Chicago Bears Chronicles: The 1920s in the NFL

In 1919, the Chicago Bears were founded by the A.E. Staley Company in Decatur, Illinois. In 1920, A.E. Staley hired George Halas and Edward "Dutch" Sternaman to run the team.

Halas, who was the 1919 Rose Bowl MVP as well as a baseball player in the New York Yankees organization, was offered the position of Representative of the A.E. Staley Company and to run the company-sponsored baseball team. He was also named a player/coach for the company football team, which was a typical practice for most startup franchises in those days. He represented the team when the meeting for what is now the National Football League took place in 1920. Halas, who went to the University of Illinois, chose the school's orange and blue as their colors for the startup team called the Decatur Staleys.

Sternaman, who was a teammate of Halas at Illinois, joined Halas at the A.E. Staley Company and became business partners in running the team.

The Decatur Staleys first season as a franchise was an on-field success. The team finished with a 10-1-2 record and all of their wins came by shutout. The Akron Pros, who finished with an unbeaten record of 8-0-3, won the league title on the final day of the season against the Staleys when they battled to a 0-0 tie. The league did not operate on official scheduling in it's first season, which explains why Decatur played two more games than Akron. Decatur's lone loss happened against the Racine Cardinals(currently the Arizona Cardinals), and they prevented the Staleys from winning the league title. The league did not hold any playoff games until 1932, so the regular season champion was declared the league champion. The Cardinals and Bears are the only remaining members from the original American Professional Football Association(became the NFL in 1922).

Because of the financial problems of the team, Staley sold the franchise to Halas for $5,000 as long as they agreed to keep the team name for another year. After Halas took the reigns of the franchise, he decided to relocate them to Chicago the following season where they played at Wrigley Field. Their very first year in Chicago turned into the franchise's first ever league title after finishing 9-1-0 on the campaign. The 1921 season also marked the first time that the Bears played the Packers after Green Bay joined the league that year. They currently have the league's longest yearly rivalry.

In 1922, the Staleys were renamed the Chicago Bears by Halas after the Chicago Cubs baseball team. The Bears claimed the league championship two years later in 1924, but the NFL ruled that games played after November 30 did not count in the league standings so Cleveland won the title.

The 1925 season proved to be a pivotal one for not only the Bears, but the NFL, too. Red Grange, who was a star football player from the University of Illinois, was signed by Halas to $100,000 contract one day before he played his final collegiate game. Most Americans had a negative view of pro football in those days as most preferred the college game which they saw as a pure sport. The league was struggling financially, but the Bears scheduled a barn-storming tour that helped the franchises who had debt problems. This helped the league gain much needed notoriety as well as national attention. Grange would leave the Bears in 1926 after he had a contract dispute with Halas for the first installment of the American Football League.

The Bears still finished 12-1-3 in 1926 without Grange, but did not claim the league title after a second place finish. That would be as close as they would get to their second overall championship for the decade. The team finished the 1929 season with a losing record for the first time in franchise history. This prompted George Halas to step down as head coach to handle the ownership duties, and Ralph Jones took over the head coaching for the team in January of 1930. The Bears finished 84-31-18 for the decade of the 1920s.

Sources: chicagobears.com, bearshistory.com, pro-football-reference.com, wikipedia.com