Chicago Bears Chronicles: The 1940s in the NFL

The Chicago Bears were coming into the 1940 season with two league titles in their history, and were led by second year quarterback Sid Luckman. Luckman would come in to master an offensive system that revolutionized the game of pro football.

The Bears won the Western Division crown by finishing 8-3 during the regular season, and were going for their third NFL title. The Bears had to travel to Washington to take on the Redskins after being on the losing end against them three weeks earlier.

Chicago came out in their new T-Formation offense, and the Redskins did not have answer for it. The Bears motioned players before the ball was snapped, and Luckman only threw six passes while completing four of them for 102 yards on the day. The Bears rushed for 382 yards and had eight interceptions with three of them being returned for touchdowns. The Bears had pounded the Redskins 73-0 in the most lopsided margin of victory in NFL history. The "Monsters of the Midway" had arrived in the NFL.

The team finished the 1941 in a first place tie with the rival Green Bay Packers after they split with each winning a game against one another during the season. Before the game, the NFL ruled that should the game go into overtime, then "sudden death" rules would be in place. However, that did not matter as the Bears cruised to a 33-14 win over the Packers to advance to the NFL Championship against the Eastern Division winning New York Giants. Chicago then successfully defended their title with a 37-9 win over the Giants.

The Bears were going for three in a row in 1942, and had won their first five games of the season. However, head coach George Halas left for the U.S. Navy as they were involved in World War II. Hunk Anderson and Luke Johnsos took over for Halas, and the Bears still finished the regular season with a perfect 11-0 record. Chicago took on took on the Redskins in Washington again, but the results were different than in 1940. The Redskins defense shut down the Bears offense, and had stopped them from winning three in a row with a 14-6 victory.

The next year, the Bears got a big boost with the return of fullback Bronko Nagurski to the offense. The revitalized Bears offense went 8-1-1 to win their fourth straight Western Division crown. On November 14 of that year, Luckman threw for seven touchdown passes and also became the first player in NFL history with over 400 yards passing after finishing the game with 433 against the Giants. The Bears faced Washington at Wrigley Field for the NFL Championship, and Luckman's five touchdown passes were more than enough for Chicago to avenge their loss the year before to the Redskins. Nagurski also retired for good after the game, but did happen to get his last career rushing touchdown with a 3-yard run in the contest.

Chicago's streak of making the NFL Championship came to an end in 1944 after finishing second place with a 6-3-1 record. The 1945 season saw the team lose their first five games as they finished with a disappointing 3-7 mark. However, their brief misfortunes were about to take a turn for the better.

As many players returned to the NFL from their tour of duty in World War II in 1946, none had a bigger impact than when George Halas returned to the sidelines to coach the Bears. The Bears would win the Western Division crown, and then face the Giants at the Polo Grounds for the NFL Championship. A record-breaking crowd of over 58,000 watched the Bears beat the Giants 24-14 for their sixth overall league title and fourth of the decade.

The Bears had a chance at returning to the NFL Championship in 1947, but the Chicago Cardinals beat them 30-21 in the final game of the regular season. The Cardinals did the same thing the following year as they prevented the Bears from making the NFL Championship with a key win over Chicago.

In 1949, the Bears finished in second place for the Western Division crown with a 9-3 mark. Overall, the Bears finished with a very impressive 89-26-3 record and 5-1 in the playoffs for the 1940s. The Bears appeared to be at the end of their dynasty run as Luckman's skills were diminishing as a quarterback, and the team had to look elsewhere for help in order to get back to dominance in the NFL.

Sources: chicagobears.com, pro-football-reference.com, sportsencyclopedia.com, chicagobearshistory.com