George Halas and the Birth of the Bears (Part 2)

The American Professional Football Association was reorganized in 1921, becoming a league in the true sense of the word. Under its new president, Joe Carr, the APFA established an official schedule and began to keep standings and other statistics.

 

George Halas and the Staleys opened the 1921 season with a seemingly meaningless exhibition game against the Waukegan American Legion team, winning 35-0. Then they played their first, and last, official league game in Decatur before moving the franchise to Chicago. A capacity crowd of 4,000 came out for the team’s farewell appearance at Staley Field. The Staleys beat Rock Island 14-10, then boarded the train to Chicago. Halas rented out rooms for his players in a boarding house at 4414 N. Clarendon, for two dollars per man per week. The players walked to Wrigley Field for practices and games.

 

Through their first six league games, the Staleys were undefeated and untied. In the sixth game, they dispatched Jim Thorpe’s new team, the Cleveland Indians, 22-7 before a crowd estimated at 10,000. On Thanksgiving Day, the unbeaten Buffalo All-Americans invaded Wrigley Field and handed the Staleys a tough 7-6 defeat. On November 27, quarterback and coach Curly Lambeau led his Green Bay Packers into Chicago for the first game in what would become the greatest rivalry in pro football. The Staleys won 20-0. Then, in the biggest game of the season, a rematch with Buffalo, Guy Chamberlin scored a touchdown and kicked a field goal to carry the Staleys to a 10-7 victory.

 

Now Chicago and Buffalo each had suffered one loss. The Staleys beat Canton 10-0 on December 11, then closed out the season the next Sunday against the Chicago Cardinals. On a frozen field, the teams slipped and skidded to a scoreless tie. The Staleys finished 9-1-1 in league games, while Buffalo was 9-1-2. Joe Carr ruled that the Staleys’ game with the semi-pro Waukegan team would count in the APFA standings. Thus the Staleys were 10-1-1 and the first official champions of pro football.

 

Although they triumphed on the field and were reasonably successful at the box office, the 1921 Staleys did little to justify Halas’s faith in the ultimate profitability of pro football. They lost $71.63 for the season.

 

In 1922, the Chicago Staleys became the Bears. “I considered naming the team the Chicago Cubs,” Halas remembered, “out of respect for Mr. William Veeck, Sr., and Mr. William Wrigley, who had been such a great help. But I noted football players are bigger than baseball players; so if baseball players are cubs, then certainly football players are bears!” The Staley franchise was officially transferred to the Chicago Bears Football Club, Inc. A year later, the American Professional Football Association also adopted a new name—the National Football League.

 

RED GRANGE

On November 22, 1925, the Bears blanked the Packers 21-0 at Wrigley Field. Observing from the Bears’ bench was Harold “Red” Grange, the Wheaton native whose sensational career at the University of Illinois had concluded less than 24 hours earlier. Immediately after the Illini’s season-ending 14-9 victory at Ohio State, the three-time All-American had secretly boarded a train for Chicago to join the Bears. Thus he was at their game the very next day—but not in uniform, because the final details of his contract had not been settled. 

 

When Grange officially signed with the Bears on Monday morning, it was a monumental coup for Halas. He announced that “the Galloping Ghost” would make his debut on November 26, Thanksgiving Day, against the Cardinals. Tickets went on sale Monday afternoon, and the 20,000 that had been printed were sold within three hours. Mounted police were called to quell a potential riot among fans who were still in line when the supply ran out. More tickets were printed the following day, and another 16,000 were sold.

 

Thursday afternoon was damp and chilly, but Wrigley Field was filled to the rafters. Seventeen people were arrested outside the park for selling counterfeit tickets. Grange took the field wearing a Bears’ jersey onto which his familiar No. 77 had been hastily stitched.

