Worth a Thousand Words: Halas and Lombardi

When the Bears defeated the New York Giants in the 1963 NFL championship game, it marked a brief interruption of the league’s dominance by Vince Lombardi and the Green Bay Packers, who won the title in 1961, 1962, 1965, 1966, and 1967.      

     It had been 17 years since the Bears’ last championship. “I have waited a long time,” said head coach George Halas. “I guess today’s game proves that if you live long enough, everything nice you want to happen, will happen.” 

     Papa Bear was asked if he planned to retire, now that the monkey was off his back. “I guess I will have to hang on,” he replied. “Where could a 68-year-old find another job?” 

 

 

GEORGE HALAS and VINCE LOMBARDI.

  

 

 Halas finally did retire on May 27, 1968. He had played with the Bears for 10 years (1920-1929). He had been their head coach for 40 years (four periods of 10 years each, beginning in 1920, 1933, 1946, and 1958). He had won 324 games—95 more than Curly Lambeau, who ranked second at the time—and compiled a winning percentage of .671. He had won eight championships. (The Bears have captured one title in the subsequent 53 seasons.) 

When Halas retired, a man who belonged with him on the Mount Rushmore of pro football coaches paid his fierce rival and dear friend a touching compliment. “There is only one man I embrace when we meet,” said Lombardi, “and only one I call ‘Coach’—George Halas.”

 

 

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Bears Playoff History

HUGH GALLARNEAU

     In case you haven't heard, the Bears will take on the Green Bay Packers in the NFC title game Sunday afternoon at Soldier Field. It will be the first championship contest and only the second postseason encounter ever between the two ancient rivals.
     Since the NFL created divisions in 1933, the Bears and Packers have always been in the same division, and that is not likely to change before hell freezes over. Until the inclusion of wild-card teams (non-division winners) in the playoffs began 40 years ago, the only way that the two teams could have faced each other in a postseason game would be if they tied for first place in their division and needed an extra contest to settle the issue.
     That is precisely what happened in 1941. The Bears won the season opener 25-17 at Green Bay on September 28, but lost to the Packers 16-14 in the season's sixth game on November 2 at Wrigley Field. Both teams ran the table thereafter to finish with identical records of 10-1. A special playoff game was therefore necessary to determine which team would represent the Western Division in the NFL title game against the Eastern-champion New York Giants.
     The game was played at Wrigley Field on December 14, one week after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The Packers struck first. After Bears rookie Hugh Gallarneau fumbled the opening kickoff, Green Bay fullback and future Hall of Famer Clarke Hinkle tallied on a one-yard plunge. Another future Hall of Famer, left end Don Hutson, kicked the extra point. "I just about died," Gallarneau said later, "because [George] Halas was somewhat unforgiving if you made a mistake like that in a Bear-Packer game." (Amazingly, Hinkle's one-yard touchdown carry exceeded the Packers' average for the game, in which their 36 rushing attempts produced only 33 yards.)
     Late in the first quarter, Gallarneau redeemed himself with an 81-yard punt return for a touchdown. The extra point was no good, but the Bears more than made up for that by tacking on 24 points in the second quarter. The 30 unanswered points before halftime put the game away, and the Bears coasted to a 33-14 win.
     The Bears routed the Giants 37-9 a week later, also at Wrigley Field, to wrap up their second consecutive world championship.

