George Halas

• 1. Introduction

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  George Halas was running late in 1915, and that delay saved his life. He had planned to board the SS Eastland in Chicago but was trying to put on weight for Big Ten football. He never made it to the docks. The ship capsized, killing 844 passengers. Halas was born on the 2nd of February, 1895, into a Chicago family of Czech-Bohemian immigrants. His father, Frank, was a tailor. His mother, Barbara, ran a grocery store. They had come from Pilsen, Austria-Hungary. A man from that background, in that era, had little reason to expect a life in professional sports. A role in shaping the entire league was even less predictable. Yet that is what happened. The nickname "Papa Bear" eventually attached itself to him. The name suggests both the warmth and the authority that shaped everything he built.

• 2. Building the Bears

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  Halas moved to Decatur, Illinois, to take a position with the A. E. Staley Company, a starch manufacturer. He sold products for the company, played outfield on the company baseball team, and coached the company football team, the Decatur Staleys. For the uniforms, he selected orange and navy blue, the colors of his alma mater at the University of Illinois.

  In 1920, Halas traveled to Canton, Ohio, to represent the Staleys at the meeting that formed the American Professional Football Association. That organization would become the National Football League in 1922. The 1920 season ended with the Staleys in financial trouble despite a 10-1-2 record, but Halas pressed ahead with roster improvements anyway. Company founder Augustus E. Staley later offered Halas a $5,000 bonus to relocate the team to Chicago. The condition was that the Staleys name be kept for one more year. Halas agreed and brought on teammate Edward "Dutch" Sternaman as a partner. They set the team up at Cubs Park, soon to be renamed Wrigley Field.

  In 1922, Halas renamed the team. He wanted to honor Chicago's baseball club. His reasoning was direct: if baseball players are called Cubs, then football players, who are physically far larger, must be Bears. In 1921, before the name change, the Staleys had maneuvered their schedule to win the NFL championship. They took the title on a tiebreaker over the Buffalo All-Americans.

  Named to the NFL's all-pro team during the 1920s, Halas was not only the team's coach. He also played end, handled ticket sales, and ran the club's business. His most memorable moment as a player came in 1923. He stripped the ball from Jim Thorpe, recovered the fumble, and returned it 98 yards. That stood as a league record until 1972.

  In 1925, Halas persuaded Red Grange, a star at the University of Illinois, to join the Bears. Professional football had previously been viewed with skepticism; the Grange signing helped change that perception.

  Severe financial pressure from the Great Depression forced Halas to become the team's sole owner by 1932. He had stepped away from coaching in 1930, handing the job to Ralph Jones of Lake Forest Academy. He returned in 1933 to eliminate the cost of a separate head coach's salary. The Bears won the NFL Championship that year, defeating the New York Giants. His 1934 team went 13-0 through the regular season before losing the title game to those same Giants.

• 3. The T-Formation

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  In the late 1930s, Halas began working with Clark Shaughnessy, the coach at the University of Chicago, to develop a new offensive system. The T-formation was built on complex fakes, spins, and all-around athletic versatility. The scheme required a very specific type of player at quarterback.

  Halas believed he had found that player in Sid Luckman, a passing star at Columbia University. Luckman had played tailback in the single-wing system, where the tailback handles both the running and the passing. Converting to the T-formation quarterback role meant learning a new position from scratch. Luckman mastered it and played for the Bears from 1939 to 1950, building what became a Hall of Fame career.

  The 1940 NFL Championship Game against the Washington Redskins gave the system its defining moment. The Bears won 73-0. That margin of victory remains the most lopsided in NFL history. Every other team in the league immediately began trying to copy the system. The Bears won again in 1941. While Halas served overseas in World War II, the Bears also took the 1943 title under co-coaches Hunk Anderson and Luke Johnsos. Halas returned from service in 1946 and won the championship in his first year back. The decade came to be remembered as the era of the "Monsters of the Midway."

