The Bears hold the NFL record for both the most players with retired jersey numbers and the most Pro Football Hall of Fame inductees, and they have won nine NFL Championships overall, including one Super Bowl. Aside from the Green Bay Packers, the Bears have earned the second-most victories of any NFL team.
The business was established on September 20, 1919, in Decatur, Illinois. It turned professional on September 17, 1920, and in 1921 it relocated to Chicago. Along with the Arizona Cardinals, who were initially also from Chicago, it is one of just two franchises from the NFL’s 1920 foundation that is still in existence. Through the 1970 season, the team’s home games were played at Wrigley Field on Chicago’s North Side; they now take place at Soldier Field, which is located near the South Side’s Lake Michigan. With the Green Bay Packers, the Bears have had a long-standing rivalry.
Halas Hall, the team’s headquarters, is located in the Lake Forest neighbourhood of Chicago, Illinois. During the regular season, the Bears train in nearby facilities. After extensive renovations, Halas Hall started hosting Training Camp in 2020.
History
One of the two original National Football League teams remaining in existence is the Chicago Bears. The Staley Starch Company agreed to sponsor a football team in Decatur, Illinois in 1920, marking the beginning of their 1,000-game career. Then, on September 17, 1920, the Staleys joined the American Professional Football Association, which was later renamed the National Football League in 1922, with George Halas serving as their representative. There was a $100 franchise fee.
In exchange for Halas agreeing to preserve the Staleys name for a year, the Staley Starch Company offered him the franchise, $5,000, and permission to move the team to Chicago in 1921. The Staleys won the league title in 1921. The squad changed its name to the Chicago Bears a year later.
The Bears have always been among the most prosperous and creative teams in professional football. They were the first to purchase a player from another team in 1922, paying $100 for Ed Healey of Rock Island. In 1925, the Bears acquired the storied college All-America Red Grange, and they later played him in front of the first sizable pro football fans. They won the championship in the first NFL game played indoors in 1932 by defeating the Portsmouth Spartans 9-0. They defeated the New York Giants 23-21 the next year to kick off the NFL Championship Series.
About Jersey
The traditional club attire of red jerseys with brown stripes was first presented by the Staleys in 1920. The 1920s saw a rise in popularity for vertical striped football jerseys; these stripes were constructed from canvas strips that aided players in gripping the football, which was essential given that the usual football of the era was a little fatter, rounder, and trickier to handle than a modern football. Only the back of the players’ jerseys featured their number. The Bears adopted blue uniforms in 1923 after relocating to Chicago and changing their name. The colour pattern was changed to navy blue and orange in recognition of George Halas’ alma mater, the University of Illinois.
The squad adopted the recognizable navy-blue uniforms with white, rounded numerals in 1949. “TV numbers” were placed on the team’s sleeves in 1956. By 1957, the NFL mandated that road teams wear white jerseys and that home teams wear dark, primary-coloured jerseys, in part to make it easier to watch games on television.
The blue numerals with orange accent on the white Bears jersey were three parallel stripes, with the top and bottom stripes being blue and the middle stripe being orange. The circular white numbers on the team’s home jerseys received orange trim by 1960; the white borders around the orange stripes on the blue socks had been added. The white borders around the orange sleeve stripes were added in 1961.
For many years, the team was renowned as the only one in the NFL to sport jersey numbers other than the standard block-style ones. While a few other NFL teams, including the Pittsburgh Steelers in the early 1960s and the Houston Oilers in By the middle of the 1960s, the Bears were the only remaining side using rounder jersey numbers from their early AFL days. Though on a few occasions in 1971 and 1972, the team did wear jerseys with plain block numerals.
The Bears added names on the back of the player jerseys at the turn of the century. In 1984, to commemorate Halas’ passing in 1983, the letters “GSH” were added to the left sleeve of the jerseys.
However, since the mid-1990s, a number of teams have abandoned block numbers in favour of numbers that match a particular team font (such as the Denver Broncos, Baltimore Ravens, Philadelphia Eagles, etc.) or, in the case of the Pittsburgh Steelers, match the font of the jersey number with the font of the helmet number while leaving the rest of the jersey design alone.
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To “achieve homogeneity among clubs,” the Bears’ blue coloration somewhat darkened in 2002. The Bears’ jersey had modest alterations in 2012 as a result of Nike being the team’s official uniform supplier. The numbers on the sleeves were moved to the shoulder pads, and the “GSH” was made larger. The Chicago Bears 2022 rookie draft class will arrive at Halas Hall with some new clothing, which will help them feel more at home. The 11 players chosen over the weekend during the 2022 NFL Draft received their new jersey numbers.
Full Team Name: Chicago Bears
Nickname: Bears, Monsters of the Midway
Founded: 1919
Ground: Soldier Field
Team Owners: Virginia Halas McCaskey
Prominent Players: Walter Payton, Dick Butkus, Sid Luckman, Mike Ditka
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