Chicago Bears
The Chicago Bears are a Chicago-based National Football League team that plays in the Northern division of the National Football Conference. The Bears are one of two founding members of the NFL that still exist today. Therefore they have one of the longest histories of all professional American football team which is mainly associated with one name: George S. Halas, who was a player, coach and owner of the team and the NFL. He coined the Chicago Bears over a period of more than 5 decades.
The team was founded by the Staley Starch Company in Decatur, Illinois which was named Decatur Stanleys at that time. George S. Halas represented the team at the founding meeting of the NFL in Canton, Ohio. In their first year in the league they were already able to become the runner up in the NFL championship. A year later, Halas finally took over the team, moved it over to Chicago and was able to win the NFL championship one more year later.
The Chicago Bears were a very successful and innovative team from the beginning. They were the first franchise to pay a transfer fee – $100 for tackle Ed Heasly who was playing for the Rock Island Independents at that time. With running back Harold “Red” Grange, they had the first real superstar of the new sports in their roster. In addition to that, they played the first indoor game in 1932 against the Portsmouth Spartans on a smaller field and won the first NFL championship game against the New York Giants in 1933.
The Bears dominated the NFL in the 1940s and were able to win four championships. Their 73 to nothing win against the Washington Redskins is the highest margin victory of a professional American football game to this day. Although the franchise was also successful in the 1950s, they were only able to win the NFL championship again in 1963 with a 14:10 victory over the New York Giants.
When George S. Halas resigned as head coach, the most successful era of the team came to an end. At that point in time, Halas was the most successful NFL coach at all; he and his team had 27 seasons with 324 wins. He remained the owner and general manager of the eam and watched every Chicago Bears game live until his death in 1983 and it seems that the Chicago Bears were not able to recover from this loss. Although they were able to win the Super Bowl in 1985, they haven’t been regular playoff contenders since then. Only after the start of the new century, the franchise became more successful again and played in the Super Bowl in 2006.
Even though the most glorious time of the Chicago Bears is over for some time now, the great tradition of this franchise must not be overlooked. Nearly 30 Bears players are in the Hall Of Fame. Players like George Blanda, Dick Butkus, Harold “Red” Grange, Sid Luckman, Bronko Nagurski, Mike Singletary and Waltor Payton who coined the Chicago Bears and the American football during their active careers – just like their boss, George S. Halas.
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