Tag: Chicago Bears

Nov272013 by Chris HolmesNo Comments
Football Friday: Thanksgiving’s Best NFL Teams

Football Friday: Thanksgiving’s Best NFL Teams

Football Friday, Sports
Thanksgiving turkey and the National Football League -- one of the finest traditions in all of American sports. And, as it turns out, one of the longest-lived as well. Since the NFL's inception in 1920, at least one game has been played every Thanksgiving, and since 2006 three are played. Most fans associate the Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys with the now-dubbed Thanksgiving Classic series, and for good reason. The Lions and Cowboys have played the most Thanksgiving games ever, with 72 and 44 respectively through the 2012 season. Following behind are the Green Bay Packers (34), Chicago Bears (31), and Arizona Cardinals (23). Of these five teams, however, only the Cowboys and Bears sport a winning Thanksgiving record. Here are the ten NFL teams with the most wins and highest win...
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Sep42013 by Chris HolmesNo Comments
Ranking the Greatest Ever NFL Franchises, 1920-2012

Ranking the Greatest Ever NFL Franchises, 1920-2012

Featured Posts, Sports
Note: Newer franchise rankings can be found on my Sports Lists page. For several years I've been giving a lot of thought to how all of the NFL franchises are ranked in terms of the best ever. And one major fault I find with even the best ranking systems is that they invariably omit anything that happened before the advent of the Super Bowl, aka the dawn of the NFL's Modern Era. So while a lot of franchises boast proud histories prior to the late '60s, it's as if all those achievements didn't count in the eyes of most sportswriters or even fans. So instead of complaining about it, I've decided to do something about it. Namely, I've developed my own mathematical formula for determining which teams are the best (and worst) in NFL history. No personal bias, no favoritism, just cold, ...
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Apr192013 by Chris HolmesNo Comments
Retired NFL Jersey Numbers: NFC North

Retired NFL Jersey Numbers: NFC North

Football Friday, Sports
Since it’s the off-season I thought I’d start a fun project involving NFL history. So I’m going to go division by division and post football card galleries (when available) featuring all NFL players who have had their jersey numbers retired by their teams. This week it’s the four squads of the NFC North — the Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers, and Minnesota Vikings. Previous galleries: AFC East, NFC East, AFC North Chicago Bears (13) #3 -- Bronko Nagurski #5 -- George McAfee #7 -- George Halas I couldn't find a card from Halas's playing days, but how could I leave off Papa Bear? #28 -- Willie Galimore Galimore was killed in an automobile accident on July 27, 1964 in Rensselaer, Indiana at the age of 29 with teammate Bo Farrington. #34 -- Walter Payton
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Nov22012 by Chris HolmesNo Comments
Football Friday — Vintage NFL Team Media Guides and Yearbooks, Part 1

Football Friday — Vintage NFL Team Media Guides and Yearbooks, Part 1

Football Friday, Sports
Thanks to Hurricane Sandy, there almost wasn't a Football Friday post this week. But I couldn't let that happen to you, my faithful fans and readers. But I will compromise and just give you a gallery of some classic NFL team media guide/yearbook covers. Consider this a preview of the next permanent section of the main site; a sister gallery to my AFL game program exhibit if you will. (more…)
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Sep282012 by Chris Holmes1 Comment
Football Friday: Life Magazine’s Look at the NFL of 1960

Football Friday: Life Magazine’s Look at the NFL of 1960

Football Friday, Sports
This is one of the cooler sports photo galleries I've put together for you. This is a combination of published and unpublished images for a Life magazine article on the NFL and the ascent of pro football as a spectator sport. It ran in their December 5, 1960 issue and was called "Fans Go Ga-Ga Over Pro Football." The pictures in this gallery were taken by George Silk during the 1960 NFL season and seem to come from X main sources -- four New York Giants home games (against the Philadelphia Eagles, Pittsburgh Steelers, St. Louis Cardinals, and Washington Redskins), a Giants film session, and a game between the Chicago Bears and Baltimore Colts (which I believe to be a home game for the Colts). Included here is a photo of Eagles linebacker creaming the Giants' Frank Gifford. I don'...
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Aug172012 by Chris Holmes1 Comment
The Best and Worst NFL Logos (NFC North)

The Best and Worst NFL Logos (NFC North)

Sports
With the 2012 National Football League season nearly upon us, now is as good a time as any to obsess once again on one of my favorite topics — logos. So I’m going to offer up my choices for the best and worst team logos for all 32 current NFL franchises. Primary, alternate, and helmet logos listed on Chris Creamer’s outstanding logo website are all under consideration. Today I look at the four squads of the NFC’s North division. Previous entries: AFC East, NFC East, AFC North Chicago Bears Best This a slightly modified version of the alternate logo used from 1963 - 1992. I was surprised to learn that Chicago went so many years without a logo at all, but they nailed it with this one. Worst I'm gonna cut the Bears some slack for their cutesy early logos, but there's no excuse
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Dec162011 by Chris Holmes2 Comments
Football Friday: The NFL, Its Logos, and You (1964 Style)

Football Friday: The NFL, Its Logos, and You (1964 Style)

Football Friday, Sports
First, big site news. My latest project -- a comprehensive gallery of every American Football League program ever -- is underway. So far I only have cover images from the 1960 season up, but more will follow before too long. Check it out here. In searching for more cover images for the project, I stumbled across a very cool piece of 1960s ephemera from the NFL. The Packerville blog posted scans from a 1964 NFL publication called The NFL and You. The purpose of the booklet was to convince up-and-coming football players (and perhaps league veterans) that the NFL was the way to go, and not the "inferior" AFL. The whole post is worth reading but two pages caught my eye. The cover image is a very cool snapshot of the helmets from all 14 NFL franchises in '64. Many of them have changed ver...
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Nov252011 by Chris HolmesNo Comments
Football Friday: November 25, 1951 — The Day the Flags Flew

Football Friday: November 25, 1951 — The Day the Flags Flew

Football Friday, Sports
Browns punter Horace Gillom was ejected after punching Wayne Hansen of the Bears in retaliation for an earlier hit. Today marks the 60th anniversary of one of the more ignominious contests in the annals of the NFL. On November 25, 1951 the Chicago Bears met the defending NFL champion Cleveland Browns at venerable Cleveland Municipal Stadium and made league history. The Browns crushed the Bears 42-21 thanks in part to an amazing six Dub Jones touchdowns, but the stat that is even more eye-popping is the penalty line. Here are the game totals: Chicago Bears -- 16 penalties, 165 yards Cleveland Browns -- 21 penalties, 209 yards As a Raiders fan I'm familiar with penalties, and 37 of them are a lot. There was one flag thrown every 96 seconds on average on that day. During one driv...
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