Here we are nearing the end of the Chicago Bears football season. So let’s dig into a little Chicago Bears football history and architecture of football in Chicago, though I’m not exactly a very sporty girl. In Part 1 of this two-part post, we went into the history of the Chicago Bears as a football team. For this blog post, we will go into some more recent pop culture, especially since most of my football references come from da Superfans and my brother’s 1985 Chicago Bears posters. So let’s start there.
The ‘85 Chicago Bears were legendary. That’s partly because they won 15 of the 16 regular season games. But they also because they had a sense of flair and an eye for publicity. There were photo shoots of the team in character, as seen above, and who can forget the Superbowl Shuffle? No other football team in history has a rap single that got so high in the charts. It was even nominated for a Grammy Award! And let me remind you, they pompously released this hit months before the Super Bowl was to be played.
On our Historic Chicago Bar Tour we reference the Saturday Night Live sketch inspired by Chicago’s Billy Goat Tavern, and of course SNL paid great homage to Da Bears with Bill Swerski’s Superfans. This all-star lineup of over-weight, mustached men in Chicago team attire exaggerating both the victories of Chicago athletes and their coaches as well as the Chicago accent. The sketch ran for the better part of the 90s, showing stereotypes Chicagoans may never live down, but would we ever want to? And could Coach Mike Ditka really win against a hurricane? My guess is yes.
Despite my non-sporty approach to football in Chicago, I have to say, I love da Bears. What I love about them most is that, despite our cross-town rivalry, all Chicagoans can agree to love them, too.
— Elizabeth Tieri, Chicago Detours Tour Guide
