Pro football fans in Illinois are probably familiar with
that catchy fight song, “Bear
Down, Chicago Bears.” The 1941 song about the “pride and joy of Illinois,”
marching to victory on the gridiron was inspired by one of the most dominant
professional football teams to ever take the field. The “Monsters of the
Midway” were the reigning NFL champions, having smashed their way to a 73-0
victory in the NFL championship game, the team’s fourth league title in just 20
years.
The song is particularly fun because of its play on the term
“bear down;” meaning to focus and concentrate; and of course the team’s name.
It would have sounded a lot different had it been written about a team called
the Staleys.
One hundred years ago, professional football barely existed
in the United States. Colleges fielded teams, but otherwise most football squads
were company teams organized by businesses in small cities and towns around the
nation. This was true of central Illinois, where several communities had teams
which played in a regional league. It was this league which Decatur businessman
A.E. “Gene” Staley sought to join with employees of his manufacturing firm in
1919.
It turned out that Staley was a pretty good talent scout.
His employees formed into a team, the Decatur Staleys, and put together a 6-1
record in their first season, winning the league championship. But after being
crushed by the Staleys, some of the local teams surprised the Decatur squad by
insisting on rematches. Staley soon uncovered the reason: they had gone out and
hired “ringers”; talented college football players brought in solely for their
football skill; to work in their companies and play a little football on the
side.
Staley was furious, but soon saw an opportunity. A
championship-caliber football team bearing the company’s name would be good for
advertising, he thought, and so he too began to look for employees who would be
hired for their football talent.
It was then that he met a Navy veteran and University of
Illinois graduate named George Halas.
Halas was already a football star, having played at Illinois
and then for the Naval Academy in the Rose Bowl. Halas set about recruiting
former teammates and foes, including players from the Notre Dame squad, to come
and work in Staley’s plant in Decatur, with a couple of hours off each day for
football practice. The players were paid $50 a week. On September 17, 1920, the
Decatur Staleys were officially founded as a professional football club.
Tickets for one of the team’s 1500 seats cost just $1, but were half-price for
Staley employees.
With the 1920 season just around the corner, Staley felt his
regional central Illinois league didn’t provide enough exposure, and so he and
Halas connected with an established league in Ohio, the American Professional
Football Association, which he convinced to expand into Illinois and other
Great Lakes states. Legendary Olympian Jim Thorpe was the league’s first
President. That year the Staleys went 10-1-2, and took the league’s western
division title with a 6-0 win over the Chicago Tigers. Five of the inaugural Staleys
players went on to be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
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| The Decatur Stayleys in 1920. |
But while the Staleys were a success on the football field,
they were not producing the kind of results the team owner had hoped for in his
business model. Cuts were going to have to be made to keep the company solvent,
and shareholders couldn’t justify spending scarce resources on a football team.
So in 1921, Halas and another star player, Dutch
Sternaman, became co-owners of the team and bought out Staley’s share for
$100. They agreed to keep the “Staleys” name for the 1921 season, and set their
sights on Chicago, where they were more likely to draw larger crowds. The new
owners moved the team to a field on the city’s north side then called Cub Park,
which they would share with a baseball team that was headed to a 64-89 record
and a 7th place finish in the National League. The football to be
seen there was of much higher quality: the Staleys beat a team from Buffalo
10-7 for the APFA championship, their first league title.
Ironically, there was a brand new venue available for the
Staleys in Chicago in 1921, but they chose not to locate there. Grant Park
Stadium had just opened in 1919. That facility; located near the lakeshore;
hosted college and exhibition games, including an Army-Navy game shortly after
World War I, when it was re-named Soldier Field in honor of those who had
fallen in the nation’s defense in the Great War.
Staley, meanwhile, was ready to be rid of professional
football. The team had cost the company $100,000, and his employees were
unhappy with their co-workers who seemed to spend more time on the gridiron
than on the factory floor – and the better wages they received. In 1922, Staley
cut the last remaining ties with his creation.
“Considering everything, especially the interests of the
stockholders, we did not feel warranted in keeping it up,” he explained to the
Decatur Herald.
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| George Halas, 1922 |
While the Bears and Cardinals would prove to be fierce
rivals in the early years of the NFL, they were soon joined by another pro
squad to the north who would prove to be the Bears’ archrival for a century:
the Green Bay Packers. The Bears faced struggles in their early years, including
losing out in attendance to the University of Chicago football team. That
problem that was solved, in part, when the Bears signed the All-American Harold “Red”
Grange from the University of Illinois.
Under Halas, the Bears became a juggernaut. They claimed a
championship in 1924, but the NFL disagreed due to a scheduling technicality.
All agree that the Bears won championships in 1932, 1933 and in that legendary
performance in the 1940 championship game. The next year the Bears won another
title and also acquired not only their famous fight song, but also the
distinctive C logo that still adorns their helmets today.
“I’ve loved sports since I was old enough to cross a Chicago
street by myself,” Halas said. “I’m happy that I made pro football a career. It
has been good to me in the material sense, but more important is that I have
been associated with youth in all my years as a pro football coach and owner.”
The Bears played their home games in the venue which came to
be called Wrigley Field until 1971, when they moved to Soldier Field for its
larger seating capacity. In 2002, the Bears returned to central Illinois,
playing a single season at the University of Illinois’ Memorial Stadium during
an extensive renovation of Soldier Field. The next year, as a salute to the
team’s founding, the Bears introduced their new mascot, Staley Da Bear.
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| Photo from Staley Da Bear on Facebook. |
And it all started on the grass field of a corn products manufacturer in Decatur,
Illinois.
The Bears’ 100th season kicks off tonight with a 7:20 game
at Soldier Field against their old nemesis, the Green Bay Packers.