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Green Bay Packers
 The incredible saga of the Green Bay Packers began
in August 1919, when the Indian Packing Company
agreed to sponsor a local pro football team under
the direction of Earl (Curly) Lambeau. In 1921,
the Packers were granted a membership in the new
National Football League. Today, they rank as the
third-oldest team in pro football. In its storied
existence, the franchise has enjoyed both periods
of great success and terrible failure.
There have been many great Green Bay football
players, but it is two of the team's coaches,
Lambeau and Vince Lombardi, who rank as the most
dominant figures in the Packers's history.
Together, Lambeau and Lombardi brought the Packers
11 NFL championships (including three straight
twice, in 1929, 1930 and 1931 and 1965, 1966 and
1967). The last three titles came at the end of
the Packers's domination in the 1960's, which
began with Green Bay winning championships in 1961
and 1962.
 Lambeau and Lombardi and 17 other long-time
Packers players are enshrined in the Hall of Fame.
Among them is Don Hutson, the game's first great
receiver, as well as Arnie Herber, Clarke Hinkle,
Cal Hubbard, John (Blood) McNally, Mike Michalske
and Tony Canadeo. The great Packers teams of the
1960's produced Hall of Famers like Jim Taylor,
Forrest Gregg, Bart Starr, Ray Nitschke, Herb
Adderley, Willie Davis, Jim Ringo, Paul Hornung,
Willie Wood and Henry Jordan.
Green Bay is a city of less than 100,000 and is
viewed as a relative sports dinosaur because it is
the last remaining small city in the big-city
world of major professional sports. Green Bay is
unique in another way—the team is the only
community-owned, non-profit organization in the
NFL.
From 1937-1994 the Packers played their home games
in two cities. Five of their eight home games were
played in Green Bay's Lambeau Field and the
remaining three at Milwaukee County Stadium in
Milwaukee. Today the Packers play exclusively in
Lambeau Field.
The Packers first played on a couple of small
fields in Green Bay and then in 6,000-seat City
Stadium beginning in 1925. Eventually, the City
Stadium capacity reached 25,000. On September 29,
1957, the Packers dedicated a modern $1,000,000
stadium with a 32,150-set capacity. Subsequent
expansions have brought the Green Bay facility,
officially named Lambeau Field in 1965, to its
current 59,543 capacity. Off the field, the
Packers remain a financially-sound and competitive
and historically-rich franchise. On the field the
glory years are back.
 In 1996, the Packers
returned to the top of the pro football world when
they won Super Bowl XXXI. |
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Chicago Bears
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The Chicago Bears are one of only two charter members
of the National Football League still in existence.
Their 1,000-game history began in 1920 in Decatur,
Ill., when the Staley Starch Company decided to
sponsor a football team. On September 17, 1920, the
Staleys, with George Halas as their representative,
joined the American Professional Football Association,
which became the National Football League in 1922. The
franchise fee was $100.
 In 1921, the Staley Starch Company gave Halas the team
and $5,000 along with permission to move the team to
Chicago. All Halas had to do in return was agree to
keep the Staley name for a year. In 1921, the Staleys
won the league championship. In 1922, the team was
renamed the Chicago Bears.
From the start, the Bears were one of pro football's
most successful and innovative franchises. They were
the first to buy a player from another team—in 1922,
they bought Ed Healey from Rock Island for $100. In
1925, the Bears signed the fabled collegiate
all-America, Red Grange, and showcased him before the
first huge pro football crowds. In 1932, they defeated
the Portsmouth Spartans 9-0 to win the championship in
the NFL's first indoor game. The next year, they won
the first NFL championship by defeating the New York
Giants, 23-21.
 The Bears kicked off the 1940's with four straight NFL
championship appearances. They won three, including
the famous 73-0 annihilation of the Washington
Redskins in 1940. Despite winning nearly 60% of their
games in the 1950's, the Bears did not win an NFL
title and made only one playoff appearance. In 1963,
they broke their 17-year title drought by beating the
New York Giants, 14-10.
Almost all of the Bears' successes on and off the
field between 1920 and 1983 are attributable to one
man: George (Papa Bear) Halas. For 64 years, he served
the Bears as owner, player, coach, general manager,
traveling secretary . . . virtually capacity
imaginable. When he retired after the 1967 season,
Halas ranked as the NFL's all-time leader in coaching
victories with 324, a record that stood for 27 years.
Papa Bear died on October 31, 1983, but the Bears
tradition is carried on today by his grandson, Michael
McCaskey, who serves as club president and chief
executive officer.
In its first 74 years, the Bears compiled a 586-384-42
overall record. They qualified for the playoffs 21
times, won 19 division titles, eight NFL championships
and one Super Bowl (XX). There are also 24 former
Bears in the Hall of Fame, including Red Grange,
Bronko Nagurski, Sid Luckman, Dick Butkus, Gale
Sayers, Walter Payton, Bulldog Turner, Danny Fortmann
and George Halas—legends not only of the Bears but of
pro football itself.
 For their first 51 seasons in Chicago, the Bears
played in Wrigley Field, the famous home of the
Chicago Cubs baseball team. Since 1971, they have
played in Soldier Field in downtown Chicago.
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