 

In the first quarter, Grange brought the fans to their feet when he fielded a punt and zigzagged 30 yards before being wrestled down. The rest of his afternoon was less eventful. He ended up with 66 yards on three punt returns and 36 yards on 13 carries from scrimmage. He also attempted six passes, all of which fell incomplete, and caught one pass. His interception thwarted one of the Cardinals’ two scoring threats (the other was a field-goal attempt by Paddy Driscoll that ricocheted off one of the uprights).

 

Although the Bears failed to mount a serious assault on the Cardinal goal line and the game ended in a scoreless tie, no one seemed too disappointed. When the gun sounded, Cardinal players lined up to shake Grange’s hand, knowing that his presence in the league was likely to make them all more prosperous. Hundreds of fans swarmed onto the field, and only quick work by a cordon of policemen saved Grange from being stampeded by the well wishers.

 

“The Bears and the Cardinals are great pro teams,” the Tribune’s Don Maxwell wrote the next morning. “They have thousands of enthusiastic followers. But the more than 36,000 folk who made the turkey wait until the game was over weren’t there to see their teams play. They were there to see the redhead of Wheaton. They cheered when Grange gained ground; they cheered when he lost ground. They went into vocal hysterics when he trotted on the field, and they almost mobbed him when he left it.”

 

To exploit Grange’s tremendous popularity, the Bears played exhibition games in St. Louis, Washington, and Pittsburgh in addition to their five regularly scheduled league games between December 2 and December 13—for a total of eight games in 12 days. Late in December, they set off on a coast-to-coast barnstorming tour that saw them play nine more games before the end of January. As a result of these games, Halas said, “Pro football for the first time took on true national stature.”

 

Pro football was here to stay. By the time of his death in 1983, Halas had seen the value of a franchise increase from $100 to roughly $100 million. He had also done more than anyone else to make it happen. 

 

(Part 2 of 2.) 

  

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Bears By the Numbers

The Bears are the NFL's flagship franchise, have won nine world championships, have more Hall of Famers than any other team, and boast more than a handful of names that are truly legendary--Halas, Grange, Nagurski, Luckman, Sayers, Butkus, and Payton, to name the more obvious ones.  

For no particular reason, we thought it would be fun to name the greatest Bears by uniform number, so here goes. (Asterisks indicate retired numbers.)

 

