Chicago Bears bad luck is a subject fans have discussed at length for decades. It always seems like some unseen force is out to get them.
Sure it’s easy to say that when the team is struggling. They haven’t made the playoffs going on seven years, but still. Even when they were having success things just seemed to not go quite right. Like something was a bit off kilter. No it’s not a bad call here or a busted coverage there. Those are mere instances of how a game can swing. Such things are in control of the players and coaches.
We’re talking something entirely different. Instances where the teams’ present and future were decided by forces beyond understanding. Moments people may or may not remember today but ended up having a profound impact on the founding franchise. Don’t be surprised if a chill runs up the spine once or twice reading this.
World War II interrupts the dynasty
The Bears were at their Monsters of the Midway greatest in the 1940s. Led by Hall of Fame quarterback Sid Luckman, the team dominated the decade to the tune of four NFL championships including the greatest beatdown in league history: a 73-0 thrashing of the Redskins in the 1940 title game. By the end of 1941 it looked like this team could win it every year. They were that good, even flirting with an undefeated season in 1942.
Sadly fate intervened. Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941. America was drawn into World War II. Soon the war effort put out a great demand for manpower. Piece by piece the formidable Bears roster was raided by the various military branches. This included head coach George Halas himself. Even though the team managed to keep winning, they were a shell of what they once were.
“Two key members of the franchise’s war-interrupted glory days were Hall of Fame linemen. Tackle Joe Stydahar served in the Navy in 1943 and 1944. Guard Danny Fortmann served in the Pacific for the Navy the last two years of WWII. And the aforementioned (Bulldog) Turner played in just two games for the Bears in 1945, serving stateside as an Air Force physical training instructor.
The one Bears Hall of Famer who truly lost the prime of his career to serve was George McAfee. After two stellar seasons in 1940 and 1941, he missed what would’ve been his next three seasons and most of a fourth while in the Navy.”
Several of their best players saw two or three years of their careers wiped away by serving in the war effort. Though a much more important cause, it’s fair to wonder how many titles the Bears could’ve won had they managed to keep the original crew together.
Johnny Lujack retires right after Bobby Layne trade
One could say the true woes of the Bears quarterback position began here. By 1948 the team knew Sid Luckman was approaching the twilight of his great career. They had to start the search for his replacement. Thankfully first round pick Johnny Lujack out of Notre Dame looked like he was their man. He became the established starter by 1949 and reached back-to-back Pro Bowls in 1950 and 1951.
His presence made it easy for George Halas to make a decision on another recent first round pick. A young man named Bobby Layne. After spending his rookie year on the bench, the quarterback out of Texas asked to be traded where he’d have a better chance to play. Halas granted his request, sending him to New York. Not long after that he landed in Detroit where he would win three championships en route to the Hall of Fame.
Lujack? Fate dealt Chicago a cruel hand there. Three years after Layne was traded, he abruptly retired at the age of 27. The reason being he had a chance to become the head coach at his alma mater of Notre Dame, an opportunity that never materialized. To really rub salt in the wound, the same year Lujack retired (1952) was the same year Layne won his first championship.
Coin toss sends Terry Bradshaw to Pittsburgh
Continuing the QB nightmares, the next case of gutwrenching misfortune came in 1970. Despite finishing the 1969 season 1-13, the worst record in franchise history, it still wasn’t enough to guarantee the Bears the #1 overall pick. The Pittsburgh Steelers finished with an identical record. In those days a tie wasn’t decided by factors like head-to-heads or division records. It was decided by coin toss as Bleacher Report indicates.
“So it came to be that the future of the Steelers would be decided by a coin flip in a New Orleans hotel in 1970. Steeler fans expected the worst. With NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle ready to flip the coin, the Steelers’ owner Dan Rooney allowed Bears’ executive Ed McCaskey to make the call. Rooney was following the advice of his father, Steelers’ founder Art Rooney Sr., who always advised deferring the decision to the opponent, apparently for karmic reasons.
McCaskey called heads, and when Rozelle flipped the 1921 silver dollar in the air it came down tails. While Rooney and Noll beamed triumphantly, Chicago Sun-Times writer Jack Griffin bellowed from the back of the room “McCaskey, you bum, you can’t even win a coin toss!”
It was truly a rough blow for Chicago. They badly needed a quarterback after several years of ineptitude at the position. Louisiana Tech had a rocket-armed kid named Terry Bradshaw coming up. Losing the toss sent him to Pittsburgh where he’d lead the team to four Super Bowl championships. The Bears sank into their worst period ever during the early to mid-1970s.
