All Access: Pompei, Pierson talk Bears 100

Jeff Jonnyac along with Tom Fayer and another edition of Bears All Access for coming to you from P ANDC Studio at Hallis Halls. The Bears wrap up the bourbon a portion of their training camp and are now back in the building and ready to practice tomorrow. We are going to look at the Bears Centennial scrapbook tonight with two Hall of Fame writers, the great Don Pearson now in retirement and enjoy himself, and the guy who's still working,

Damn Pompey. Well, you know you're nipping at his heels, but you're still churning out KYLEA minches so a way to go working just moments before I started the show. As a matter of fact, now I appreciate you coming to halla sauce. We take a look at this book one more time, but before we do that, just a quick talk about training camp wrapping up and what was accomplished.

You know, I think it was more of accomplishing with expectations because last year you didn't know what the expectations were, and you didn't know what you were going to accomplish because we didn't know a lot about Matt and Maggie his staff and the way everything was gonna kind of,

you know, fit together. And then when you look at the end result, I think they went into training camp this year with as high as expectations as you guys were both here in eighty four, probably the highest expectations since eighty five. I agree with that. I don't remember any time it's been this high. I'm not sure it was eighty four, eighty five, I'm telling you, you really

think so, it's just off the charts. I think, yeah, Well, the fans who turned out will verify that because the last practice that was open to the public almost ten thousand fans, So they drew very well over the course or training camp. Many days were you there a couple? Yeah, A couple of days? Yeah, what was your opinion. Well, you know, I thought the defense just looks outstanding. I mean, if it could be better than last year, it might

have taken a step up. Now, you know, I think there's some areas where the depth is questionable, where you don't want to get injuries because that could be a big, big deal. But boy, the starting unit just looks unbelievable. And I think, you know, people were somewhat concerned about a drop off with Vic Fangio being gone, and I

don't see that as being a possibility. But you know, Dan, the national media doesn't seem to be as hyped on the Bears as you know, you listen to different shows, you see them and stuff, and it just their expectations aren't as much as us are the people that have come out to see the Bears, or even the people

that have been able to witness practices such as yourself. Well, you know, I think if you look at the team from a distance, you see, you know, you see questions still about Mitch Trubisky, right, you see people having some skepticism whether or not he's going to be a quarterback who could win games for you consistently when he has to. Uh, you see an unsettled kicking situation. Uh, and then you wonder if the team can stay as healthy as it did last year, because that was the healthiest Bears team

that we've seen. And when was the last time you guys have seen a team a Bears team that healthy. Uh? You can you think back that far? I mean no, no, long time, long time you even think of Super Bowl? You lose Mike Brown and Tommy Harris. Well, they were they were, they were healthy before that point that that kind of got him there, right, but then in the game itself they were without there. Well, Don, was the

history that you've been around the NFL? And Dan, are you okay with the modern day playing of in the preseason games? Because back in the day, you were covering starters in every preseason game. Seven games sometimes? Can you imagine that half a season and ridiculous and the and the regulars are playing. But another fact, But back then, did you think it was ridiculous? Then I'll tell you what. Back then, when they're playing seven games, sometimes these guys

really were getting himself ship. Yeah, there weren't the OTAs. The guys weren't working out all year, they were working separate jobs, so they would come into camp literally out of shape and have to get themselves in shape. So it wasn't that big a deal to play seven games. Well seven games is a big deal because that's when they would play in a college All Star games. So

but in six games, you know, that's a lot. Well, you know, and the other thing Tom could speak to this, guys are getting injured more today than they ever were back then. It seems like now. Sometimes back then they injuries were more catastrophic. You know, you had the injuries that ended careers, it seemed more frequently. But boy, you see more, you know, soft tissue injuries now it seems like than ever before. You know, it makes injuries nowadays

in training camp catastrophic. Is when we went to training camp back in the eighties and stuff, you had an unlimited roster. So you were a training camp with one hundred and twenty one hundred and thirty guys a time. So if a guy got hurt, there's ten guys standing behind them that eventually you're gonna find one of them. Nowadays, there's ninety guys. Ten of those guys are going to be on a practice squad and then the rest of them, you know, it's you just hope there isn't injuries because

they are catastrophic. Then I would like to see the roster has expanded a little bit. I've got a question going back to when you were talking about the transition

