George Halas

George Halas and the Chicago Bears are synonymous. There could not be one without the other.

Halas created the Chicago Bears, coached them for 40 seasons in four different stints, and led them to eight NFL championships (six as coach). He pioneered the NFL's progress from its early stages. He engineered a profit-sharing plan as the extremely successful Bears propped up the other teams in the NFL when they struggled to make money.

Halas found Mike Ditka as a player and hired him as a coach. He helped create the rivalry between the Bears and the Green Bay Packers. He installed the T-formation that was used by football teams for decades. He found Dick Butkus and Gale Sayers. He named the team himself.

There would be no Chicago Bears without George Halas. He is the only person about whom that can be said.

Halas was born in Chicago before the turn of the 20 century. He died in Chicago in 1983. Thirty years later, the Bears uniform still included the football-shaped emblem bearing the initials GSH to represent the memory of George Stanley Halas.

Halas' football career started at the University of Illinois, where he was a member of the 1918 Big Ten champion Illini team. He scored a touchdown in the 1919 Rose Bowl, playing for the Great Lakes Naval Training Station team.

In 1920, he joined the A.E. Staley Company of Decatur, Illinois, as a sales representative. He also served as the player-coach for the company's football team, and was the team's representative at a meeting held in Canton, Ohio, which created the American Professional Football Association, the precursor to the NFL.

In 1921, the Staley Company turned the team over to Halas, who moved the club to Chicago, and he created a team good enough to win the 1921 APFA championship. At the time, the team was known as the Chicago Staleys.

The team became known as the Chicago Bears in 1922 (Halas eventually came to be known as "Papa Bear"). Halas played wide receiver and defensive end for the team for the remainder of the '20s, and coached it as well. He played and coached until 1929, when he kicked himself upstairs to serve as the team's owner. He became sole owner of the team in 1932. He returned to coach the team again in 1933, and coached the club for another 10 years while also serving as owner. Under Halas' leadership, the Bears won NFL titles in 1940 and 1941.

In 1936, in order to preserve some order in signing players, Halas spearheaded a new rule that would state the NFL (the league changed its name in 1922) would not sign players who had not graduated from college.

Halas signed up for a stint in the Navy in 1942 to serve during World War II. He handed control of the Bears over to former Bears player and Detroit Lions coach Heartley "Hunk" Anderson and former Bears player Luke Johnsos, who ran the club until 1946. Halas returned to the Bears after World War II in 1946 and coached the club for another decade, winning a title in his first year back. He did not coach the team in 1956 or 1957, but came back yet again to coach from 1958 to 1967, winning a championship in 1963. He retired from coaching in 1968 with a career record of 324 wins, 151 losses, and 31 ties.

After retiring from coaching, Halas remained the active owner of the Bears until his death in 1983.

With the help of University of Chicago coach Clark Shaughnessy, Halas created football's T-formation, a structured offensive plan that called for a great deal of movement and strong running out of the backfield. He lured University of Illinois star Red Grange to the Bears in 1925 at a time when the league was in need of prestige.

Halas built the 1963 NFL champion Bears, whose roster included the legendary likes of tight end Mike Ditka, defensive end Doug Atkins, fullback Rick Casares, linebacker Joe Fortunato, linebacker Bill George, flanker Johnny Morris, defensive end Ed O'Bradovich, safety Richie Petitbon, and quarterback Billy Wade. That team remained favored sons in Chicago for the next 20-plus years, until the Bears won Super Bowl XX after the 1985 season.

In 1982, just a year from his death, Halas made a significant move for the Bears, hiring former Bears tight end Mike Ditka to coach the team. Ditka had no head coaching experience but led the team to its only Super Bowl win in 1985, and that created a long-standing tradition...