The Chicago Bears are one of only two charter members of the National Football League still in existence (the other being the Cardinals). The franchise started in Decatur as the Decatur Staleys.
In 1921, Halas the founder and owner moved the team to Chicago if he would agree to keep the Staleys name for a year. The Staleys won the 1921 league championship. A year later, the team was renamed the Chicago Bears. Most likely a resemblance to the Chicago Cubs baseball team. The Bears were the first to buy a player from another team, that being for Ed Healey from the Rock Island football team in 1922. The Bears signed the fabled collegiate All-America, Red Grange, in 1925. In 1932, they defeated the Portsmouth Spartans 9-0 to win the first NFL championship (is an unofficial championship game but took off the next year) in the first NFL game to be played indoors. The next year, they inaugurated the NFL championship series by defeating the New York Giants, 23-21. The following year they returned but the Giants got their revenge in the Sneaker’s game.
The Bears kicked off the 1940s with four straight NFL championship appearances. The Bears won three, including the famous 73-0 annihilation of the Washington Redskins in 1940. The one lost occurred with maybe the most dominating team ever in 1942 losing to the Redskins in the title game. Despite winning nearly 60 percent of their games in the 1950s, the Bears did not win an NFL title and made only one playoff appearance. They finally broke a 17-year championship drought with a 14-10 win over the New York Giants in 1963. Which was the last title game coached by George Halas.
Almost all of the successes on and off the field for the Bears in the 64-year period between 1920 and 1983 can be attributed to George (Papa Bear) Halas, who served the Bears as an owner, player, coach, general manager, traveling secretary, and in virtually every other capacity imaginable for a football team. Halas split his 40-year coaching into four 10-year segments. When he retired after the 1967 season, he ranked as the all-time leader in coaching victories with 324, a record that stood for 27 years. Halas died in 1983, but the Bears tradition is carried on today by grandson George McCaskey who serves as the club’s Chairman of the Board. They had a 15-1 season in 1985 and won the Super Bowl with coach Mike Ditka. Chicago has qualified for the playoffs 21 times, won 19 division titles, eight NFL championships and Super Bowl XX.
The Bears also have the proud distinction of listing the most long-time team members as Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinees. Such names as Red Grange, Bronko Nagurski, Sid Luckman, Dick Butkus, Gale Sayers, Walter Payton, Bulldog Turner, Danny Fortmann and Halas himself are true legends not only of the Bears, but of pro football itself. They have the most inductees in NFL history.
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