of defensive coordinators. Yeah, you will remember this time, and I haven't seen this much about it, But when Buddy left in nineteen eighty five and Vince Tobin came in in nineteen eighty six, although team everybody loved Buddy and everybody was worried about there's going to be a drop off, And I remember the team, the defensive players saying, hey, look, we're gonna play harder than we've ever played before. You know why, because if there's a drop off, Buddy's gonna

get all the credit. Seriously, and the players we want to show everybody that the players. I mean, I think the players today, if it's not public, I bet they're saying the same thing. They all love Vic, they love Vic Vangield. They lived what he did. But if they'd have a drop off, Vick is gonna get all the credit. They don't want Vick to get all of credit. But you know that that's the truth. Yea, it is what happened.

You know, the guy's an important leadership roles when you talk about fence Nick and you talk about Singletary and Hampton in McMichael, and it's the whole crew of guys, but you know they're they're similar leadership on this defense.

You know, you got Danny Trevathan and then you you have what Khalil Mack has brought along and what Roquan is developing into in the influence of Keem Hicks on the entire defensive line and the most underrated of all Eddie Jacks, right, But you know he's such a young guy, but he's a loud voice in there. You would be surprised. Well think he's he's um had the best training camp of any you know, one of all the defensive players.

I think he's the You had one of the best training camps I've seen of a young guy rebounding from one year to the name he got He got tempt there's a w BBM practice ball for the entirety of training camp. You could make a case for Prince Mugamar. You can make a case every snap for Khalil Mack, and you certainly can make a case for all Kan Smith it is a name defense. Now across the board. You got guys on there that our top one hundred

players used to be top one hundred players. You got guys with tremendous stats now coming out from last season. So it's really a name defense requiring a nickname at some point, I would think, right, you know, to me, the bigger issue, as opposed to the defensive players being motivated by the transition of defensive coordinators, is what kind of buttons is put out I'm going to push on game day and his game plans and how is that going to be different? And that's something that we really,

we really don't know yet. We have no idea how you guys might have a little bit of a better idea from being able to observe up close and watching some of the tape for the practices. I think it's going to be an aggressive unit, man, and I think they're gonna love it. I think the player you're gonna love it. You think of the personalities of the four

defensive coordinators, it Vic Fangio and Buddy Ryan. There's similarities between a little cantankerous in front of the media and they're going to answer you, not always the way you want to hear it, the way they want to say it. And we don't know a lot about coach Pagano yet, how he's gonna be at the podium on during the

game weeks in the regular season. But Vince Toben was a little bit um, you know, he was a little bit mellower than than what Buddy Ryan was and the and the way he you know, got into the faces of the players and stuff. One thing I think, though, one little difference is that you know, the players in nineteen eighty six and the Vince Toben era, you know,

they were still loyal to Buddy. You know, they loved Buddy and he was always going to be their guy, right And Vince was kind of you as the outsider who never really was quite accepted the way that Buddy was. Pagano is already I think you love and you know, he's just you can't not love that guy if you're playing for him. And that's been his history, and that's going to be a difference from what we're talking about

the eighties. Pompey Don Pearson joining us as we will now begin our look at the centennial scrapbook that they put together over months and months of research. We've talked about it on several occasions with these gentlemen, once training Camp with Dan Pompey, once Indicator with Don Pearson, and also at the one hundred celebrations, So a lot of discussion about it. It's a great book. Go and get it.

Go to the Bear's website, buy it. It's great to have in your family to pass down through generations because it's all there, it's all encompassed the one hundred year history of the Chicago Bears with Paul's Orang, Our engineer Jordan tread Up, our producer. This is Bears All Access brought to you by IGS Energy on Chicago Sports Radio

six seventy the Score. Welcome back to Bears All Access brought to you by IGS Energy at proud partner of the Chicago Bears, providing electricity, natural gas, and home warranty products to over one million customers across the country. Learn more about IGS Energy at igs dot com. Jeff Joning, Act Tom there with our guests, the Hall of Fame

writers Dan Pompey and Don Pearson. They authored the Centennial scrap Book, which is going to be the bulk of our discussion here on this week's Bears All Access and we're coming to you from P ANDC Studios at Hollis Hall. And every time we visit, I always say, okay, what's being talked about the book? Now several weeks after we

asked you these these questions before. So it's when people get it, they have their own opinions about, you know, where, for example, the player rankings are, or they it jogs their memory about. Tom brought up something the other day and we found out a little more about who was the presenter for George Hallis at the Hall of Fame, which we didn't know. I didn't know. Maybe you guys knew, did you guys know? I know, but I'm not sure I could bring it up right now. Oh okay, Well

