstrong * | 1978-1981 | 64 | 30th | 34 | 0 | .469 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |||||||
| 10 | Mike Ditka | 1982-1992 | 168 | 106 | 62 | 0 | .631 | 12 | 6th | 6th | AP NFL Coach of the Year (1985, 1988) Pro Football Weekly NFL Coach of the Year (1988) Sporting News NFL Coach of the Year (1985) UPI NFC Coach of the Year (1985, 1988) Super Bowl XX |
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| 11 | Dave Wannstedt | 1993-1998 | 96 | 40 | 56 | 0 | .417 | 2 | 1 | 1 | UPI NFC Trainer of the Year (1994) | ||||||
| 12 | Dick Jauron | 1999-2003 | 80 | 35 | 45 | 0 | .438 | 1 | 0 | 1 | AP NFL Coach of the Year (2001) Pro Football Weekly NFL Coach of the Year (2001) Sporting News NFL Coach of the Year (2001) |
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| 13 | Lovie Smith | 2004–2012 | 144 | 81 | 63 | 0 | .563 | 6th | 3 | 3 | AP NFL Trainer of the Year (2005) Pro Football Weekly NFL Trainer of the Year (2005) |
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| 14th | Marc Trestman * | 2013-2014 | 32 | 13 | 19th | 0 | .406 | - | - | - | |||||||
| 15th | John Fox | 2015-2017 | 48 | 14th | 34 | 0 | .292 | - | - | - | |||||||
| 16 | Matt Nagy * | 2018– | 32 | 20th | 12 | 0 | .750 | 1 | 0 | 1 | NFL Coach of the Year Award (2018) | ||||||
owner
For the factory football team of the Decatur Staleys founded by AE Staley in 1919 , George Halas was recruited as a coach and manager. Since the team was a losing business despite the successful game season 1920, Staley sold the team for $ 100 to Halas. This moved the team to Chicago in 1921 and involved the player and coach Dutch Sternaman with 50% of the team. Since Sternaman ran into financial problems in 1932, he sold his shares in Halas.
Halas remained the owner of the franchise until he died on October 31, 1983 at the age of 88. Successor as the owner was his daughter Virginia Halas McCaskey (born on January 5, 1923). She has 80% of the ownership of the team. In 1990, Pat Ryan Sr. ( Aon plc) and Andrew J. McKenna ( McDonald’s ) acquired 19.7% of the shares in the franchise for $ 17 million.
From 1983 to 1999, her son Michael McCaskey was President and Chief Operating Officer. Ted Phillips has been President since then . The operational business was from 1983 to 1999 by Virginia's husband Edward W. McCaskey, from 1999 to 2011 by Michael McCaskey and has since been controlled by George Halas McCaskey (son of Virginia McCaskey) as Chairman of the Board (chairman of the board).
Balance sheets and records
Chicago Bears / Numbers and Records represents important records for the Bears, the direct comparisons with the other American football teams, the season balances since 1920 and the first round draft picks since 1936.
Web links
- Chicago Bears official homepage
- Detailed information about the Chicago Bears in German
- History of the Chicago Bears ( July 4, 2007 memento on the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ^ ESPN: Elias says ... In: sports.espn.go.com. October 8, 2012. Retrieved October 9, 2012.
- ↑ Lauren Zumbach: Cheddar shredder - Bears fans gearing up with 'Graterhead' hats. In: chicagotribune.com. December 26, 2013, accessed June 20, 2016 .
- ↑ Ryan Wood: Green Bay Packers, Chicago Bears to open 2019 NFL regular season at Soldier Field. March 25, 2019, accessed December 1, 2019 .
- ↑ Chicago Bears Pro Football Hall of Famer . In: profootballhof.com . Accessed December 31, 2016.
- ^ Bears to retire Mike Ditka's number . In: chicagobears.com . May 24, 2013. Archived from the original on June 7, 2013. Retrieved March 3, 2016.
- ↑ a b c d Statistics by George Halas . Retrieved October 23, 2015.
- ^ Statistics by Ralph Jones . Retrieved October 23, 2015.
- ^ Statistics from Hunk Anderson . Retrieved October 23, 2015.
- ^ Statistics from Luke Johnsos . Retrieved October 23, 2015.
- ^ Statistics from Paddy Driscoll . Retrieved October 23, 2015.
- ↑ Statistics by Jim Dooley . Retrieved October 23, 2015.
- ↑ Statistics by Abe Gibron . Retrieved October 23, 2015.
- ^ Statistics from Jack Pardee . Retrieved October 23, 2015.
- ^ Statistics from Neill Armstrong . Retrieved October 23, 2015.
- ^ Statistics from Jack Pardee . Retrieved October 23, 2015.
- ^ Statistics by Dave Wannstedt . Retrieved October 23, 2015.
- ^ Statistics by Dick Jauron . Retrieved October 23, 2015.
- ↑ "Black Monday" costs seven coaches the job. In: derstandard.at . January 1, 2013, accessed January 1, 2013 .
- ^ Statistics from Lovie Smith . Retrieved October 23, 2015.
- ↑ Bears sign quarterback guru. In: Sport1 . January 6, 2013, accessed January 17, 2013 .
- ↑ statistics Marc Trestman . Retrieved October 23, 2015.
- ^ Bears hire John Fox as head coach, NFL.com, accessed January 17, 2015
- ^ Statistics from John Fox . Retrieved January 5, 2018.
- ^ Statistics by Matt Nagy . Retrieved January 6, 2020.
- ^ Virginia Halas McCaskey, Chicago Bears. Retrieved February 13, 2020 .
- ↑ Jeff Duncan, NOLA com | The Times-Picayune: Succession plan in place for New Orleans Saints and Pelicans to remain with Tom Benson's family. Retrieved February 13, 2020 .
- ↑ McCaskey intend to hold onto Bears - Chicago Tribune. Retrieved February 13, 2020 .