Bears postseason games vs. Green Bay:
1941 - W, 33-14 at Wrigley Field

Bears in NFL championship games:
1933 - W, 23-21 vs. New York Giants
1934 - L, 13-30 at New York Giants
1937 - L, 21-28 at Washington Redskins
1940 - W, 73-0 at Washington Redskins
1941 - W, 37-9 vs. New York Giants
1942 - L, 6-14 at Washington Redskins
1943 - W, 41-21 vs. Washington Redskins
1946 - W, 24-14 at New York Giants
1956 - L, 7-47 at New York Giants
1963 - W, 14-10 vs. New York Giants

Bears in NFC championship games:
1984 - L, 0-23 at San Francisco 49ers
1985 - W, 24-0 vs. Los Angeles Rams
1988 - L, 3-28 vs. San Francisco 49ers
2006 - W, 39-14 vs. New Orleans Saints

Bears vs. Packers, 1963

WILLIE GALIMORE

     The Bears-Packers game of November 17, 1963, was perhaps the most highly anticipated regular-season contest in NFL history up to that time. The archrivals came into the game with identical 8-1 records, and the winner would take a giant step toward the Western Division crown and a berth in the world championship game (which was not yet named the Super Bowl).
     “If we’re going to win this thing,” Bears head coach George Halas had said before the season, “we’re going to have to beat Green Bay twice.” It was a tall order: the Packers had beaten the Bears 49-0 and 38-7 the year before en route to an almost-perfect 14-1 record and a second straight championship. But the Bears had defeated the Packers 10-3 in the season opener at Lambeau Field, and now they had the opportunity to deliver on Halas’s prophecy.
     Over 49,000 fans turned out for the rematch at Wrigley Field—some of whom paid scalpers $100 for the privilege. As was true of all home games in those days, even sellouts, the game was not televised within a 75-mile radius of Chicago, so fans drove to taverns, bowling alleys, and American Legion halls in outlying areas of Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin. One group of 400 chartered an entire train, which they christened the Victory Special, for the 180-mile trip to a Galesburg hotel. Well supplied with liquid refreshments, these fans spent six hours on the train there and back for the chance to watch the game on television.
     They were not disappointed.
     The Bears’ J.C. Caroline set the tone on the game’s opening kickoff when he obliterated Herb Adderley after a return of just several steps. Thereafter, as George Strickler wrote in the Tribune, “the underdog Bears relentlessly carried the fight to the foe, on offense as well as defense.” The Packers were never in the game. They didn’t score until late in the fourth quarter, when they were already trailing 26-0. Only one other time, on a pass-interference penalty in the second quarter, did they advance inside the Bears’ 38-yard line. The Bears intercepted five passes and recovered two Packer fumbles. They limited Jim Taylor, the league’s reigning rushing champ, to 23 yards.
     “The Bear defense met every expectation,” Strickler wrote. “The offense exceeded even the wildest hopes of the most rabid Bears followers.” All season, the defense had been disproportionately responsible for the team’s success; when the two groups passed each other going on and off the field, Ed O’Bradovich remembered, he and his defensive mates would say to the offensive unit, “Just hold ’em.” But on this day, the offense more than held its own. With superb blocking up front and a balanced distribution of carries among Willie Galimore, Joe Marconi, Rick Casares, and Ronnie Bull, the Bears churned out 248 yards on the ground. They scored the first three times they had the ball, on two field goals by Roger Leclerc and a spectacular 27-yard gallop by Galimore. Leclerc added a field goal in the third quarter and another in the fourth before Bennie McRae’s 44-yard interception return set up a touchdown run by quarterback Bill Wade from five yards out. The final score of 26-7 could have been even more one-sided, but Leclerc missed four field goals in addition to the four he made.
     The Bears presented the game ball to offensive line coach Phil Handler, whose charges had completely dominated the line of scrimmage. Although the Packers were without Bart Starr, who’d been out three weeks with an injury, Green Bay coach Vince Lombardi offered no excuses. “The Bears were terrific,” he said. “They beat us up front where it counts—and both ways. I’m happy for Papa George [Halas]; he’s a hell of a guy.”
     Halas himself was virtually speechless after the game. “Thank you, fellows,” was all he managed to tell his team before being overcome with emotion.
     “Somebody may still beat the Bears,” Lombardi said wistfully. “I’m making no predictions. But they have four games left to play. So do we.”

Adapted from Heydays: Great Stories in Chicago Sports
(c) 2009, 2010 by Christopher Tabbert.