I don't know why that would be the case. But Tom there found out and he's got the info. But it's it's stuff like that, you know, he wasn't there, did the presenter? He was George George when he wanted into the Hall of Fame. The Bears were playing out all okay a game I think in New Orleans September seventh, nineteen sixty three, David Lawrence was as presenter who was a politician, of of or advisor to Kennedy. I believe it was Wow. I'll tell you what. It wasn't as

big a deal in nineteen sixty. But you know, if you think of probably the most the most important inductee into the history of the Hall of Fame, it is George Hallis. You know, so that's a just I you know, I was sitting there and I was just was curious. Well, the thing is, that was obviously the first year of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. It'd be like if you started something today and said, yeah, we're going to give an award to somebody, and you know, it didn't

have the recognition that it has now. We didn't understand what the Pro Football Hall of Fame would come to represent at that point. So obviously if we did know, they would have arranged it so that Hellis would have been there and it would have been a much bigger deal in his life. Well, what he accomplished over the course to the rest of the time and what has happened since over these uh many years, is something else.

And you guys captured it in great detail. As you continue to think about what you guys accomplished here what resonates with you about what you guys accomplished and putting this thing together. I think it's just to remind people of the different aspects that the Bears of football, that the Bears have touched throughout the years, and that's why we set it up in this structure. Nobody has rivalries

like the Bears do. I mean, I had somebody who was reading it the other day and they read the whole I think they might have been a fan of that team up north, but you read the whole thing, which is fascinated by the by remembering some of these these old games, and nobody has the kind of the Bear. The Bears and the Cardinals are the oldest rivalry who have played the most games. The Bears and the Packers, who've played the second most games in the NFL, Bears

and the Alliance. No, not everybody knows that. So I think just to remind people of the impact that the Bears have had and so many and so many aspects

of the of the game. Well, and to Don's credit, with the rivalries, you know, we started out the book, uh, not even thinking of highlighting the rivalries, and as Don started digging with some of these things and looking at well, he said, you know, how can we ignore you know, yeah, we were going to write about the Bears and the packers, right, but then he said, well, how can we ignore the Bears and the giants, the Bears and the forty nine ers,

the Bears and the Redskins. Yeah, and you know, the section about the rivalries kept growing and growing and growing, and Don just kept digging further and further. Was there a lot left on the cutting room floor from the rival reach after then? Pretty much get it all in. We we got as much in as I think we

we we wanted to. Uh. That was remarkable about the book, I think, and it's to the credit John Vaselli and the designer, and Mark Vansell, the producer, and Scott Hagel the Bears to be able to accommodate us, because I'm not sure. We kept asking how long do you want this story? How many pages is the book going to be? And it did seem to keep expanding, And for that, yeah, they hardly cut anything. We kept We kept waiting at the end to say, oh, yeah, half of your copies

on the floor. But it didn't. It didn't happen that way. I mean so you did a lot, so not a lot was left out, no period. Absolutely, I mean, could we have done more. Absolutely. You know. One of the things we talked about early on that we didn't do was a chapter on the broadcasters, for instance. I thought that would have been fascinating. You know, you look at the history of the Bears broadcasters going back, I mean, got a couple of pretty good guys. Now, uh, you know,

you go back to the Wayne Larvy days. You know, Red Grange was broadcaster for the Bears for many men. You guys know the history probably better than house brick house and cups in it U George Connor for many years. So you know, that was something that we could have done. One of the things that we've we've thought about, I think since too. You know, we did the top one hundred players. We just did it in list for him. Chicago Tribune has done a very good job. I've thought

of giving a biography of each player. That's something we could have. I mean, you know, there was you could have gone on and on. This book could have been an encyclopedia. I added up the words. Had we've done a biography of everybody, who would have been the eighty thousand words. We ended up with really hundred players, right, because you just wouldn't be throwing statistic you'd be digging to find out, okay, a little bit more about each

because that's in your nature. Both of you guys are storytellers. That that could be, that could be a second a second printing. Maybe yuh, we know another way. We hope, we hope for a second printing up. Matt and Nagy said, yeah, if we do well, maybe he'll have an add endom. I said, no, Matt, it won't be at the end of the book. He'll be a new beginning. And you know that's a funny story. We might be, but we

relate our deadline or soft deadline. Dan and I are not used to this, were used to deadlines every single day. But was in the middle of the last season. So a year ago in the summer, we looked around, we were talking and we said, what if the Bears go to the Super Bowl? And everybody laughed. So they win the division and we emailed each other and say, hey, as we were saying what if they won the super Bowl?

