Halloween marks 40 years since Chicago Bears founder, proprietor, coach and participant George Halas died.
Just a baby then, I now have questions on his outstanding life. What had been the important thing moments that formed his profession? And, what don’t I learn about one of many founding fathers of the National Football League?
I picked up a duplicate of his autobiography, “Halas by Halas,” from an area library to assist with this analysis. He cowrote the 338-page memoir with longtime husband-and-wife Tribune reporting group Gwen Morgan and Arthur Veysey in 1979.
Don Pierson, a former sports activities reporter who lined the Bears for the Tribune from the late Sixties by the group’s Feb. 4, 2007 loss to the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLI, offered invaluable steerage.
It was tough to consolidate the listing into simply 10 highlights. And the surprises had been plentiful. Did you already know Halas narrowly averted Chicago’s deadliest boating mishap? That he performed proper discipline for the New York Yankees? He began one of many metropolis’s first skilled basketball groups? Or, labored as an engineer for a railroad firm? I didn’t.
“He touched seven decades,” NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle stated at Halas’ funeral. “He was to us what Dr. James Naismith was to basketball.”
What follows is a sprinkling of Halas’ legendary life with insights from “Papa Bear” himself.
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July 24, 1915: Eastland Disaster
Halas graduated from what was then generally known as Crane Technical High School in June 1913, however didn’t go away for the University of Illinois till fall 1914. After speaking together with his mom and siblings, he determined to remain house for a 12 months to give attention to his conditioning — “get some meat on that skinny frame,” his brother Frank stated in “Halas by Halas” — and work to save cash. He accepted a place within the payroll division at Western Electric Company in Cicero and performed on its baseball group.
After his freshman 12 months in school, Halas returned to Western Electric. On July 24, 1915, he deliberate to affix his co-workers aboard the SS Eastland to cross Lake Michigan for the phone firm’s picnic in Michigan City, Ind.
But by the point Halas reached the Chicago River dock, the Eastland was overturned with 2,500 workers and their households aboard. It’s generally known as the deadliest day ever in Chicago and the best peacetime inland waterways catastrophe in American historical past; 844 folks died. Halas’ title was initially listed among the many victims within the July 27, 1915, version of the Tribune.
“The magnitude of my good fortune overwhelmed me. Mother suggested I saw a rosary. I found the advice sound. Luck was with me that day,” he wrote in “Halas by Halas.”
He joined the U.S. Navy in January 1918 and was based mostly at Naval Station Great Lakes the place he performed on the baseball, basketball and soccer groups.
Jan. 1, 1919: Rose Bowl MVP
The Rose Bowl hosted — for the primary and solely time — two navy groups for the Tournament East-West Football Game. The New Year’s Day occasion in Pasadena, Calif., featured a group of wartime recruits from Great Lakes in opposition to the Mare Island Marines of Vallejo, Calif., who had been undefeated whereas outscoring opponents by a median of 42 factors a sport.
Halas proved to be the Bluejackets’ star. He scored on a 30-yard cross from Paddy Driscoll, made a number of key tackles and ended a Mare Island drive by returning an interception nearly 80 yards to the 3-yard line. Great Lakes received 17-0.
The sport’s referee Walter Eckersall wrote within the Tribune afterward the sport was “as prettily played a gridiron struggle as one would care to see and easily the best the writer has witnessed during the 1918 season.”
Halas, who can be discharged from the Navy two months later, was named the sport’s MVP. But for the remainder of his life, he regretted not gaining these ultimate 3 yards.
“After I took up coaching, I told the carriers that when they reach the 3-yard line, they should dive across the goal. Anyone who can’t dive 3 yards should play Parcheesi,” he wrote in “Halas by Halas.”
Halas was signed by the New York Yankees however a hip harm restricted his profession to simply two singles in 12 video games. His transient tenure for granted fielder was punctuated by a run-in with Detroit Tigers legend Ty Cobb, who grew to become a good friend.
Armed with a bachelor’s diploma in civil engineering from Illinois, Halashe then discovered a job within the bridge design division of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad — and time to play on a Hammond, Ind., soccer group that confronted Jim Thorpe and the Canton Bulldogs. (Halas and Thorpe usually are not solely enshrined within the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, however the facility is situated on George Halas Drive and there’s a statue of Thorpe in its rotunda.)
Sept. 17, 1920: American Professional Football Association founder
By March 28, 1920, Halas was aboard a practice to Decatur as a brand new worker of A.E. Staley Co.
