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Chicago Bears tickets have been handed down for generations in the Windy City, and the team is one of the cornerstone franchises of the NFL. The Bears have been continuing their tradition of winning for decades, and their stability as a franchise has them looking like they’ll uphold that tradition for years to come. A look at their history will explain why the NFL wouldn’t be the NFL without the Bears.
Beginnings
The Bears began as the Decatur Staleys in 1919 as a company team, and A.E. Staley, the company who sponsored them, hired George Halas to run the Staleys in 1920. In 1921, Halas relocated the team to Chicago after he purchased the team from A.E. Staley for $100.00 and won the NFL Championship.
The following year, Halas renamed the team the Bears, which was a derivative of one of the existing baseball teams in the area, the Chicago Cubs. The other baseball team, the White Sox, was under a cloud of shame following the Black Sox scandal, and Halas wanted nothing to do with them. Halas even moved the team into Wrigley Field, where the Cubs played. Halas also picked the same basic color scheme of his alma mater, the University of Illinois, and that same scheme remains today.
Establishing a Winning Tradition
Halas, who would ultimately run the Bears for forty years as coach, brought the team to a perennial championship level, and the Bears won the first “official” NFL Championship game in 1933 when they defeated the New York Giants. Over their first 25 years of play in the NFL, the Bears won seven championships, and great players such as Sid Luckman enjoyed the innovation that Halas continued to bring to the game, including the fabled “T” formation that stymied the favored Washington Redskins in the 1940 NFL Championship game, which the Bears won 73-0.
Decline
The 1950’s were not a successful decade for the Bears, as they suffered through several losing seasons. The league was dominated at the time by teams like the Cleveland Browns and Detroit Lions, who often victimized the Bears during their intra-league battles. However, Halas continued to build the team, and their “down” time wouldn’t last long. The next decade would restore the value to Chicago Bears tickets.
Revitalization
The 1960’s were a successful era for the Bears, as they won the NFL Championship in 1963, which was quite an accomplishment considering their fiercest rivals, the Green Bay Packers, were dominating the NFL at the time. The Packers won five championships in the 1960’s under Coach Vince Lombardi, but the Packers games against the Bears were always the most difficult for them. In fact, Halas was the only man Lombardi ever referred to as “Coach.” The Bears of the time featured several Hall of Fame players, including Dick Butkus and Gale Sayers.
Modern Times
The Bears went through another drought in the 1970’s, but Coach Mike Ditka returned the Bears to glory in 1985, when he led the team to a resounding victory over the New England Patriots in 1985. Ditka’s teams were the most feared in the league at the time, and legends such as Walter Payton and Mike Singletary carried the Bears’ name with honor. The only tragedy was that Halas didn’t live to see it, as he passed away in 1983.
These days, the Bears continue to be known for their hard-nosed defense and physical overall play, and their modern home, Soldier Field, is as intimidating a venue for opposing teams to play as any in the NFL. Chicago Bears tickets will give fans the chance to soak up all of this history as the team continues to add to its legacy in future years.
Written by Jay Nault sponsored by www.stubhub.com/ . StubHub sells Chicago Bears tickets, Patriots tickets, Colts tickets and all other football tickets. Please link to this site when using this article. |
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