So we had to turn around and add stuff about the twenty eighteen season, and I think we did a pretty good job of highlighting that twenty eighteen season. They're looking ahead, go ahead, And even some of the chapters we had written about the past, we found ways to kind of freshen them up or tie them into something that was happening current currently with the team, or a current player if there was a way to work that

player in. But are you brought up, Maggie, because interests me is when you look at some of the other organizations around the NFL and have a shorter history of the Bears, they have an unbelievable amount of head coaches. The Bears don't have that many head coaches. Did you ever think about ranking the head the head coaches for the Bears? And if you did, is there an obvious number one? And if George Hallis is the obvious number one,

who would be number two? What would be the obvious Yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah, obvious? N right? Uh, all right? Wasn't argument. Wasn't was Patty Driscoll because was he a good head coach? Or he was on a head coach for two years so he wouldn't have You know, the Hallis took three he retired three different times and appointed interim coaches. So after Hallis and Dicken and Lovey, it would have been pretty pretty

tough to to get to ten. I think doesn't surprise you though, there's so few head coaches in the history well the Chicago Bear. When you have one guy that did forty of the hundred years and he hasn't been around for forty years, Yeah, it's it's probably not a surprising, you know, to think that they didn't have as many. You compare it to the Cardinals at the team across town and they they had probably more ex Bear head coaches than the Bears. Yeah, they kept tapping that well.

Thirty seven and there they kept tapping that well. With Chicago ties to Dick McCann, Hall of Fame Award winning writers, Dan pomp pay Don Pearson our guest today as we look at the Bears Centennial scrapbook, take another break here on Bears All Access. It's brought to you by IGS Energy on Chicago Sports Radio six seventy to score. The Chicago Bears Network presents Inside the Bears, brought to you

by Verizon. Anthony Adams and Lawrence Greeden cover the world of Bears football on and off the field every Sunday night, at ten thirty five pm on Fox thirty two Chicago, or watch anytime at Chicago bears dot com or on the Bears official app. Jeff Joni Actim there with engineer pauls Arrange and producer Jordan Up, joined by our guests today kind enough to come in, Dan Pompey and Don Pearson, who authored the centennial scrapbook that is now available for purchase.

Many have already been purchased, but you can check it out on Chicago bears dot com. That's the way to get it, and hopefully it's the only way to get it, the only way to get it, and get it your piece of Bears history. There's so much in there that you're going to enjoy from just the way these guys tell the story. It's not chronological, and we talked about that.

I think that's a significant part of this book because you could easily have done it that way, but the way it's paired with the day to day historical impact of life in general and this world, I think ties it all together very nicely. And then you can type groups of players together very nicely, and I think that also played well in the actual one hundred year celebration in Rosemont in June when we had groups of players together.

I was taken by a couple of things it happened there that and you can read the book to find out more about these guys. But well, when Eddie Jackson was sitting in the safety seminar as we had the round table of discussion we had with Doug Plank and Mike Brown, you know, is a young hip guy looking at these guys tell stories, and he was just he go it just kept looking like, wow, did that really have the Doug Plank hit people that way all the time,

and Mike Brown's emotion, the tears. I mean that those are things that left an impression on a young guy like Eddie Jackson, you know. Jeff's what's interesting is the Bears have got all this great history, you know, hundred

years of history. They've got more history than any more good history than any team in the NFL probably, and a lot of it's just kind of been forgotten about, right and this year, this book, uh, this celebration has been I think a great opportunity to go back into that history and to examine a lot of these things and to you know, wake up the echoes the past. It was really surprising to me. I guess it shouldn't be at my age. I actually got to talk to

Red Grange. I didn't get I didn't cover him, but I did get to talk to him in his retirement in Florida, which is one of the highlights of my career. But it was astonishing to me how many people not only forgotten about the Red Grange Tour in nineteen twenty five and twenty six, they never knew about it at all. They didn't know it happened that this was one of the great things that got or one of the things that got pro football on the map because college football

was where it was at. Pro football was sort of people looked down on pro football players and something that was sort of beneath the dignity of why do you think that is? Part of it was because you know, these these teams, including the Decatur Staley's, there were a lot of hard scrabble industrial teams. They they hired players that were still had college eligibility. In some cases they had high school players. He just didn't feel right right.