“I would learn how to make starch, putting my engineering and chemical training to use and (start) a lifetime career in the fast-growing concern,” he wrote in “Halas by Halas.”
But that’s not all. Halas was additionally tasked with recruiting gamers, teaching and enjoying for the corporate’s soccer group.
“I was elated,” he stated. “I saw the offer as an exciting opportunity but did not suspect the tremendous future Mr. Staley was opening for me.”
Professional soccer was utterly unorganized on the time. Teams referred to as or wrote to arrange a sport, marketed it rapidly, then collected what they might from the small crowds that confirmed up.
Halas wrote to Ralph Hay, proprietor of the organized Canton Bulldogs, expressing his perception {that a} league wanted to be fashioned. Hay replied he agreed. Soon, homeowners from groups in Akron, Cleveland and Dayton had been on board.
Representatives of 12 groups — together with a 25-year-old Halas for the Decatur Staleys — met in Hay’s car dealership showroom in Canton, Ohio, on Sept. 17, 1920. The American Professional Football Association, which might turn out to be the National Football League, was born throughout that two-hour dialogue.
The Decatur Staleys proclaimed themselves the brand new league’s champions after a 0-0 tie in opposition to Akron at Wrigley Field on Dec. 12, 1920. The subsequent 12 months, the Chicago ballpark grew to become the group’s new house.
On Jan. 28, 1922, the two-time championship group grew to become the Chicago Bears. Halas took on two partnerships. The first one break up possession duties 50-50 with Ed “Dutch” Sternaman. Then, simply weeks later, Halas married Wilhemina “Min” Bushing, who had heckled him throughout a highschool sport years earlier.
Nov. 22, 1925: Signs Red Grange
Halas selected not solely the performs and colours of the University of Illinois — his alma mater — for the Bears but in addition its star participant.
He signed Wheaton native Harold “Red” Grange, who left faculty after the ultimate sport of his junior 12 months in 1925, which was exceptional on the time. Grange performed his first sport with the Bears solely 4 days after his ultimate sport as a collegian, becoming a member of Halas and his crew for his or her annual Thanksgiving sport in opposition to the Cardinals. Most Bears video games drew about 5,000 followers, however 36,000 packed Wrigley Field to get a glimpse of Grange. The Bears and Cardinals fought to a scoreless tie, with Grange gaining 36 yards on the bottom.
Then got here two barnstorming excursions. Although the crowds weren’t at all times as massive or enthusiastic as they’d have preferred, the tour positively generated publicity — and cash. The Bears earned their first dividend and Grange — the primary professional soccer participant to have an agent — reaped bonuses.
“Red came to the Bears famous,” Halas wrote in his autobiography. “Ten weeks later he was rich.”
There was a push to provide Grange a one-third share of the group, however Halas refused. Grange left the Bears for a 12 months to turn out to be participant/proprietor of the American Football League’s New York Yankees. That league folded after a 12 months after which the group did, too, however not earlier than Grange sustained a extreme harm to his knee in a sport in opposition to the Bears. He considered retiring, however Halas persuaded Grange to return to the Bears in 1929.
After making a deal with to finish the 1933 title sport and provides the Bears their second consecutive championship, he toughed out yet another season earlier than his knee gave out for good. Grange served as an assistant coach for the Bears for 3 seasons, then as radio play-by-play man for 14 years whereas going into the actual property and insurance coverage companies. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1951 and the Pro Football Hall of Fame, with Halas, in 1963. Grange died at 87 on Jan. 28, 1991, at his retirement house in Lake Wales, Fla.
Dec. 27, 1929: Steps away from teaching for the primary time
Halas’ entrepreneurship led him to create an expert basketball group (the short-lived Chicago Bruins of the American Basketball League) and put money into shares and actual property. Soon he would work with Tribune sports activities editor Arch Ward to create the All-Star Charity Football Game, which pitted the Bears in opposition to a group of school gamers.
The fall introduced not solely a shedding season (4-8-2) for the Bears, but in addition a inventory market collapse.
It was time for reevaluation. Halas’ enjoying days had ended, however extra change was wanted.
“The time had come for Dutch and me to stop coaching, or, more accurately, miscoaching,” Halas wrote in his autobiography. “We had to put coaching under one mind. We decided to bring in someone who would pull the team together.”
They employed Ralph Jones, who had been the soccer coach at Lake Forest Academy for a decade. His groups went 82-8, averaging 30 factors to 4 by opponents.