  1. Jimmy Conzelman, HB/E, 1920

  2. Paddy Driscoll, HB/QB, 1926 - 1929

  3. * Bronko Nagurski, FB/LB/T, 1930 - 1937, 1943

  4. Jim Harbaugh, QB, 1988 - 1993

  5. * George McAfee, HB/DB, 1940 - 1950

  6. Jay Cutler, QB, 2009 - 2016

  7. * George Halas, E, 1920 - 1928

  8. Rex Grossman, QB, 2002 - 2008

  9. Jim McMahon, QB, 1982 - 1988

10. Rudy Bukich, QB, 1963 - 1968

11. Jack Concannon, QB, 1967 - 1971

12. Link Lyman, T, 1926 - 1934

13. George Trafton, C, 1920 - 1932

14. Dick Plasman, T/E, 1937 - 1941, 1944

15. Brandon Marshall, WR, 2012 - 2014

16. George Blanda, QB/K, 1953 - 1958

17. Richie Petitbon, DB, 1959 - 1968

18. Mike Tomczak, QB, 1985 - 1990

19. Gary Huff, QB, 1973 - 1976

20. Mark Carrier, DB, 1990 - 1996

21. Donnell Woolford, DB, 1989 - 1996

22. Matt Forte, RB, 2008 - 2015

23. Devin Hester, KR/WR, 2006 - 2013

24. Roosevelt Taylor, DB, 1961 - 1969

25. Todd Bell, DB, 1981 - 1987

26. Bennie McRae, DB, 1962 - 1970

27. Mike Richardson, DB, 1983 - 1988

28. * Willie Galimore, RB, 1957 - 1963

29. Ronnie Bull, RB, 1962 - 1974

30. Mike Brown, DB, 2000 - 2008

31. Joe Fortunato, LB, 1955 - 1966

32. Johnny Lujack, QB/DB, 1948 - 1951

33. Charles Tillman, DB, 2003 - 2014 

34. * Walter Payton, RB, 1975 - 1987

35. Neal Anderson, RB, 1986 - 1993

36. Markus Paul, DB, 1989 - 1993

37. Tony Parrish, DB, 1998 - 2001 

38. Danieal Manning, DB, 2006 - 2010

39. Eddie Jackson, DB, 2017 - present

40. * Gale Sayers, RB/KR, 1965 - 1971

41. * Brian Piccolo, RB, 1966 - 1969

42. * Sid Luckman, QB/DB, 1939 - 1950

43. Jim Dooley, E, 1952 - 1961

44. Terry Schmidt, DB, 1976 - 1984

45. Gary Fencik, DB, 1976 - 1987

46. Doug Plank, DB, 1975 - 1982

47. Johnny Morris, WR/RB, 1958 - 1967

48. Allan Ellis, DB, 1973 - 1980

49. Charlie Bivins, RB/TE, 1960 -1966

50. Mike Singletary, LB, 1981 - 1992

51. * Dick Butkus, LB, 1965 - 1973

52. Dan Neal, C, 1976 - 1983

53. Nick Roach, LB, 2007 - 2012

54. Brian Urlacher, LB, 2000 - 2012

55. Lance Briggs, LB, 2003 - 2014

56. * Bill Hewitt, E/DE, 1932 - 1936

57. Olin Kreutz, C, 1998 - 2010

58. Wilber Marshall, LB, 1984 - 1987

59. Gary Campbell, LB, 1977 - 1983

60. Wally Chambers, DT/DE, 1973 - 1977

61. * Bill George, LB/DT/G, 1952 - 1965

62. Mark Bortz, G, 1983 - 1994

63. Jay Hilgenberg, C, 1981 - 1991

64. Andy Heck, T/G, 1994 - 1998

65. Noah Jackson, G, 1975 - 1983

66. * Bulldog Turner, C/LB, 1940 - 1952

67. Jerry Fontenot, C/G, 1989  - 1996

68. Jim Osborne, DT, 1972 - 1984

69. Revie Sorey, G, 1975 - 1982

70. Herman Lee, T, 1958 - 1966

71. James "Big Cat" Williams, T, 1991 - 2002

72. Jim Cadile, G/T, 1962 - 1972

73. Mike Hartenstine, DE, 1975 - 1986

74. Jimbo Covert, T, 1983 - 1990

75. Kyle Long, T, 2013 - 2019

76. Steve McMichael, DT, 1981 - 1993

77. * Red Grange, HB/DB, 1925, 1929 - 1934

78. Stan Jones, G/T/DT, 1954 - 1965

79. Dick Evey, DT/DE, 1964 - 1969

80. Curtis Conway, WR, 1993 - 1999

81. Doug Atkins, DE, 1955 - 1966

82. Wendell Davis, WR, 1988 - 1993

83. Willie Gault, WR, 1983 - 1987

84. Brian Baschnagel, WR, 1977 - 1984

85. Dennis McKinnon, WR, 1983 - 1989

86. Marty Booker, WR, 1999 - 2008

87. Ed O'Bradovich, DE, 1962 - 1971

88. Bobby Joe Green, P, 1962 - 1973

89. * Mike Ditka, TE, 1961 - 1966

90. Julius Peppers, DE, 2010 - 2013

91. Tommie Harris, DT, 204 - 2010

92. Hunter Hillenmeyer, LB, 2003 - 2010

93. Adawale Ogunleye, DE, 2004 - 2009

94. Leonard Floyd, LB, 2016 - 2019

95. Richard Dent, DE, 1983 - 1993, 1995

96. Alex Brown, DE, 2002 - 2009

97. Chris Zorich, DT, 1991 - 1997

98. Bryan Robinson, DT/DE, 1998 - 2003

99. Dan Hampton, DE/DT, 1979 - 1990

 

Powerhouse

The first postseason game in NFL history was also the first indoor game in NFL history. It was played on December 18, 1932, in Chicago Stadium. In that game, the Bears took on the Portsmouth (Ohio) Spartans, who would soon move to Detroit and become the Lions. The account below is adapted from the recent book Heydays: Great Stories in Chicago Sports.

