CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Less than three years before his death in 1983, George “Papa Bear” Halas — the founder of the Chicago Bears and a co-founder of what became the National Football League — spoke at length to WBBM Newsradio. During the conversation, he revisited the biggest moments of his life and storied career with the Bears.
Forty-four years later, Halas’ historic interview has been unearthed from the WBBM archives. Sports Director Josh Liss repackaged the best snippets into a weekly series: “In the Words of George Halas.”
Listen to the series in its entirety via the embedded audio player above. You'll find each of the 16 episodes below.
Episode 1: Halas recalls the summer of 1915, when a stroke of brotherly luck kept him away from the infamous Eastland Disaster, in which 844 people died after the ship rolled over in the Chicago River. Five years after the tragedy, Halas went on to co-found the Decatur Staleys.
Episode 2: Halas shares memories from his brief but surreal professional baseball career. You’ll learn how Papa Bear will forever be linked to the legendary Babe Ruth and hear how he became buddies with former baseball hit king Ty Cobb.
Episode 3: Halas looks back at his Decatur Staleys days and the infant NFL. He explains what him brought him downstate to play football as well as how the Great Depression eventually led to the birth of the Chicago Bears.
Episode 4: Halas reveals how he coaxed a Champaign move theater owner and landed college football star Red Grange, putting the the Chicago Bears and the NFL on the map in 1925.
Episode 5: Halas discusses how an injury changed the career of Red Grange, moving the start running back to defense. Red Grange and Halas went on to win two NFL title together.
Episode 6: Halas shares how "barn-storming tour" with Red Grange helped popularize not only the Bears, but also the NFL. That tour included a visit to the White House where the then presidents seemingly learned about the team for the first time.
Episode 7: Halas discusses falling out with a business partner that nearly cost Halas the Bears franchise. Here's how the Papa Bear kept the Bears in the family.
Episode 8: Halas recalls how the Great Depression nearly wiped out the Bears, taking a miraculous loan to allow him to hang onto the franchise.
Episode 9: Papa Bear recalls the Bears' bitter defeat in the 1934 NFL Championship and how their rival, the New York Giants, outmaneuvered them on the frozen Polo Grounds turf.
Episode 10: Halas waxes poetically about the vaunted T formation that spurred the Bears to their record blowout win over Washington in the 1940 NFL Championship, forever changing the game of football.
Episode 11: Papa Bear looks back one of the Bears' greatest victories, the 1940 NFL Championship Game rout of then Washington Redskins.
Episode 12: The co-founder of the Bears remembers his time serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II and how he was tasked with finding the legendary entertainer Bob Hope in Australia.
Episode 13: Papa Bear discusses his final championship team-1963 Bears- and what it took for them to capture the franchise's first NFL title in 17 years.
Episode 14: Although he coached for the Bears' archrival, Halas talks about his admiration for Vince Lombardi and special reverence he showed for the legendary coach's great Packers teams.
Episode 15: In his entire legendary career, Papa Bear says there were two players he coached who stood above the rest. Find out the duo who wowed Halas the most.
Episode 16: The series wraps up with Papa Bear reflecting on the sudden death of his son George Stanley "Mugs" Halas Jr. Ultimately, it was Halas' daughter Virginia McCaskey who inherited the team after Papa Bear's 1983 death.
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