It was just the or of college football was supposed to be pure, and you know, Alma Mater that sort of isn't that one of the elements. George Hallis didn't want anybody to sign a player until after their college eligibility was up, and it was probably one of the things that college coaches of this era would agree with with George Hallis from the beginning. Yeah, that was one of it. He said, that was one of his protest accomplishments after the Red Grange, after they did sign Red

Grange after his eligibility was done. But that being said, he did end up signing a guy actually from Notre Dame Tom who we got kicked out of school for being married. So he got kicked off the team and Hallis signed him and Hallis got fined. He said, well, women, he got kicked off the team and they said no, he's supposed to graduating, and Hollis said, okay, then find me. So he agreed with the concept. He was always pretty good about pushing that maybe instituting a rule and finding

your way to get around it. Well, you know, it kind of goes back when I signed in the USFL and George Allen was my head coach. He said, look, don't say anything until the day we announce you, because we want to make a splash in the NFL. So it was a little bit of George Hallis rubbing off on George Allen when I went through the same process, No doubt. I think a lot of hellis rubbed off on a lot of people. Yeah, I tell you first

lady the National Football League, Virginia McCaskey. You guys, A big reason this book is as in depth as it is because you have an unbelievable resource right there, and we've talked about her and her ability to reflect and do so accurately with wit and sharpness. I mean, how great was that sit down with her? Well, I think that that's the main reason the book is really unique. I think we didn't unearth any new ground and find out that the Bears have actually won ten championships instead

of nine or anything like that. We didn't. All of this history has been reported before. We put it in a different context of different structure. But the thing that really was different is to have a Virginia Hallis mccaskey's voice throughout and to think that she was actually on the Red Grange tour when she was only three years old.

She doesn't remember it, but she's been told about it and to have her voice throughout the book, probably more than she would like, but as much as we could get in there, I think makes the book very unique. You know. Going back to what I said at the top of the segment too, about how so much of

the history has kind of been forgotten about. I think Don and I figured out as we've gone, as we went through the process that we had kind of forgotten about a lot of this stuff, and as we did our research and did our interviews, you know, we kind of had our memories jogged a little bit. The interesting thing is she had not forgotten any She remembered every bit of it. Well, I say, did you ever reintroduce or to who are player? Or a topic that maybe

just rekindle the memory and her memory? Bank? Boy, we were talking once and I don't remember one time saying I completely forgot that or that really slipped my mind, did you now? The other were things that she didn't know about that it never knew about, because I'll tell you what, her dad was a very secretive guy. He kept his family in the dark on a lot of issues. So there are a lot of things she didn't know about, but anything that she knew about, she remembered, for instance, Yeah,

George Hellis, I think almost had two. There were two sides of George Hellis, two personalities. We asked her about his salty language, you know, which he is well known for, and she said, well, he never spoke that way around the house. He had one way of speaking at work in another way of speaking at home. And that's kind of how I think he treated a lot of things with his business. He separated the business from the home life.

Would you learn about her love of the game, well, you I think you saw at the Bear's convention when they asked her about memories of her dad. It's it's hard for her to put into words what her love of the game means to her and her family. I mean a lot of a lot of sports teams talk about a family atmosphere or keeping it in the family. The Bears I think are probably the most sincerely legit have the most sincerely legitimate claim to be in a

family organization. It was difficult for her to express I think how important it was. Although you know she said, hey, money, what did she say money? What would money mean? Means nothing? It's the legacy soul. I would you agree, Dan, I think I think the Bears to her, that's her life, that's her. That's yet, it's her, it's her mark. But I think, uh, you know, the other thing that I wasn't aware of is that for many many years, I think until the time her father stopped coaching, after every

time the Bears lost, she cried. She would cry after every game ever, every loss. I don't know. I don't think she does it much anymore. But you guys probably have witnessed a few times. I'll bet well you know I have not witnessed tears. But you know what the loss meant. You could see it on her face because you get on the team bus and you first place you go to with her when they win or lose, and you can it's it's it's heartbreaking when they lose.

