The 50 Greatest Players in Chicago Bears History. Robert W. Cohen

— INTRODUCTION —

THE BEAR LEGACY

      One of only two charter members of the National Football League still in existence, the Chicago Bears have their roots in Decatur, Illinois, where they spent the 1920 season competing in the newly formed American Professional Football Association (APFA) as the Decatur Staleys after the league office granted team representatives a franchise in exchange for the standard entry fee of $100 on September 17, 1920. Named after their sponsor, the Staley Starch Company, the Staleys excelled under the leadership of player-coaches George Halas and Edward “Dutch” Sternaman in the league’s inaugural season, compiling a record of 10-1-2 that earned them a second-place finish in the 14-team circuit. After acquiring full control of the team in 1921, Halas moved the Staleys to Chicago, where he guided them to a mark of 9-1-1 and their first league championship. With the APFA renaming itself the National Football League prior to the start of the 1922 campaign, Halas similarly chose to change the name of his team to the Bears, in deference to the more established Chicago Cubs, whose home ballpark, Wrigley Field, served as the venue for Bears home games for the next half-century.

Remaining competitive from 1922 to 1924, the Bears posted the NFL’s second-best record in each of those three seasons, compiling an overall mark of 24-6-5. Yet, despite the success they experienced on the playing field, the Bears found themselves plagued by the same financial difficulties that afflicted the rest of the teams in the infant league, prompting Halas to sign star University of Illinois running back Red Grange to a unique contract in which the latter agreed to participate in a 19-game barnstorming tour in exchange for the then-exorbitant fee of $3,000 per game, plus a share of the gate receipts. Halas’s brilliant idea proved to be a boon to the league, with Grange’s presence altering the mindset of many Americans, who previously took an extremely dim view of professional football. Boosting the prospects of many debt-ridden teams, Chicago’s 1925 tour likely saved several NFL franchises, including the New York Giants, who benefited greatly from Grange’s appearance at the Polo Grounds.

      Halas retained his duties as player-coach until 1929, when he retired as an active player and replaced himself at the helm with former Lake Forest Academy head coach Ralph Jones, who guided the Bears to their second NFL championship in 1932, when, after finishing tied for the league’s best record during the regular season, they defeated the Portsmouth Spartans by a score of 9–0 in an “unofficial” championship playoff game. However, with every NFL team struggling to make ends meet during the Great Depression, Halas returned to the sidelines for a second tour of duty in 1933, after which he led the Bears to five Western Division titles and three league championships over the course of the next nine seasons.

      With the NFL having adopted a new two-division setup in 1933, the Bears posted a regular-season record of 10-2-1 that earned them their first Western Division title. They then laid claim to their third league championship by defeating the Giants by a score of 23–21 in the NFL championship game. The Bears followed that up by going a perfect 13-0-0 during the 1934 regular season, outscoring their opponents by a combined margin of 286–86 along the way. But the Giants exacted a measure of revenge against them in the NFL title game, recording a 30–13 victory in what became known as the “Sneakers Game.” After a two-year hiatus, the Bears made another championship game appearance in 1937, only to lose to the Washington Redskins by a score of 28–21. However, they avenged that loss in 1940, defeating the Redskins by a score of 73–0, in what remains the most lopsided playoff game in NFL history. The Bears repeated as NFL champions in 1941, claiming the Western Division title with a 33–14 victory over the Green Bay Packers in a one-game playoff, before defeating the Giants by a score of 37–9 in the league championship game.

      Remaining one of the NFL’s elite teams after Halas entered the military to serve his country during World War II, the Bears captured the Western Division title in both 1942 and 1943, with Hunk Anderson and Luke Johnsos sharing coaching duties. After losing to Washington by a score of 14–6 in the 1942 NFL title tilt, the Bears claimed their sixth league championship with a 41–21 victory over the Redskins the following year.

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