The Reasons Why You Should Be a Chicago Bears Fan

Palacquard at the Pro Football Hall of Fame Photo by the Author

The newly born football league was in a bind about four years after it started. Playing games in front of small crowds was not generating any revenue or interest. The league was in danger of folding by 1925.

At that time, people were not attracted to the professional game as much as they were the college game. Some of the biggest and most popular stars in the country were playing college football but, when they graduated, they weren’t playing in the professional ranks.

With the pros not paying that much, it wasn’t making much sense for college players to go in and risk their health for less money. They could earn the same or more doing something else. Back then, there was little appeal to playing professional football.

But all of that changed in 1925 when Halas went after Harold “Red” Grange. Grange, a star halfback at the University of Illinois at Champaign was one of the top football players in the country. Halas gave up a lot of money to sign Grange. He offered him an unheard for $100,000 to join the Chicago Bears.

Chicago Bears

Grange accepted.

Getting Grange to play professional football was not only a shot in the arm for the Bears, but it was also a good thing for the entire league. Halas decided to showcase his new star and took the Bears on a “road trip.” He would take them across the country and bring football towards the forefront of American sports.

The trip that the Bears would take was put together by Grange’s agent, a man known as C.C. Pyle. Pyle has the distinction of being the first person to represent a football player as an agent. In other words, he was today’s Drew Rosenhaus.

The idea to put Grange on display and show the country what football was all about was put in motion, and the Bears went on tour.

Halas began his road trip on December 25th, 1925 in Coral Gables Florida. On the tour, the Bears played a total of nine games ending up with a record of 8-1. The most important part of their tour was not the wins but the number of fans they played in front of. An estimated total of 143,000 plus saw the Bears play. The fans got to see a sport they knew little about and liked it.

Soon after the tour, the popularity of the fledgling football league took off, and people started paying more attention to football. And they started paying money. Had Halas and his players not done the tour, it’s likely professional football would have died before 1930.

Credit the Bears for helping save professional football and give us what we have today.