Chicago Bears Chronicles: The 1930s in the NFL

For the first time in franchise history, the Chicago Bears head coaching duties were handled by someone other than George Halas in 1930. Ralph Jones took over, and the Bears went 9-4-1 under him during his first year with the team. One of the star players that Jones had in 1930 was a rookie by name of Bronko Nagurski.

The 1930 season also marked a first in pro football history as the Bears and Cardinals played in the first ever indoor game. The Bears won that first game by the score of 9-7 on an 80-yard indoor field at Chicago Stadium. The game was played in an effort to help those that had been unemployed because of the Great Depression.

In 1931, the Bears finished with an 8-5 record, and the league had been struggling financially to afloat because of the Great Depression. The next year, the Bears finished the season in a first place tie with the Portsmouth Spartans, and a one game playoff was used for the first time ever to settle the league championship. The game was moved indoors to Chicago Stadium after bad weather struck the city in mid-December of that year. The Bears were able to secure their second league title by winning the game, 9-0. After the season, Dutch Sternaman sold his share of the team to Halas because of finances.

By 1933, the Bears had been struggling so bad that Jones stepped down as coach to become an athletic director for Lake Forest College. The NFL had also decided to split the league in two divisions: The Western Division and Eastern Division. The Bears didn't lose a beat as they went 10-2-1 to win the Western Division. The Bears faced the Eastern Division winning New York Giants for the league title, and the Bears would hold on to win 23-21 at Wrigley Field.

The following year, the Bears recorded their first undefeated regular season in franchise history when they 13-0 as they won the Western Division again. The Giants had once again won the Eastern Division, and easily avenged the year's previous loss by winning 30-13. That game was known as the "Sneakers Game" because the Giants, who had trailed 10-3 at hafltime, wore sneakers in the second half on an icy field at the Polo Grounds to come from behind to win. That game was also the last for Red Grange, who had returned to the team in 1929 and stayed with them for the remainder of his career.

The next couple of years were very mediocre for the franchise with no playoff appearances, but they returned to the NFL Championship in 1937. They lost to the Washington Redskins, who got a very strong game out of Sammy Baugh to win, 28-21. Nagurski retired from the game after this loss, and him doing so had an obvious effect the next couple of seasons.

The Bears dropped off to 6-5 the next year, and were in a rebuilding mode. In 1939, the Bears drafted Columbia quarterback Sid Luckman to be the future of the team after trading with Pittsburgh to acquire another first round pick. Halas had also been working with University of Chicago head coach Charles Shaughnessy in the refining of the "T-Formation" offense. The Bears finished with four straight victories with Luckman as their quarterback in 1939, and went on to an 8-3 record on the campaign. The Bears finished the 1930s with an 85-28-11 record for the decade, and were ready to roar into the 1940s with a yet to be unveiled and refined offensive formation.

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