Jones ran the Bears for 3 seasons — posting a 24-10-7 report — and received a title in 1932. He was the daddy of the T-formation, an innovator credited with being the primary coach to place the quarterback underneath heart.
The monetary losses incurred through the Great Depression, nonetheless, noticed Halas resume teaching duties in an effort to save lots of on wage. By then he had possession of the group after shopping for Sternaman’s shares in 1931. The 1933 group went 10-2-1 and defeated the New York Giants 23-21 within the NFL’s first championship sport. Bears rookie kicker Jack Manders had 11 factors.
Jones grew to become Lake Forest College’s soccer (1933-48) and basketball (1933-39, 1945-46) coach.
Dec. 8, 1940: NFL title sport — Bears 73, Redskins 0
Innovation introduced a contemporary period to the NFL. Halas was the primary head coach to carry day by day observe periods, use movie examine to review opponents, schedule a barnstorming tour and have his video games broadcast on radio, in accordance with the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
With his first decide within the league’s first draft in 1935, Halas chosen Joe Stydahar. When it was urged his group may benefit from putting an assistant excessive within the stands to get a greater view of the sector — and the opposing group’s setup — he put in a cellphone line there on to the coach.
Halas’ plan for the championship sport, wherein the Bears met the Redskins at Griffith Stadium in Washington, was formidable. During the 2 weeks prior, he and his teaching group dissected the opponent’s actions.
“We discussed for hours which of our plays might be most effective against the Washington defense,” he wrote in “Halas by Halas.” “We stayed up all night to review again the game movies. We chose about twenty plays. We selected other plays to fit every conceivable pertinent defense Washington might adopt.”
The preparation not solely labored, however resulted in a blowout.
“All thirty-three Bears saw action in the game. Ten players scored a touchdown One had made two,” Halas wrote. “We used so many kickers that one sports writer said he was waiting for us to bring on Mrs. O’Leary’s cow.”
In probably the most lopsided championship sport in NFL historical past, perhaps in sports activities historical past, the Bears beat the Redskins 73-0 earlier than 37,034 followers. The winners acquired $836 every and the losers took in $606. Many different groups quickly copied the Bears’ fashion of play.
“In the welter of records in this one-sided triumph by Chicago’s Bears over Washington’s Redskins, compounded from 11 touchdown for 73 points, (Sid) Luckman’s generalship unquestionably was the factor which smashed Washington’s defenses,” Tribune reporter Wilfrid Smith wrote. “Not since the British sacked this city more than a 100 years ago has Washington seen such a rout.”
Two years later, Halas once more departed from teaching the Bears. This time it was to rejoin the Navy — practically 1 / 4 century after he was discharged — as a lieutenant commander. Luke Johnsos and Hunk Anderson had been left in command of the group.
“Halas hasn’t answered his country’s call on a sudden impulse,” Ward wrote in his “In the Wake of the News” column. “He has been planning the move since that day at Comiskey park in December 1941, when the Bears-Cardinal game was interrupted momentarily by the announcement that (Japan) had attacked Pearl Harbor.”
The 47-year-old was despatched to a base in Norman, Okla., then grew to become welfare and recreation officer for the Seventh Fleet in Australia. As commander, he was awarded a Bronze Star by Adm. Chester W. Nimitz and later was made a captain within the Navy Reserve.
May 27, 1968: Retires as all-time winningest NFL coach
Halas stepped away from teaching briefly within the Nineteen Fifties, however determined to again away utterly in 1968.
“I have made this decision with considerable reluctance, but no regrets,” the 73-year-old veteran advised a shocked crowd on May 27, 1968. “There was a powerful temptation to proceed for one more season. Next 12 months is the Bears’ golden jubilee and I want to have been on the sector in 1969 rounding out 50 years as a participant and a coach.
“But sensible realities, I’m stepping apart now as a result of I can not sustain with the bodily calls for of teaching the group on Sunday afternoons.
“The arthritic condition in my hip has progressed to the point where I simply cannot move quickly enough on the sidelines.”
In 40 seasons as head coach, Halas compiled one in every of soccer’s most wonderful information. He coached the Bears to 6 world championships, together with his final title in 1963 at age 68. In his solely look within the Pro Bowl as a coach in 1964, he led the Western group to victory over the Eastern division All-Stars.
Halas had 318 regular-season wins and 324 whole victories. Only former Miami Dolphins coach Don Shula has extra NFL wins. Halas’ groups misplaced 148 video games and tied 31 instances.