When they win, big smile. That's that's the essence right there. But yeah, her seriousness has never lessened about the love of the game and the love of the Bears. And you know, sometimes the different family members that can have an effect on you, but not her. This is Bears All Access brought to you by IGS Energy here from

PANC Studios at Hollis Hall. We're going to take another break Dampon paid Don Pearson with US on Chicago Sports Radio six seventy to score kickoff the Bears one hundred season at the Middle Night Chicago Bears Black Party, Saturday, August thirty first in Logan Square. Open from noon to ten pm and free for all ages. Enjoy activities including food, alumni autographs, photo opportunities, and music from Lovely the Band

and more. This is the kickoff of the season that is a memorable one in National Football League history, certainly one for the Bears. They hope it's more memorable than just that ending in Miami with a Super Bowl win and appearance as this season begins, and these things like block parties, the kickoff a season, or a concert on

Wednesday at Thursday Night before Thursday Night season opener. When you talk about the on page two seventy of the Bears Scrapbook, more than playing a game, they molded a sport, inventing positions and formations and strategies. So that was the building block. But now look what's been built, and look at the different aspects of things. You could even we just talked about it before we started the show tonight.

Hard knocks all these elements if the man was sitting right here on this show with us and he saw all of this happening. We always talk about this. What would be going through his mind? George House, Well, I'm sure he'd be amazed. But the first thing he comes to my mind, he'd be thinking ahead. That's what he'd be doing. He wouldn't be looking behind and saying, look

what we've done. Because I remember when he when he talked about the advent of television, and he couldn't couldn't believe that at first the networker probably wasn't a network, but the TV would pay the Bears would pay the Bears, and he said, I can't believe they're what they're paying us to do this, you know. But but he worried about the impact that that television would have on the gate, for example, so he was always looking ahead. It didn't

affect the gate. It me from time to time, depending on the city you're talking about, but it did allow for almost all of this. When you think about it, the TV money is is critical. Another thing I think he would he would be concerned about as the Bears are and all the National Football League is the future of this board. As far as safety is concerned. I

think he would take it very seriously. He would probably be at as his daughter is, at the forefront of a looking at the concussion issue, and I think Allis would have been right there. You know, with George Hallis chapter five, you said what makes a bear? If he was sitting here and he said, this is my definition of what makes a bear. From the conclusion that you guys came up with is what makes a Bear different than what makes any player from any other team. I

think so, I really do. I think there's something unique and special about being a Chicago Bear, and I think you can define it by looking at the great players in history, which is what we tried to do in that in that chapter you're referring to, I think so many of them brought something that was special and unique in defining I mean, you were a Miami Dolphin, tom Right, what was different about being in Chicago Bear? There's only

one important guy in Miami and everybody in Chicago. When I was playing for the Bears, everybody was equally as important. In Miami, it was one guy and that was Dan Marino. What about the history, I mean, did you feel the history and the you know, the lineage, the you know, the baton being passed from year to year and generation generation.

The only history I felt when I was down there was how often they talked about them beating the Bears in eighty five, and it was it was there that was their biggest victory other than probably the Super Bowl win of seventy two when they finished their undefeated season. It was that was the one benchmark that they had up to that point, that was the most important win.

And there and there, I'm saying, when you were a Bear, did you feel those things that the tradition and the oh yeah, yeah, oh yeah, but you know it too is you know, grown up here, you kind of grew up with the tradition because you never had the opportunity to change of the channel and watch a different game. You were going to watch the Bears no matter if they were good or bad. So I think that's what built the tradition of the Bears, is when you were a Bears fan, you were a Bears fan for life.

