Edelman is working with the Chicago Bears on their quest for a new stadium. I went yesterday to visit with club President and CEO Kevin Warren at Halas Hall, the team headquarters named for team founder George Halas.
The Bears are one of the few NFL teams still owned by the founding family. George McCaskey is a third-generation chairman of the team, with Conor McCaskey in the fourth generation waiting in the wings. Virginia Halas McCaskey, daughter of George Halas, passed away last year at 102 years old.
For a lifelong Bears fan, yesterday’s visit was complete sports fantasy. Here’s what I learned:
- Halas was a great athlete. Before his NFL career, he played for the New York Yankees baseball team. He held the NFL record for a fumble recovery and return for touchdown (98 yards) until 1972.
- Halas served as Bears coach from 1920 to 1930, then again from 1933 to 1968. He pioneered the T Formation offense in the 1930s. My father’s fraternity brother at Columbia, Sid Luckman, perfected the T Formation to such an extent that the Bears slaughtered the Washington Redskins in the 1940 NFL Championship game 73-0.
- He won six NFL championships, the last in 1963 against the New York Giants. I remember listening to that game on the radio in our living room, with quarterback Bill Wade scoring twice on one-yard sneaks.
- Coach Halas was the first to name an African American as co-captain of the team in 1966 (Willie McRae). He grouped roommates by position, not by color (example: Brian Piccolo and Gale Sayers, both running backs).
- The Bears have more players in the NFL Hall of Fame than any other team. Among the notables are Red Grange, Sid Luckman, Gale Sayers, Dick Butkus, Mike Ditka and Walter Payton.
Many of my favorite childhood memories are related to the Bears. My brother and I would take turns playing Sayers and Butkus, trying to run over each other in my bedroom. I called Sid Luckman, the best Bears QB of all time, Uncle Sid. He told me that my father helped him with his homework in ZBT House at Columbia. Brian Piccolo came to speak at my Latin School Varsity Club dinner when he was halfback for the team, the year before he contracted a fatal disease.
The Bears deserve a stadium worthy of a world-class team. We are working hard to achieve that goal, one family business helping another. This quote from George Halas says it all. “Nothing is work unless you’d rather be doing something else.”
Richard Edelman is the CEO.
