The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago, Illinois. Chicago Bears are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference (NFC) in the National Football League (NFL). Chicago Bears have won nine Professional American Football League (AFL) championships (eight Championships and Super Bowl XX), trailing only the Green Bay Packers, who have twelve. Chicago Bears headquarters, Halas Hall, is actually located in the Chicago suburb of Lake Forest, Illinois. Chicago Bears practices are at adjoining practice facilities during the season. Currently, Chicago Bears holds its annual training camp from late July to mid-August on the campus of Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais, Illinois.
Originally the club, Decatur Staleys, was established by the A.E. Staley Company of Decatur, Illinois in 1919. The company hired George Halas and Edward "Dutch" Sternaman in 1920 to run the team, and turned full control of the team over to them in 1921. However, official team and league records cite Halas as the founder as he took over the team in 1920 when it became a charter member of the NFL. Along with the Arizona Cardinals, Chicago Bears are one of only two charter members of the NFL still in existence. Chicago Bears relocated to Chicago in 1921, where the club was renamed the Chicago Staleys. Under an agreement that was reached by Halas and Sternaman with Staley, Halas purchased the rights to the club from Staley for $100. Chicago Bears dominated the league in the early years. Chicago Bears rivalry with the Arizona Cardinals, the oldest in the NFL, was key in four out of the first six league titles. Chicago Bears' rivalry with the Green Bay Packers is one of the oldest, fiercest and most storied in American professional sports, dating back to 1921. In one infamous incident that year, Halas got the Green Bay Packers expelled from the league in order to prevent them from signing a particular player, and then graciously got them re-admitted after the Chicago Bears had closed the deal with that player.
In 1922, Halas changed the team name from the Chicago Staleys to the Chicago Bears. Chicago Bears moved into Wrigley Field, which was home to the Chicago Cubs baseball franchise. As with several early NFL franchises, Chicago Bears derived their nickname from their city's baseball team. Halas liked the bright orange and blue colors of his alma mater, the University of Illinois, and Chicago Bears adopted those colors as their own, only making the colors slightly darker, making blue to navy, and orange to a burnt orange. Chicago Bears only losing season came in 1929. After the financial losses of the 1932 Championship season, Halas' partner Dutch Sternaman left the organization. Halas maintained full control of the Chicago Bears until his death in 1983. He also coached the team off-and-on for forty seasons, an NFL record. The success of the playoff game led the NFL to institute a championship game. In the very first NFL Championship, Chicago Bears played against the New York Giants defeating them 23-21. The teams met again in the 1934 NFL Championship where the New York Giants, wearing sneakers, defeated Chicago Bears 30-13 on a cold, icy day at the Polo Grounds.
Halas retired as coach in 1967 and spent the rest of his days in the front office. He became the only person to be involved with the NFL throughout the first 60 years of existence. He was also a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame's first induction class in 1963. After the merger, Chicago Bears finished the 1970 season with a last-place finish in the division, a repeat of their placing in the 1969 season. Mike Ditka was hired to coach Chicago Bears in 1982. In the 1985 season, Chicago Bears won their ninth NFL Championship first since the AFL-NFL merger, in Super Bowl XX after the 1985 season in which they dominated the NFL with their then-revolutionary 46 defense and a cast of characters that recorded the novelty rap song "The Super Bowl Shuffle." Since the firing of Ditka at the end of the 1992 season, Chicago Bears have only made the playoffs five times. The club has gone through three coaching changes since 1993. Dave Wannstedt was the head coach from 1993 to 1998; Dick Jauron succeeded Wannstedt after the 1998 season and was fired at the end of the 2003 season. Before Chicago Bears hired Jauron in January 1999, Dave McGinnis backed out of taking the head coaching position.
In 2005, Chicago Bears won their division and reached the playoffs for the first time in four years. Following the 2006 season, the club decided to give Lovie Smith a contract extension through 2011, at roughly $5 million per year. This comes a season after being the lowest paid head coach in the NFL. As of 2007, Forbes magazine has reported that the Chicago Bears franchise is worth $984 million, making it the seventh richest franchise in the NFL.
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