30 Day Challenge: Earliest Chicago Bears Memory

[Boris13c]

30 Day Challenge: Earliest Chicago Bears Memory

All us writers drew straws to see who would get which day of the Challenge, and I drew June 1. As fate would have it, I was also first two years ago and I covered this very topic.

To summarize what I wrote then, watching Walter Payton run the ball was my earliest Bears’ memory. In my opinion, Payton is the greatest football player to ever play the game. He could do anything on a football field and he had so much fun doing it. Watching him run with speed, power and exuberance, is the first thing I recall about the Bears.

If you want the extended version on my earliest Bears’ memory, you can check out my article from 2015, but maybe it’s best you don’t. I discuss a dark time in my youth, back when I wasn’t a Bears’ fan.

Now it’s your turn...

What is your earliest Chicago Bears’ memory?

long long ago when I was an innocent wee lad in grade school, I was just in my early learning phases for sports ... and when I was in the 3rd grade (I think), my Bears education got an accelerated boost because a member of the Bears and his family moved next door to me

I don't remember his name, hard as I try ... I do remember becoming friends with his son in school (I remember his name - Brian) before ever meeting him or knowing who he was ... I remember he was a lineman ... I remember he seemed like a giant ... and I remember him taking his son and his son's friends on a tour of Soldier Field one summer ... and I was awestruck

my first look at Soldier Field was almost overwhelming and it seemed like a magical place ... one of those fairy tale like castles ... and he introduced us to other folks (maybe they were players, maybe they were just team employees) ... and I remember lots of ice cream at the end of the tour ... and I remember that being the start of my team love and NFL fandom and a day I never completely forgot and never will (I hope)

[wab]

My grandfather's brother-in-law (some sort of great uncle to me I guess) used to work in the PR dept for the Cardinals when they played in STL. I remember going to a game when I was maybe 5 or 6 and seeing Walter Payton play for the first time. I didn't know anything about football except that he looked like a god out there.

After the game, we went into the Cardinals locker room (my dad and Neil Lomax had become friends through the family connection). I remember asking Lomax who #34 was and he said "kid, that's Walter Payton...he's the best football player I've ever seen".

I think it was maybe the season before the SB.

[Middleguard]

There was a cartoon on the front of the sports section, probably the Sunday paper (don't know which of the 4) for October 20, 1963. It depicted a cheerful bear, holding a 5-0, strutting left to right toward a sign that said something like "1st place." Underground below him, holding a 0-5, was a weary miner tunneling to the left toward a sign reading "last place." Of course, that afternoon, the Bears lost their only game of the season in San Francisco.

[wab]

I also remember when i got "The Fridge" GI Joe guy for Christmas...I think it was the year after the super bowl. To this day, that may have been my most favorite Christmas gift ever. I still have it.

[Moriarty]

• I had a Walter Payton poster in my bedroom
• I remember the December 18, 1977 Bob Thomas OT field goal in the snow to clinch a playoff spot on the last play of the regular season...and the brutal drubbing that awaited them in the playoffs. My best friend and I were done watching and on to other amusements before halftime.

[Otis Day]

1968 seeing Sayers being carried off the field after the knee injury. I been in this house/neighborhood for short of a year and was the youngest (by 2 yrs) of the boys in the neighborhood. They were all huge Bears fans and most of them had helmets. I thought the helmets were cool as hell.

Early 70s, probably 71-72, Butkus laying the smackdown on Lions TE, Charlie Sanders.

[o-pus #40 in B major]

I graduated from grade school in '65 and didn't have to look very hard for an NFL hero.

(WIKIPEDIA) In his rookie year, he scored an NFL-record 22 touchdowns: 14 rushing, six receiving, and one each on punt and kickoff returns. He gained 2,272 all-purpose yards, a record for an NFL rookie, with 1,371 of them coming from scrimmage. Sayers averaged 5.2 yards per rush and 17.5 yards per reception. His return averages were 14.9 yards per punt return and a league-high 31.4 yards per kickoff return.

Makes me wish I'd grown up in Chicago.

[Boris13c]

Makes me wish I'd grown up in Chicago.

those of us who did have found it to be a mixed blessing in regards to the Bears ... some wonderful and incredibly talented players without very many wonderful and talented teams

[staleystarch]

I knew pro-football existed in the 60s, but I really did not follow the pro game. If fact I was a casual Packer fan as my parents had a lakefront cottage in Northern Wisconsin. Paul Hourning was a close by neighbor so I use that as an excuse. You could not escape watching a Packer game up there.

Then came the Jets win in the Superbowl and the NFL/AFL became a big thing. The following season I decided to start watching the Bears, they were my home town team after all. I remember watching the first pre-season game in 1970 (I think it was 1970, it was a long time ago) and seeing the famous Gale Sayers on the field, unfortunately he was by this time a shadow of himself and I never got to see him play again, at not on live TV or in person. Well, that my first memory, but not a very good one. Somehow I have been able to remain a Bears fan fan.

