1985 Bears Postseason Flashback: January 12, 1986

We are revisiting the three postseason games that confirmed the 1985 Bears as one of the greatest teams in pro football history—the NFC playoff games against the New York Giants and Los Angeles Rams and the Super Bowl against the New England Patriots—on the 35th anniversary of each. We hope you enjoy the ride.

 

OTIS WILSON and WILBER MARSHALL.

After the Bears dispatched the New York Giants 21-0 on January 5, they hosted the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC championship game on January 12. It was another cold and windy day in Chicago, and the Rams looked as if they longed for the temperate climes of southern California. Bears defensive end Dan Hampton said he could see defeat in their eyes even at the opening coin toss. When the Rams won the flip and elected to receive, the crowd of 63,522 cheered, figuring the Bear defenders would push them backward.

From the start, Los Angeles quarterback Dieter Brock (10-for-31 passing) and running back Eric Dickerson (17 carries for 46 yards) were wholly ineffective. Dickerson, supposed to be the man who would eventually break Walter Payton’s lifetime rushing mark, had gained a playoff-record 234 yards against Dallas the week before. The Bears held him to less than three yards per attempt and forced him to fumble twice. “If they would have run him more,” said defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan, who had predicted three fumbles by Dickerson, “he would have had three.” 

In the third quarter, Dickerson and Mike Singletary—Southwest Conference rivals at S.M.U. and Baylor, respectively, renewed their acquaintance in the Rams’ backfield. Dickerson had just taken a handoff when he blasted into Singletary filling the gap and stopped dead in his tracks. He moved not one inch forward after meeting up with the Bears’ middle linebacker. “I like this kind of party!” Singletary shouted to the Rams. “I’m gonna be here all day!” 

Bears quarterback Jim McMahon, meanwhile, was brilliant. Despite the weather, he hit on 16 of 25 passes for 164 yards. On the Bears’ first series, he ran 16 yards for a touchdown on a play that was called as a pass. Later he passed for a touchdown on a play called as a run. “The coach sent in a play I didn’t agree with,” McMahon said, “so I called my own.” His 22-yard strike to Willie Gault put the Bears ahead 17-0, and the outcome was decided. The Bears would be NFC champions. 

The fans began to chant: “Super Bowl, Super Bowl.” Late in the fourth quarter, the hapless Brock dropped back to pass and was flung to the turf by defensive end Richard Dent. The ball popped loose. Linebacker Wilber Marshall picked it up at midfield and headed into Rams territory with Otis Wilson escorting him. 

Just then, it started to snow. 

Marshall and Wilson romped 52 yards to the Los Angeles end zone all alone, while the crowd cheered both them and the snow. As the final minutes ticked away, the Bears briefly abandoned the business-as-usual demeanor that had characterized them all year. They embraced one another on the sideline, and head coach Mike Ditka congratulated each man individually. Safety Dave Duerson said that Ditka even became choked up. 

The final score was 24-0. “The way we were playing defense,” said Ditka, “it didn’t matter what we scored.” The Bears became the first team ever to post back-to-back playoff shutouts. They were headed to the Super Bowl as confident as a team could be—and rightly so.

 

 

 Check out our book Heydays: Great Stories in Chicago Sports on Amazon.

 

 

1985 Bears Flashback: "It Didn't Matter What We Scored"

Twenty-five years ago yesterday, the 1985 Bears punched their ticket to Super Bowl XX in New Orleans with a resounding 24-0 victory in the NFC championship game. That game is described below in an excerpt from the recent book Heydays: Great Stories in Chicago Sports.



WILBER MARSHALL (58) AND OTIS WILSON ROMP TO THE RAMS END ZONE.

     
     The Bears hosted the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC championship game on January 12, 1986. It was a suitably cold and windy day in Chicago, and the Rams looked as if they longed for the temperate climes of southern California. Bears defensive end Dan Hampton said he could see defeat in their eyes even at the opening coin toss. When the Rams won the flip and elected to receive, the crowd of 63,522 cheered, figuring the Bear defenders would push them backward.
     From the start, Los Angeles quarterback Dieter Brock (10-for-31 passing) and running back Eric Dickerson (17 carries for 46 yards) were wholly ineffective. Dickerson, supposed to be the man who would eventually break Walter Payton’s lifetime rushing mark, had gained a playoff-record 234 yards against Dallas the week before. The Bears held him to less than three yards per attempt and forced him to fumble twice. “If they would have run him more,” said defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan, who had predicted three fumbles by Dickerson, “he would have had three.”
     In the third quarter, Dickerson and Bears middle linebacker Mike Singletary—Southwest Conference rivals at S.M.U. and Baylor, respectively—renewed their acquaintance in the Rams’ backfield. Dickerson had just taken a handoff when he blasted into Singletary filling the gap and stopped dead in his tracks; he moved not one inch forward after meeting up with the Bears’ middle linebacker. “I like this kind of party!” Singletary shouted to the Rams. “I’m gonna be here all day!”
     Bears quarterback Jim McMahon, meanwhile, was brilliant. Despite the weather, he hit on 16 of 25 passes for 164 yards. On the Bears’ first series, he ran 16 yards for a touchdown on a play that was called as a pass. Later he passed for a touchdown on a play called as a run. “The coach sent in a play I didn’t agree with,” McMahon said, “so I called my own.” His 22-yard strike to Willie Gault put the Bears ahead 17-0, and the outcome was decided. The Bears would be NFC champions.
     The fans began to chant: “Super Bowl, Super Bowl.” Late in the fourth quarter, the hapless Brock dropped back to pass and was flung to the turf by Richard Dent. The ball popped loose. Linebacker Wilber Marshall picked it up at midfield and headed into Rams territory with Otis Wilson escorting him. Just then, it started to snow.
     Marshall and Wilson romped 52 yards to the Los Angeles end zone all alone, while the crowd cheered both them and the snow. As the final minutes ticked away, the Bears briefly abandoned the business-as-usual demeanor that had characterized them all year. The embraced one another on the sideline, and head coach Mike Ditka congratulated each man individually. Safety Dave Duerson asserted that Ditka even became choked up. The final score was 24-0.

