The wait is nearly over for Chicago Bears fans who have been clamoring for the organization to go back to their orange jerseys this season. Earlier this year the team hinted at the return to the orange look by simply putting an all-orange photo as their avatar on social media. On Monday the team announced on Friday, June 15 the team will be unveiling the orange look for this upcoming season.
At the NFL Owner's Meetings in Orlando earlier this year, team chairman George McCaskey announced the team was going back to that look this year. Chicago's alternate jersey the last few seasons have been their Monsters of the Midway throwbacks.
Chicago originally wore an orange jersey with navy pants beginning in the 1930s. Previous to that season it had worn navy jerseys with vertical orange stripes. In 1932 the team began putting numbers on the front of the jersey and transition to an orange jersey with navy numbers trimmed in white with black stripes on the arm. The team wore the jersey sporadically throughout that decade and, according to ChicagoBears.com, "the jersey was 'so loud' that stories are told about crowds in New York booing the jersey."
The Bears brought back those 1930s jerseys for a Thanksgiving game against the Dallas Cowboys in 2003 before debuting a new orange jersey that looked like their traditional home navy jerseys and away white jerseys. The team wore those orange jerseys a handful of times throughout the mid-2000s before the NFL made the switch from Reebox to Nike. In 2012 the Bears got rid of the orange jerseys, making way for their Monsters of the Midway throwback jerseys that debuted that fall.
I hated the previous versions of the orange jerseys so I hope whatever latest and greatest version they're coming up with doesn't suck.