BRONKO NAGURSKI

     Bronko Nagurski grew up in International Falls, Minnesota, a remote outpost along the Canadian border, and from the time he was very young he was regarded as a sort of real-life Paul Bunyan. Clarence “Doc” Spears, his coach at the University of Minnesota, had a colorful account of how he recruited Nagurski. “I saw this young kid pushing a plow,” Spears said. “There was no horse or anything else, just this kid pushing a plow. I asked directions of him and he picked up the plow and pointed with it. I decided then and there he should go to Minnesota.”
     Bronko went on to perform spectacularly at Minnesota, and he joined the Bears in 1930. He weighed about 235 pounds at a time when very few players exceeded 210. A fullback on offense and a tackle on defense, he was easily the best player in the NFL at both positions. He was the heart and soul of the Bears’ powerhouse teams of the early thirties.
     “Bronko Nagurski was probably the greatest player I ever went up against,” said the Green Bay Packers’ Hall of Famer Clarke Hinkle. I thought to myself, ‘You either better start moving and go after him or just get the hell out of the way, because otherwise you are going to get killed.’”

     In the final game of the 1932 regular season, Nagurski’s 56-yard touchdown gallop led the Bears to a 9-0 victory over the Packers amid swirling snows at Wrigley Field. The win moved the Bears into a tie with the Portsmouth Spartans for first place in the NFL, and league president Joe Carr decided to have a playoff game to settle the issue. Because Portsmouth’s stadium seated only 8,000, the first postseason game in pro football history was scheduled for Chicago.
     That the NFL was still in its infancy was demonstrated by the fact that Portsmouth’s star tailback Dutch Clark, the league’s leading scorer, was not available for the game. His contract as basketball coach at Colorado College called for him to report immediately after the Spartans’ season was concluded, and it had no provision for an extra week.
     The weather worsened in the days leading up to the game, with snow continuing intermittently and the temperature plummeting to below zero. Bears coach and owner George Halas recognized that few hardy souls were likely to pay hard-earned Depression dollars to sit out in a blizzard at Wrigley Field, so he got approval from the league to play the game indoors at Chicago Stadium. Inside the Stadium, a field was set up that was 20 yards shorter and 15 feet narrower than the standard.
     A circus had come through the week before, and a six-inch layer of dirt remained on the Stadium’s cement floor. With rolls of sod laid on top of the dirt, the playing surface was passable and certainly safer than the frozen ground at Wrigley Field. One observer reported, however, that the arena “was a little too aromatic, what with the horses and elephants that had traipsed around there a few days before the game.”
     More than 11,000 people showed up, vindicating the decision to play the game indoors. “They were exposed to the violence of professional football,” Richard Whittingham wrote, “in a way that spectators in outdoor stadiums never were. In the enclosed stadium, the sounds of impact when players blocked or tackled each other resounded through the acoustically controlled hall.”
     Both defenses held sway for the first three quarters. There was only one punt returned all day, as most of them flew well into the seats. The Bears’ Red Grange was knocked out cold when he was thrown out of bounds and into the hockey boards after an end run of 15 yards. He was carted off, but soon returned. In the fourth quarter, Dick Nesbitt of the Bears intercepted a pass at the Spartans’ seven-yard line. Nagurski bulled his way down to the two on first down, but then he was stopped for virtually no gain on his next two attempts.
     On fourth down and goal, the Portsmouth defenders massed in the middle of the line, convinced that Nagurski would carry the ball again. Bronko did take the handoff from quarterback Carl Brumbaugh, but instead of charging ahead, he backpedaled and lofted a pass over the scrum at the goal line. Grange was alone in the end zone to gather it in for a touchdown. Portsmouth coach Potsy Clark was apoplectic, arguing that Bronko had been too close to the line of scrimmage when he delivered the ball (at the time, one had to be at least five yards behind the line in order to throw a legal forward pass). Potsy may have been right, but the call stood.
     When Clark finally calmed down and returned to the sidelines, Tiny Engebretsen kicked the extra point for the Bears. Several minutes later, a Spartan fumble rolled out of the end zone for a safety. The score of 9-0 held up, and the Bears were world champions.
     The postseason playoff game stirred up so much interest that NFL owners quickly agreed to make it an annual event. Accordingly, the league was split into two divisions whose winners would meet after the season for the championship. This model remained in place until the inaugural Super Bowl after the 1966 season.