I think because George Hallis was around for that long. The thread that goes through the time of the founding and the two way players and all the championships and the monsters of the midway right up until the modern day because of Dicka's influence. Is the toughness. The two way players were tough though they have this defensive mentality. They've always had this defensive mentality. And I think that toughness is what I know. Every national football is tough,

but and would say that we're everybody. Every football player by definition has to be tough. But I think the Bears have that that there's something about the Bears and their their their history that uh underscores that. And eighty two you said there was a reporter that asked Allie if he was crazy for hiring did no see now, see, well, I didn't want I didn't want to say that word. I don't know. I just looked at that on the

front page. He was on the front page. See who was the reporter and was it a well was it a well respected reporter? That he was a very well respected reporter named Bill Gleason, and he George Allis didn't get along at all. Gleason was a Cardinal fan, but he knew about the Bears. He covered the Bears, and

it was a sincere question. And he wasn't the only one thinking it because when when he hired did get People thought, what is he hiring a special teams coach who's never had any head coaching experience, and he'd and plus Alice, had you surp Jim Fink's power at the time, and and had fired Neil Armstrong and and hired all on his own. It was actually a very legitimate question.

Oh yeah, it was at the time we were The rest of us is probably afraid to ask, what did did you guys know the personality of Mike Ditka before he came here as a head coach? Did you know like that that's the way he was going to represent himself. We'd seen him throw a lot of clipboards down in Dallas, Right, that's what you mean. I would say, you know, the hiring of Mike Ditka and eighty two and then maybe you agree or disagree with this probably was perceived similarly

to the hiring of Kingsbury in Arizona this year. Everyone thought, what are you doing? You know, why are you hiring that guy? Everyone around the league, uh, you recall similarly, Yeah, I I don't think there. I don't remember anybody in the league saying, oh, I you know, that doesn't surprise me that he would hire Mike Ditka. People say, oh boy, what's he got? What's he gotten himself in for? Well, he knew, he knew what he was getting himself in for.

Don Pearson, Dam Pompei. Our guests here on Bear's Hall Access.

It's brought to you by IGS Energy in Chicago Sports Radio six seventy to score back to the toughness thing, because that's something that the family wants this organization to play with a toughness, and it is all through its history, and it's you know, the first person you're gonna think of as tough as obviously Dick Butkus, you're gonna remember Walter Payton, and whether it's the young people now knowing about them because they can punch it up on YouTube

if they never got to see him play. But if you go deeper into it, you guys wrote about Ed Sprinkle called the meanest man in Pro football by Kyler's Magazine in nineteen fifty. So it's way back there too. Oh yeah, you know there's others that we can talk about. Oh yeah, it would go back to Joe Atkins. Yeah, we'd go back to George Trafton and these guys that

that that played. Uh you know, but the Bears had the last guy that played without a helmet, Dick Plasman, and he ran into the wall at Rigular Field one time and Virginia mccaski was there and they carted him out and Virginia said, I thought he was dead, and he went to the hospital. And he went to the hospital and came back and played the later in the season. May ended up. You know, he played without a helmet.

I mean, how many guys. So is it any surprise to you that the last guy in the National Football League to play without a helmet is a Bear? You know? I thought thet thee hundred years celebration, the the seminar that you guys did with the defensive lineman was really interesting too when you talk about this toughness and how it's uh kind of woven into the fabric of being

a bear. You know. So you had a Keen Hicks there, and you know, he's learning things from guys of previous generations, and they learned things from previous It went all the way back. The oldest guy there was was at o'bradovich, and you know, he obviously befriended Hampton and McMichael during their playing days, and even before that, you know Jim Osborn, and I mean every generation has another guy who kind of takes the baton and to the next and he does.

He is now free to play with the ferocity of which he does even in practice. And that's a treat for a Bears fan to watch. And it's only going to get better as they continue to keep on climbing this mountain trying to get to the super Bowl here in twenty nineteen. This is brought to you by IGS Energy at Chicago's Sports Radio six seventy to score and Bears All Access Joniac There, Pompey and Pierson with you

coming back after this break. One more segment to go here on Bears All Access this evening with Tom There. I'm Jeff Joniac Dam Pompey and Don Pierson, the Hall of Fame writers that put together the Centennial scrap Book, a book that includes a piece of Bears history when you buy it, and authentic Bears one hundred uniform patch. It's embedded in the front cover. It's a good looking book. The dust jacket also doubles as a fold out poster.