  Bobby Layne joined the Bears roster in 1948. Layne later quarterbacked the Detroit Lions to three NFL championship game appearances between 1952 and 1954, winning two. George Blanda played for the Bears from 1949 to 1958 and remained active in the NFL until 1975. Zeke Bratkowski left Chicago for the Los Angeles Rams, then signed with Vince Lombardi's Green Bay Packers in 1963. There he backed up Bart Starr and helped the Packers win three consecutive championships in 1965-67. Halas won his final championship in 1963, when the Bears defeated the New York Giants in December.

• 4. Beyond the Gridiron

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  In 1919, Halas played 12 games as an outfielder for the New York Yankees. A hip injury ended what might have been a baseball career. He later claimed that Babe Ruth succeeded him as the Yankees' right fielder. The player who actually took that position was Sammy Vick.

  Halas served as an ensign in the United States Navy during World War I. He played for a team at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station and was named MVP of the 1919 Rose Bowl. That team included Paddy Driscoll and Jimmy Conzelman. Halas scored a receiving touchdown and returned an intercepted pass 77 yards in a 17-0 victory over the Mare Island Marines. In 2018, the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame inducted him for that performance.

  In 1942, Halas entered Navy service a second time as a lieutenant commander. He spent 20 months overseas under the command of Admiral Chester Nimitz, supporting the welfare and recreational activities of the Seventh Fleet. He received the Bronze Star for his service and was released in 1946 with the rank of captain.

  In 1925, Halas helped create the American Basketball League, the first professional basketball league in the United States. He owned the Chicago Bruins, who played six seasons before the Great Depression forced the team to fold after the 1930-31 season. He revived the Bruins from 1939 to 1942. In 1940, the team reached the World Professional Basketball Tournament finals, losing to the Harlem Globetrotters 31-29.

  At a 1946 meeting, Halas proposed an annual charity football game to three senior military leaders: General Dwight Eisenhower, Admiral Chester Nimitz, and General Carl Spaatz. The Bears would host, with proceeds going to armed forces relief agencies. By mid-1957, the charity game alone had generated $438,350.76. Total proceeds from all games the Bears played in during that period exceeded $2 million.

• 5. The Record Books

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  Halas won his 200th game as head coach in 1950 and his 300th in 1965, becoming the first coach to reach either milestone. His career total reached 324 victories. That stood as an NFL record for nearly three decades until Miami Dolphins coach Don Shula surpassed it in 1993 with his 325th win. Halas's 324 coaching wins remain three times the total of Mike Ditka, the runner-up in Bears history.

  Across 40 years on the sideline, he endured only six losing seasons. His six NFL Championships as head coach are tied for the most all time. Green Bay's Curly Lambeau and New England's Bill Belichick later matched that number. He was among the first 17 inductees when the Pro Football Hall of Fame opened in 1963. The Hall stands today on a street named George Halas Drive.

  The Bears became the first NFL team to hold daily practice sessions and to film opponents to find weaknesses. Halas also stationed assistant coaches in the press box during games, covered the field with tarp, published a team newspaper, and broadcast games on radio. He offered to share the Bears' television revenue with franchises in smaller cities. His belief was that what strengthened the league would ultimately benefit every team within it.

  In 1956, the Navy presented Halas with the Distinguished Public Service Award, its highest civilian honor. In 1997, he appeared on a U.S. postage stamp as one of the legendary coaches of the game. From the 1984 season onward, every Chicago Bears jersey has carried the initials "GSH" on the upper left sleeve.

  Halas died of pancreatic cancer in Chicago on the 31st of October, 1983. He was 88. He is entombed in St. Adalbert Catholic Cemetery in Niles, Illinois. His daughter Virginia Halas McCaskey became principal owner upon his death and held control of the franchise until her own death in 2025. Super Bowl XVIII, played after his passing, was dedicated to him. Aircraft from MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, performed a missing-man formation at the conclusion of the national anthem in his tribute.