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

The Bears on Thanksgiving Day

ERNIE NEVERS

     All football fans know that the Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys each play home games every Thanksgiving Day. The Lions have been doing so since 1934 and the Cowboys since 1968.
     Most fans probably don't know that in the NFL's infancy, a Thanksgiving Day matchup between the Bears and the Chicago Cardinals was customary. Those teams played each other on 12 consecutive turkey days from 1922 through 1933.
     The Bears remained a Thanksgiving Day fixture for five more seasons, serving as the Lions' guests from 1934 through 1938. Since then, the Bears have appeared only occasionally. Their overall record on Thanksgiving Day is 16-14-2.
     In 1925, the legendary Red Grange made his NFL debut as the Bears and Cardinals struggled to a scoreless tie at Wrigley Field.
     In 1929, Cardinals Hall of Famer Ernie Nevers scored six touchdowns and four extra points, accounting for all of the South Siders' scoring in a 40-6 rout of the Bears at Wrigley Field. Nevers still holds the single-game scoring record.
     In 1977, Walter Payton accumulated 137 yards as a runner and 107 as a receiver, scoring a touchdown in each capacity, as the Bears won their third straight game to keep their flickering playoff hopes alive. They ended the season with six in a row to make the postseason for the first time in 14 years.
     In 1980, Bears quarterback Vince Evans tallied on a four-yard run on the last play of regulation, and Bob Thomas's extra point tied the score with no time remaining. The Bears' Dave Williams took the ensuing kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown. This remains the shortest overtime game in NFL history.
     In 1997, the Bears led 10-0 in the first quarter and 20-10 in the second quarter before Detroit's Barry Sanders took over. The rubber-limbed Sanders scored on runs of 40, 25, and 15 yards as the Lions piled up 45 unanswered points.

Bears Thanksgiving Day games:

1920 - W 6-0, Staleys at Chicago Tigers
1921 - L 6-7, Staleys vs. Buffalo All-Americans
1922 - L 0-6, Bears at Cardinals
1923 - W 3-0, vs. Cardinals
1924 - W 21-0, at Cardinals
1925 - T 0-0, vs. Cardinals
1926 - T 0-0, vs. Cardinals
1927 - L 0-3, vs. Cardinals
1928 - W 34-0, vs. Cardinals
1929 - L 6-40, vs. Cardinals
1930 - W 6-0, vs. Cardinals
1931 - W 18-7, vs. Cardinals
1932 - W 24-0, vs. Cardinals
1933 - W 22-6, at Cardinals
1934 - W 19-16, at Detroit
1935 - L 2-14, at Detroit
1936 - L 7-13, at Detroit
1937 - W 13-0, at Detroit
1938 - L 7-14, at Detroit
1947 - W 34-14, at Detroit
1949 - W 28-7, at Detroit
1952 - L 23-27, vs. Dallas Texans at Akron, Ohio
1964 - W 27-24, at Detroit
1977 - W 31-14, at Detroit
1979 - L 0-20, at Detroit
1980 - W 23-17 (OT), at Detroit
1981 - L 9-10, at Dallas
1991 - L 6-16, at Detroit
1993 - W 10-6, at Detroit
1997 - L 20-55, at Detroit
1999 - L 17-21, at Detroit
2004 - L 7-21, at Dallas

