CBChicago Bears

Franchise history

The Bears trace their roots to 1919, when George Halas organized a company football team for the A.E. Staley starch works in Decatur, Illinois, known as the Decatur Staleys. The Staleys joined the newly formed American Professional Football Association in 1920 as one of the league's charter franchises (the APFA became the NFL in 1922). Halas relocated the team to Chicago in 1921 and, in 1922, renamed it the Bears — a nod to their Wrigley Field co-tenants, the baseball Cubs, on the logic that a football player was bigger than a baseball player. The navy-and-orange color scheme reflected Halas's alma mater, Illinois.

Halas, nicknamed "Papa Bear," coached and owned the team for decades, building the 1940s "Monsters of the Midway" dynasty that included a 73-0 rout of Washington in the 1940 NFL Championship — still the most lopsided title-game score in league history. The Bears won nine NFL championships before the Super Bowl era, more than any franchise except Green Bay. Playing at Wrigley Field until 1970, the team moved to Soldier Field, where it has remained since (with a 2002-03 renovation displacing it briefly to Champaign).

The 1985 Bears, powered by Walter Payton, Mike Ditka, and a dominant Buddy Ryan defense, capped a 15-1 season with a Super Bowl XX rout of New England, immortalized by the "Super Bowl Shuffle." Since then Chicago has reached only one more Super Bowl (XLI, a loss to Indianapolis after the 2006 season), enduring long stretches of quarterback instability even as the Bears-Packers rivalry remains the NFL's oldest.

Sources

• Pro Football Reference
• Wikipedia - Chicago Bears
• Wikipedia - 1919 Decatur Staleys season

Super Bowl Champions won (1)

• Super Bowl XX - 1985

Runner-up finishes (1)

• Super Bowl XLI - 2006

See the full super bowl champions list for the winner each of these years.