“The way we were playing defense,” said Ditka, “it didn’t matter what we scored.”

The Bears became the first team ever to post back-to-back playoff shutouts.
     The Bears were headed to New Orleans for the first Super Bowl in franchise history and their first championship game since 1963. They would make the trip worthwhile.

1985 Bears Flashback: The Super Bowl Shuffle

     Twenty-five years ago today, on December 3, 1985, the “Chicago Bears Shufflin’ Crew” entered a studio to record “The Super Bowl Shuffle,” the audacious rap song that would be heard almost incessantly over the next two months and has endured, somewhat surprisingly, as a landmark of sorts in the subsequent quarter century.
     Despite having sustained their first defeat of the season (after 12 consecutive victories) the very night before, the Bears remained quite sure that they were headed to the Super Bowl, and the “Shuffle” was a bold statement to that effect. The project was the brainchild of Dick Meyer, a lifelong Bears fan who enlisted Willie Gault, the elegant wide receiver and aspiring actor/singer, to be his point person with the players. “A substantial portion” of the proceeds was to be donated to charity.
     Meyer and Melvin Owens wrote the lyrics, which were tailored to each of the ten featured “singers”: Walter Payton, Gault, Mike Singletary, Jim McMahon, Otis Wilson, Steve Fuller, Mike Richardson, Richard Dent, Gary Fencik, and William Perry. Bobby Daniels and Lloyd Barry wrote the music, and Meyer acted as producer and choreographer.
     In addition to the ten front men, 14 other Bears also participated in supporting roles. All are listed below. The players might have done the project as a lark, but “The Super Bowl Shuffle” was a genuine phenomenon. It sold more than half a millon copies as a 45-RPM record, ascended to No. 41 on the pop music chart, and was nominated for a Grammy. At the end of the day, some $300,000 was donated to the Chicago Community Trust to provide food, shelter, and clothing for needy families.

Chicago Bears Shufflin’ Crew (featured singers, in order of appearance)
34 - Walter Payton, running back
83 - Willie Gault, wide receiver
50 - Mike Singletary, linebacker
  9 - Jim McMahon, quarterback
55 - Otis Wilson, linebacker
  4 - Steve Fuller, quarterback
27 - Mike Richardson, cornerback
95 - Richard Dent, defensive end
45 - Gary Fencik, safety
72 - William Perry, defensive tackle/fullback

Chicago Bears Shufflin’ Crew Band (in alphabetical order)
  8 - Maury Buford, punter (cowbell)
29 - Dennis Gentry, running back (bass)
98 - Tyrone Keys, defensive end (keyboard)
33 - Calvin Thomas, running back (saxophone)
18 - Mike Tomczak, quarterback (guitar)

Chicago Bears Shufflin’ Crew Chorus (in alphabetical order)
21 - Leslie Frazier, cornerback
23 - Shaun Gayle, safety
75 - Stefan Humphries, guard
51 - Jim Morrissey, linebacker
89 - Keith Ortego, wide receiver/punt returner
48 - Reggie Phillips, cornerback
53 - Dan Rains, linebacker
20 - Thomas Sanders, running back
31 - Ken Taylor, cornerback/punt returner

1985 Bears Flashback: 44-0!

OTIS WILSON

     November 17, 1985. One for the books. The Bears annihilate Dallas 44-0 for the worst defeat in Cowboys history. The game “was just as close as the score indicated,” Don Pierson writes in the Tribune.
     Even Bears head coach Mike Ditka is amazed. “Our defense, what can you say?” he asks. Richard Dent, Dan Hampton, Wilber Marshall, and Otis Wilson are everywhere—the Bears come in waves that make it look as if they are playing with more than the requisite 11 men. Their frenzied pass rush accounts for six sacks, causes three interceptions (two are returned for touchdowns), and twice knocks Dallas quarterback Danny White out cold. “I put the wood on him,” Wilson remarks.
     “It was just a matter of playing the kind of defense we’re capable of playing,” says middle linebacker Mike Singletary. “We’re still getting better.”
     Defensive tackle and part-time fullback William Perry provides some comic relief when he picks up ball-carrier Walter Payton at Dallas’s two-yard line and throws him into the end zone; he is flagged for illegal use of hands. “I didn’t know you weren’t allowed to do that,” he says. Even without Perry’s help, Payton gains 132 yards to put him over 1,000 for the ninth time in his career, a record. Ditka awards a game ball to every man on the roster and promises a gold-plated one for backup quarterback Steve Fuller, who gives another solid performance in place of Jim McMahon, who is banged-up.
     One of the game’s story lines is the meeting between Ditka and the man who coached him as a player and gave him his first job as an assistant coach, the Cowboys’ Tom Landry. “[Ditka] downplayed it,” said safety Dave Duerson, “but it was written on his face.” As the game unfolds, Ditka seems a little sheepish to be giving his mentor such an awful beating. He calls off the dogs early in the fourth quarter, replacing most of his starters. Even so, the Bears score two touchdowns with third-string quarterback Mike Tomczak at the controls, on a 17-yard run by one reserve, Calvin Thomas, and a 16-yard run by another reserve, Dennis Gentry.
     At 11-0, the Bears have equaled the best start to a season in franchise history (the 1942 Bears went 11-0 for the regular season but lost the championship game). The Bears have also clinched the NFC Central Division title; it’s the first time in league history that a team has clinched with as many as five games remaining.