Pro Football Comes of Age

In the above photo, Red Grange of the Bears carries the ball against the Chicago Cardinals at Wrigley Field on November 26, 1925. As might be expected after 85 years, the uniforms of the players and officials look almost nothing like those of today. Look closely, though, and you see that the Bears are sporting the triple stripes on their sleeves that remain to this day. You also see that the idea of watching a game at Wrigley Field from a Sheffield Avenue rooftop is not new.

     On November 22, 1925, the Bears blanked the Packers 21-0 at Wrigley Field. Observing from the Bears’ bench was Harold “Red” Grange, the Wheaton native whose sensational career at the University of Illinois had concluded less than 24 hours earlier. Immediately after the Illini’s season-ending 14-9 victory at Ohio State, the three-time All-American had secretly boarded a train for Chicago to join the Bears. Thus he was at their game the very next day—but not in uniform, because the final details of his contract had not been settled.
     When Grange officially signed with the Bears on Monday morning, it was a monumental coup for Bears owner and head coach George Halas. He announced that “the Galloping Ghost” would make his debut on November 26, Thanksgiving Day, against the Cardinals. Tickets went on sale Monday afternoon, and the 20,000 that had been printed were sold within three hours. Mounted police were called to quell a potential riot among fans who were still in line when the supply ran out. More tickets were printed the following day, and another 16,000 were sold.
     Thursday afternoon was damp and chilly, but Wrigley Field was filled to the rafters. Seventeen people were arrested outside the park for selling counterfeit tickets. Grange took the field wearing a Bears jersey onto which his familiar No. 77 had been hastily stitched.
     In the first quarter, Grange brought the fans to their feet when he fielded a punt and zigzagged 30 yards before being wrestled down. The rest of his afternoon was less eventful. He ended up with 66 yards on three punt returns and 36 yards on 13 carries from scrimmage. He also attempted six passes, all of which fell incomplete, and caught one pass. His interception thwarted one of the Cardinals’ two scoring threats (the other was a field-goal attempt by Paddy Driscoll that ricocheted off one of the uprights).
     Although the Bears failed to mount a serious assault on the Cardinal goal line and the game ended in a scoreless tie, no one seemed too disappointed. When the gun sounded, Cardinal players lined up to shake Grange’s hand, knowing that his presence in the league was likely to make them all more prosperous. Hundreds of fans swarmed onto the field, and only quick work by a cordon of policemen saved Grange from being stampeded by the well wishers.
     “The Bears and the Cardinals are great pro teams,” the Tribune’s Don Maxwell wrote the next morning. “They have thousands of enthusiastic followers. But the more than 36,000 folks who made the turkey wait until the game was over weren’t there to see their teams play. They were there to see the redhead of Wheaton. They cheered when Grange gained ground; they cheered when he lost ground. They went into vocal hysterics when he trotted on the field, and they almost mobbed him when he left it.”
     To exploit Grange’s tremendous popularity, the Bears played exhibition games in St. Louis, Washington, and Pittsburgh in addition to their five regularly scheduled league games between December 2 and December 13—for a total of eight games in 12 days. Late in December, they set off on a coast-to-coast barnstorming tour that saw them play nine more games before the end of January. As a result of these games, Halas said, “Pro football for the first time took on true national stature.”
     Pro football was here to stay. By the time of his death in 1983, Halas had seen the value of an NFL franchise increase from $100 to roughly $100 million. He had also done more than anyone to make it happen.

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