Seven of his groups misplaced just one sport and two had excellent information: in 1934 with 13-0 and 1942 with 11-0. Only 6 of his 40 groups completed beneath the .500 mark.
Halas hand-picked his successor, Jim Dooley.
Dec. 16, 1979: ‘Mugs’ dies
George “Mugs” Halas Jr., the youngest of Halas’ two youngsters, was anticipated to take over the Bears after their father died.
“I just assumed he would be the one to take over for my dad, and that put me in a great position,” Virginia McCaskey advised the Tribune. “I would be able to enjoy all the perks and not have any of the problems. But God had other plans for all of us.”
She and her husband, Edward McCaskey, moved to Des Plaines, the place they raised 11 youngsters.
Mugs died at 54 of a coronary heart assault, the identical ailment that killed their mom in 1966. This left Halas with out his solely son, who was group president and his solely plan for succession. Just as Halas didn’t anticipate his first youngster to be a woman, he additionally didn’t plan for her to inherit the group.
Still, her objective had at all times been to affix the household enterprise. When she graduated from Philadelphia’s Drexel University in 1943 with a level in Secretarial Studies, her aspiration was to work for one govt — her father.
“Dad finally got around to his estate planning,” Virginia McCaskey stated in “A Lifetime of Sundays.” “There was a small paragraph that ‘in matters relating to football operations, Virginia would have the final word.’ And to me that was his vote of confidence.”
Jan. 20, 1982: Names Mike Ditka head coach
As a participant, Ditka was so feisty he punched a teammate in his first professional sport as a rookie in 1961 as a result of he thought he wasn’t attempting. Next, he feuded with Halas over quarterbacks and paychecks, leaving the Bears after the 1966 season for the Philadelphia Eagles, the place he admitted consuming practically ruined his life.
Resurrected by coach Tom Landry in Dallas as a participant after which an assistant coach, Ditka aimed for his dream and wrote a letter to Halas asking for a reconciliation and an opportunity to educate the floundering Bears.
Halas, who was 86 years outdated, gave Ditka the chance however refused to call the opposite candidates for the job calling them “losers.”
“I like his ability to handle himself and handle other people,” Halas advised reporters when Ditka was launched as head coach. “And I know he’ll do a good job getting people to play according to his desires.”
Responding to suggestion he was getting outdated, Halas stated: “There’s no goddamn senility in this carcass.”
It was the final teaching rent Halas would make. Ditka stored the function till 1993.
“More than the Super Bowl, the six NFC Central Division titles and 106 victories in 11 years, Ditka brought passion to the Bears,” Pierson wrote after Ditka was fired in January 1993. “He reminded his entire sport that football is first and foremost a game of emotion. Loved or hated, Ditka made Chicago care about football. Unlike peers, Ditka’s behavior never left any confusion over whether the Bears had won or lost.”
Oct. 31, 1983: Dies at 88
Halas died of most cancers in his North Sheridan Road condo on Oct. 31, 1983. He by no means revealed his prognosis to his solely daughter, who was with him when he died. He is interred in a household mausoleum at St. Adalbert Cemetery in Niles. Virginia succeeded him in possession of the group and holds it right this moment at 100 years outdated.
Virginia’s life has been marked by tragedy, which unexpectedly accelerated her profession trajectory and led a former league commissioner to name her the “First Lady of the NFL.”
In addition to Halas, Virginia’s mom died of a coronary heart assault in 1966. The similar ailment killed her youthful brother in 1979. Virginia’s husband of 60 years died in 2003. She’s outlived two of her personal youngsters and one in every of her favourite Bears gamers, Walter Payton.
She advised the Tribune in 1983 she and her father talked ceaselessly about the way forward for the group over the past month of his life, however that there was a “gap” of their conversations that left some questions unanswered.
“More than most people, he considered himself immortal,” McCaskey stated.
Those who know the famously non-public Bears proprietor suppose she’s carried on her father’s needs.
“Virginia and the McCaskey family inherited the Bears without any experience, without much background, without any expectation, without any real desire on Virginia’s part, but she’s made it her lifelong, solemn duty to do what she thinks her father would want her to do,” Pierson advised the Tribune earlier this 12 months. “She cherishes that legacy and she’s done a terrific job of trying to maintain that legacy.”
Does Pierson suppose McCaskey will ever promote the group her father established in Chicago?
“As long as she’s alive, the Bears will never be sold,” he stated.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com