Chicago Bears
The Pride and Joy of Illinois
The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. They are one of two remaining franchises from the NFL's founding in 1920, along with the Arizona Cardinals (originally the Racine Cardinals of Chicago). The Bears play their home games at Soldier Field on the Near South Side, adjacent to Lake Michigan.
The team headquarters, Halas Hall, is in the Chicago suburb of Lake Forest, Illinois. The Bears practice at adjoining facilities there during the season, and began hosting training camp at Halas Hall in 2020 after major renovations. The franchise was founded in Decatur, Illinois, on September 20, 1919, became professional on September 17, 1920, and moved to Chicago in 1921. The Bears played home games at Wrigley Field on Chicago's North Side through the 1970 season; they have played since then at Soldier Field.
The team have won nine NFL Championships, eight before the AFL–NFL merger and one Super Bowl. They hold the NFL records for the most enshrinees in the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the most retired jersey numbers. The Bears' NFL championships and overall victories are second behind the Green Bay Packers, with whom they have a long-standing rivalry. The Bears reached their greatest modern period of success in the 1980s under head coach Mike Ditka, with whom they won Super Bowl XX in the 1985 season.
The Bears appeared in their second Super Bowl during the 2006 season, which they lost to the Indianapolis Colts. Since 2006, the Bears have struggled to find regular success, going fifteen years in between playoff wins from 2011 to 2026. During that time, the Bears have had 23 different starting quarterbacks and six different head coaches. In September 2025, a sale of a minority stake in the team valued the Bears at $8.9 billion.
Quick Facts
- Character
- Historic NFL Rivalry
- Affiliation
- Los Angeles Rams vs. Chicago Bears
- First meeting year
- 1937
- Status
- Active but intermittent due to conference structure
- Notable era
- 1940s to 1950s
Lore & Background
Originally named the Decatur Staleys, the club was established by the A. E. Staley food starch company of Decatur, Illinois, as a company team. The company hired George Halas and Edward "Dutch" Sternaman in 1920 to run the team. The team moved to Chicago in 1921, where the club was renamed the Chicago Staleys. In 1922, Halas changed the team name from the Staleys to the Bears.
The team moved into Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs baseball franchise. The Bears derived their nickname from their city's baseball team (bears' young are called "cubs"). Halas liked the bright orange-and-blue colors of his alma mater, the University of Illinois, and the Bears adopted those colors as their own, albeit in a darker shade of each. The Staleys/Bears dominated the league in the early years.
Their rivalry with the Chicago Cardinals, the oldest in the NFL (and a crosstown rival from 1920 to 1959), was key in four out of the first six league titles. During the league's first six years, the Bears lost twice to the Canton Bulldogs (who took two league titles over that span), and split with their crosstown rival Cardinals (going 4–4–2 against each other over that span), but no other team in the league defeated the Bears more than a single time.
During that span, the Bears posted 34 shutouts. The Bears' rivalry with the Green Bay Packers is one of the oldest and most storied in American professional sports, dating back to 1921. The franchise was an early success under Halas, capturing the NFL Championship in and remaining competitive throughout the decade. On December 7, 1924, the Bears claimed the championship after defeating the Cleveland Bulldogs, even putting the title "World's Champions" on their 1924 team photo.
The NFL had ruled, however, that games after November 30 did not count towards league standings, and the Bears had to settle for second place behind Cleveland. Their only first losing season came in ; it remained the team's only such season until . During the 1920s the club was responsible for triggering the NFL's long-standing rule that a player could not be signed until his college's senior class had graduated. The NFL took that action as a consequence of the Bears' aggressive signing of famous University of Illinois player Red Grange within a day of his final game as a collegian. Despite much of the on-field success, the Bears were a team in trouble.
Did You Know?
- The Bears' 73–0 victory over the Washington Redskins in the 1940 NFL Championship Game is still an NFL record for lopsided results.
- The Bears played the first indoor NFL game in 1932 at Chicago Stadium.
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