[docc]

I remember listening on radio earlier with my Dad and Uncles..I found out later Si Pietro "Uncle Pete" was a bookie ! Always wondered why he had 10 "radios" with games or horse racing and a large antenna in back yard. Guess that's were i learned to love the cigar smoke..
My Dad worked for the city..Park District.. He knew everyone and many Andy Frain managers and helped them as it was done in chi in those days..

My first live game..was my birthday gift.. 11/5
The next day was Bears v Packers..I was 7 years and 1 day old..and we fed those pukes rotten cheese and pig shit Brats.. I was on sidelines as for many games then on. Win or lose..I wore and still wear Bears gear..Yesterday down in Nogales Mexico wife getting dental work (far better work and 1/3 price !) I wore a bears shirt and hat. Today at the office I wore a Bear polo.. In deep..but I did have a Cubs hat on lol
Thumbs up from many Mexican Bears FANS !!!!!

November 6, 1955 Green Bay Packers W 52–31
48,890 IN WRIGLEY !

Great birthday gifts for a little kid..
George Halas retired again after the season..it just didn't seem the same.. My Dad and Uncles were sad..and I heard all the tales of the past..

I was born a Bears and Cubs and even Sox fan back then. Still watch some Sox but really always Bears and Cubs..Blackhawks and then later added Bulls. Never liked..even despised the Cardinals,,who followed me here to AZ..still can't really watch the Crapinals,,

Funny..the first year the BULLS moved to the Stadium I could walk over to the stadium in 1968 after 1st quarter and ushers just let you in..80% empty. Sit anywhere you want kid..

[UOK]

Feel like it was a Bears/Lions game where Cade McNown was the starter. I remember watching the game with my uncle at my grandparents house and the broadcasters were reviewing/criticizing McNown's shitty footwork that led to a bad play.

[o-pus #40 in B major]

Feel like it was a Bears/Lions game where Cade McNown was the starter. I remember watching the game with my uncle at my grandparents house and the broadcasters were reviewing/criticizing McNown's shitty footwork that led to a bad play.

What a wasted draft pick.

[Rusty Trombagent]

really, no one else had the super bowl shuffle as their first real bear's memory? i was five and the kids on my street had to learn it for our block party. i was the fridge. i was extremely skinny, this doesnt make sense in retrospect.

[bearsfaninaz]

Superbowl shuffle definitely mine or that season in general. But the memory that sucks it the most to me is a game against the Packers and Majkowski(sp) QB for Packers was across the line on a TD pass that wasn't called at the time. It's when I really started hating the Packers as a rival and the home town refs they always seem to get.

[ramentaschen]

Of all things I remember asking my parents for a St. Louis Cardinals jacket I saw while we were shopping at JC Penney in, I wanna say 1975?...1976??? I thought their logo with the red-haired bird on it was cool and the jacket had white sleeves. At this time I would casually watch some of the Sunday NFL football games on tv, then go out and play catch football with the neighborhood kids.

So, I think I was a Cardinals fan first because of the red/white color scheme of their uniforms and logo until I saw that famous Bears vs Vikings "flu" game where Walter ran for over 275 yards.

After seeing that I was a Bears fan.

[G08]

I remember being 6 or 7 years old and my family would always take us to our Gurdwara when we were kids. Once services were over my mom/dad/sister would be socializing so I would grab the car keys from my mom's purse and sprint out to the car and turn the Bears game on and just wait and listen until they were done. Hooked at an early age apparently

[DaSuperfan]

Earliest memory I have was when I was 6 years old and I was at a Chuck E. Cheese in Chicago with my Mom in 1985. I remember seeing on the TV that the Bears beat the Cowboys 44-0.

I remember being really happy and seeing everyone around me cheering. After that game, I remember the agony of losing to the Dolphins on MNF - my Dad was so upset. He was living in NY at the time for school and he flew in that weekend just so he could watch the Bears game. The only game he got to see live, they had to lose.

[G08]

really, no one else had the super bowl shuffle as their first real bear's memory? i was five and the kids on my street had to learn it for our block party. i was the fridge. i was extremely skinny, this doesnt make sense in retrospect.

I was 2 or 3 so I don't remember anything but I'm told I was dancing by the TV when it was playing

[Otis Day]

really, no one else had the super bowl shuffle as their first real bear's memory? i was five and the kids on my street had to learn it for our block party. i was the fridge. i was extremely skinny, this doesnt make sense in retrospect.

Fortunately or unfortunately, however you want to look at it, some of us were in our 20s or maybe older at that time. we had been thru the dreaded late 60s, early 70s with this team.