George Halas Jr. dies of a heart attack
Speaking of the McCaskey family, it’s impossible to go a season these days without some Bears fans badmouthing the current ownership. Many view Virginia McCaskey and her sons as the biggest reasons the franchise went downhill after George Halas died. What many might not remember is that wasn’t the original plan.
Halas already had an heir apparent in mind in his son George Halas Jr. The man affectionately known as “Mugs” had helped run the team in some form or other starting in 1950 and he became team president in 1963. After a rough first decade, it seemed like Junior was getting his footing. He hired Jim Finks as GM and the team had made the playoffs in 1977 and 1979.
Sadly he didn’t live to see his work pay off. On the last day of the regular season in ’79, he suffered a massive heart attack. His death was a landmark moment for the franchise. With him gone, inheritance of Halas Seniors’ stake in the team passed to his daughter Virginia and the McCaskey family. They proceeded to buy out the shares left to Juniors’ two children in 1988, assuming complete control of the team that they have not relinquished for 30 years.
Kurt Warner skips meeting due to spider bite
Another stroke of bad quarterback luck? You betcha. Coin tosses and abrupt retirements are one thing but the belief in a curse starts to get really serious when Mother Nature gets involved. According to the Chicago Tribune, the Bears were looking to shuffle the position in 1997. Understandable given they were working with an aged and banged up Erik Kramer, draft bust Rick Mirer and Steve Stenstrom (who?) as their trio.
Not a hard group to compete against. So the team sent out feelers to tryout possibilities including a young Arena League star named Kurt Warner. What happened next is just downright sad.
“AS LEGEND HAS IT, THE QUARTERBACK-CURSED FRANCHISE ALSO LOST OUT IN 1997 WHEN WARNER HAD TO CANCEL A TRYOUT WITH THE BEARS BECAUSE OF SWELLING IN HIS RIGHT ARM CAUSED BY A SPIDER BITE SUFFERED ON HIS HONEYMOON. WHAT A TANGLED QUARTERBACK WEB THE BEARS HAVE WOVEN SINCE THEN.”
Warner missed the tryout, obviously. A year later he was signed as a backup with the St. Louis Rams. Then in 1999 an injury to starter Trent Green thrust Warner into the spotlight. Four Pro Bowls, two MVPs and a Lombardi trophy later he’s in the Hall of Fame. Man, that sucks.
One pick shy of getting Charles Woodson
The draft is a place that often hasn’t been too kind to the Bears in the worst way. A common trend they’ve seen is being just one pick too late to get a bonafide superstar. The most recent example is missing out on Aaron Donald in 2014, going #13 to the Rams while the Bears sat at #14. Amazing as it may sound though, he isn’t the biggest near-miss Chicago has ever had.
That honor goes to a man who ended up being one of their biggest rivals. The 1998 NFL draft was the year of almosts. Not only did the Bears come so close to claiming the #1 pick, which would’ve produced Peyton Manning. They also watched the Oakland Raiders swipe a young defensive back out of Michigan named Charles Woodson.
The man who beat Manning for the Heisman trophy became a nine-time Pro Bowler and Defensive Player of the Year in 2009 for the Packers. This was before he also helped them win the Super Bowl in 2010. Try to imagine if the Bears had gotten him and then two years later drafted Brian Urlacher. An eventual great defense could’ve been one for the ages.
Coin toss leads to overtime defeat vs. Seattle
A lot of people don’t remember this moment that well. It’s shame because it’s possible to trace the entire sequence of this team going downhill to now from this game in 2012. The Bears were playing the Seattle Seahawks. A late pass by Jay Cutler set up a Robbie Gould field goal to force overtime. Then came the coin toss.
There was added importance to this. By that point the defense had been on the field for a long time. They badly needed more rest. Winning the toss would’ve put the offense back out there while giving them a chance to put the game away while momentum was on their side. Instead the Seahawks won the toss, drove down the field and scored the winning touchdown.
It was a backbreaking defeat in so many way. Chicago finished the year 10-6 but that loss was just enough to knock them out of playoff contention. That failure to make the playoffs gave then-GM Phil Emery enough ammunition to justify firing head coach Lovie Smith who was replaced by Marc Trestman.
The rest, as they say, is history. Ugly, ugly history.
