Bear Down Chant

The Chicago Bears' fight song, written in 1941 and played every time the team scores at home.

The Bear Down chant comes from "Bear Down, Chicago Bears", the fight song of the National Football League's Chicago Bears. Al Hoffman wrote it in 1941 under the pen name Jerry Downs, although he seems to have had little connection to Chicago.

Quick Facts

Affiliation: Chicago Bears
Frequency: After every Bears score at home games

Lore & Background

Hoffman wrote the song in the early years of the Bears' "Monsters of the Midway" era of the early 1940s. The team adopted it the year after it beat the Washington Redskins 73-0 in the league championship game, still the largest winning margin of any game in NFL history. After the Bears won Super Bowl XX at the end of the 1985 season, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus performed the song and recorded it for London Records.

Reader's Guide

At Bears home games, a 1993 recording of the song by Bill Archer and the Big Bear Band is played every time the team scores. The Bears have played their home games at Soldier Field since the 1971 season. The song was also included on the soundtrack of the video game Madden NFL 11.