1925 Chicago Bears season

The 1925 Chicago Bears season was their sixth regular season completed in the National Football League. The club posted a 9–5–3 record under head coach George Halas earning them a seventh-place finish in the team standings, their worst showing to that date. However, the 1925 Bears were the most notable team in the young NFL's history to that point—all because of the addition of college star Red Grange. The Bears started slow, just like in 1924, starting the season with two ties and a loss to Green Bay (the Packers' first win ever over the Bears). The Bears regrouped, however, and won 6 of their next 7. More importantly, the college season ended in mid-November and the Bear's owner Halas signed Grange. Grange was under contract but did not play on November 22 as the Bears defeated the Packers in a rematch. When Grange did suit up for his first game on Thanksgiving Day against the Cardinals, an estimated 39,000 showed up to see a 0–0 tie. (A large crowd at that time was about 10,000 fans and most games had less than 5,000 paying customers). That was just the beginning of 7 games in 18 days for Grange and the Bears, most to enormous crowds. Over 70,000 showed up on December 6 to see the Bears beat the Giants at the Polo Grounds—this was by far the largest crowd to see a professional football team and the gate receipts saved an ailing Giants franchise. By the end of the whirlwind football tour, the Bears were exhausted and feebly dropped their last three games, only scoring 6 points total. Even the lowly Detroit Panthers easily defeated the mighty Bears. Still, Chicago's success spurred by Grange put the NFL on the "map" and may have saved the league from an early demise.

Grange had some success in this season, scoring 3 touchdowns overall. Still, the star of the team was Joe Sternaman who scored 6 touchdowns, threw for 3 more, and added 3 field goals and 18 PATs. Sternaman scored 72 of the Bears 158 points.

The Bears embarked on a barnstorming tour at the end of the season, playing games in Florida, Louisiana, California and Washington, usually against local pick-up teams. During this tour, they played in a match-up against a team called the Tampa Cardinals, which was composed of Jim Thorpe and several members of the NFL's Rock Island Independents. The game was played at Tampa's Plant Field and resulted in a 17–3 Bears win.^[1][2]

Future Hall of Fame Players

• Red Grange, Back (rookie from Illinois)
• George Halas, End
• Ed Healey, Tackle
• George Trafton, Center

Other Leading Players

• Hunk Anderson, Guard
• Ed Sternaman, Back
• Joe Sternaman, Quarterback
• Laurie Walquist, Quarterback

Schedule

Standings

Note: Tie games were not officially counted in the standings until 1972.
* The Pottsville Maroons were suspended from the league in December, resulting in the Chicago Cardinals being named the NFL champions.

References