The Bears at Wrigley Field: Fifty Seasons Before Soldier Field
The Bears played home games at Wrigley Field from 1921 to 1970. Here's how they got there, the short end zone, the big games and why they left.
For 50 seasons, from 1921 through 1970, the Chicago Bears played their home games at Wrigley Field, the Cubs' ballpark on the North Side. They won a regular-season record of 224-91-22 there. They also hosted five NFL championship games and won the 1963 title on frozen grass at Clark and Addison. They left for Soldier Field in 1971 because the NFL wanted stadiums with at least 50,000 seats, and Wrigley couldn't get there.
That's the short version. Here's the long one.
How a Decatur team ended up at a ballpark
The team started in 1920 as the Decatur Staleys, sponsored by the A.E. Staley starch company downstate. In 1921 Staley handed the club to George Halas, who moved it to Chicago and played at Cubs Park. The ballpark didn't officially become Wrigley Field until 1927.
The team kept the Staleys name for the 1921 season. In 1922 Halas renamed it the Bears so it would be linked to the Cubs, his landlords. Pro teams often took names from the baseball club they rented from back then.
So the name "Bears" exists because of a lease at a baseball park.
A football field squeezed into a baseball park
Wrigley was built for baseball, and the football layout showed it. The gridiron ran north to south, from left field toward first base.
There wasn't room for a full field. The south end zone was eight yards deep instead of the regulation ten, and one corner of it ran into the visiting team's dugout. Padding went up on the hazards. You'll hear a story that fullback Bronko Nagurski ran into the outfield wall. It gets told a lot, but nobody has ever pinned it down, so treat it as legend.
For football, the Bears added a big portable bleacher called the East Stand across right and center field. That brought capacity to roughly 47,000.
Thanksgiving 1925: Red Grange comes to the North Side
With Thanksgiving coming on November 26, this one fits the season. On Thanksgiving Day 1925, ten days after his last college game at Illinois, Red Grange played his first pro game for the Bears at Cubs Park against the crosstown Chicago Cardinals.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame puts the crowd at about 36,000, the biggest pro football crowd up to that time. The game ended 0-0. The score didn't matter much. A college star had filled a big-league ballpark for the pro game, and the NFL took notice.
The parade on State Street is a newer Thanksgiving tradition. Here's how that one started.
The first NFL championship game was played here
On December 17, 1933, Wrigley Field hosted the first scheduled NFL Championship Game. Before that, the title went to whichever team had the best record. The Bears (10-2-1) played the New York Giants (11-3) in front of an estimated 26,000 people.
The Giants led 21-16 late. Nagurski threw a short pass to Bill Hewitt, who lateraled to Bill Karr, and Karr ran it in for a 23-21 Bears win with under two minutes left. Wrigley also hosted the 1937, 1941 and 1943 title games.
Sayers in the mud, 1965
On December 12, 1965, rookie Gale Sayers scored six touchdowns against the San Francisco 49ers on a muddy Wrigley field. Four were runs, one was a catch and one was a punt return. He finished with 336 all-purpose yards in a 61-20 win.
Six touchdowns tied the NFL single-game record held by Ernie Nevers and Dub Jones. Sayers might have had a seventh, but Halas took him out before the last Bears touchdown.
December 29, 1963: the last title at Wrigley
The Bears' last championship at Wrigley came in the 1963 title game. Chicago finished 11-1-2 and hosted the 11-3 Giants. The temperature at kickoff was around 9 to 11 degrees, and 45,801 people came out.
The Bears defense took over the game, and Chicago won 14-10. It was the last championship game played at Wrigley.
Why the Bears left
After the AFL-NFL merger, the league required stadiums with at least 50,000 seats. Even with the East Stand, Wrigley topped out in the high 40,000s. You can't add a few thousand seats to a ballpark wedged into a city neighborhood. By 1970 the Bears and the NFL had both outgrown the place.
The last Bears game at Wrigley was December 13, 1970, against Green Bay. The Bears won 35-17. The next season they moved to Soldier Field on the lakefront, where they still play.
The Wrigley years by the numbers
- Seasons: 50 (1921–1970)
- Regular-season record: 224-91-22
- Postseason record: 5-1
- Championship games hosted: 5 (1933, 1937, 1941, 1943, 1963)
- Football capacity: about 47,000 with the East Stand
- South end zone: 8 yards deep
- Last game: Dec. 13, 1970, Bears 35, Packers 17
If you go to Wrigley this fall
There's no football there now, but you can still picture the old layout. Stand by the left-field corner and look toward first base. That's about where the field ran. The short south end zone ended near the visitors' dugout on the third-base side.
If you liked this, the city's other old ballpark has its own story. Old Comiskey Park went up the same year the Bears' landlord's park was still called Weeghman, and it lasted until 1990.
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Photo: from the hellgin founder's family photos (a framed print; photographer unknown).