There's a clear pocket in the back you can add your own piece of Bears history, and everybody's got it. Anytime you go anywhere, I've heard of a training cap. Hey, I've had tickets in my family for this many decades. This my my grandfather, you know, took me to my first game. It's all there. It is about family. This is a Bears family. Tom's family iddled buy that radio listening to our broadcasts, just as they did watching him

at Soldier Field play for the Bears. H We can talk a lot about all the great players that you guys rank George Hollis as a player, What don't we know about him? If you if you didn't think he even played the game, and you only know of him as a coach or the owner, what about him as a player. Well, how many people remember he was the most Valuable Player in the Rose Bowl in nineteen nineteen. I did not know before he became I mean, he's

the MVP in the Rose Bowl. He was playing for the for the the the Great Lakes team that played in a Rose Bowl during the First World War. So you know what kind of player he was before even became a Staley or a Bear. And the only thing he ever talked about himself as a player was when he recovered a fumble and ran ninety eight yards and Dorham Thorpe was chasing him. That's really the only time

he bragged him about himself as a player. But he was a heck of a player, and of course a two way player and at end and I think he might be he might be on that top hundred players, the first end that we ranked, because the Bears don't have a stellar history of receivers. Yeah. I think the other thing to point out, too, is that he was all decade in the nineteen twenties, which which says something, you know, I mean that people don't even think of

him as a player. You think of him strictly as a coach and as an owner and as an innovator. And he you know, he did so many things in that area that kind of overshadowed probably what he did as a player. But certainly that was a part of a town. That record for the ninety eight yard fumble return was one that stood for I believe something like fifty years. It was an incredible record and when you wonder where the toughness may have come from, that's something

it goes without saying. I mean, he loved talking about the fights he would get in. He got into a knockdown, drag out fight with his best friend, Patty Driscoll. When Driscoll was planned for the Cardinals. You know, they had to separate him. So he was the first of the tough player. But you know that that's kind of the history of the toughness of the Bears. That kind of is related to your head coach and what they bring.

You know, George Allis brought it to his era, Dicka brought it to our ear and you had it matched the toughness that he committed himself to in the league. And I think that's important for the history of the Bears is that George was the toughest guy around the league, and when you talk about the making of a Bear, you know, toughness always precluded what else you're going to say about him, as he needed a tough guy, just

like Dicka did. And you remember Dan when Virginia McCaskey was talking about more recent history and the changes that she made or agreed to, and one of the things she said was that, you know, I that toughness was missing. She said, I thought the toughness was missing. So she's been very very aware of it from the beginning. Then then it had to be a good relationship between Finks and Ditka, I because Jim Finks, he's always you know, known as uh. It was a working relationship, but that's

when I'm split. Yeah, but it had to be respectful because Jim Pinks was producing players that Ditka was able to coach in mold and eventually developed well. He had two drafts for Dick in the last two drafts eighty two eighty three. I think Jim Finks was he was loyal to the McCaskey family, and so he stuck around out of respect for the McCaskey family and really saved the Bears and the mccaskeys to agree. That saved the Bears because they were going down a rabbit hole there

for a while until Jim Finks rescued him. Signed twenty starters that played, but it was crazy twenty. I mean they kind of, don't you think they both kind of had a hand in the development of the toughness because Dicka had a major influence on the players, but Finks was able to bring players that that kind of fell into the line of coach Dick or what he wanted Oh yeah. I think that the record, the drafting record of Jim Finks and his scouts, Jim Palmer and Bill Tobin,

as really unprecedented. During the draft. I mean, Halis, before the draft, you used to be able to sign just about anybody wanted to. But once she had the drafts, it was supposed to it was supposed to even things out. And at the early days of the draft, Halis still got the guys. You know, after they won the seventy three to nothing, they had like the third pick in the drafters I could pick in the draft three days later.

I mean, he knew how to find players and tough players, and thinks no doubt that that string of draft choices that Finx made is really unprecedent. Would you worried about Walter Payton statue going up outside Soldier Field much like George Hollis number one on the list. Yeah, it's hard to say much about Walter that hasn't been said already because he meant so much to the team. I think one of the things that Down and I talked about was when we were putting together the list of the

top one hundred Bears. I think we both kind of knew Walter would be number one, right, But we were looking for a little confirmation and uh, you know, we noted that Mike Ditka always said that Walter Payton was the greatest bear. And then we asked Virginia mccasky and she said the same thing. She said to me, Walter was number one. So I guess did you go one? Do? Did you go one to one hundred or one hundred to one? Oh? Great question? Uh one hundred, Yeah, it

was one. Yeah, and the top points for it as difficult as the bottom twenty five because we've said that of the hundred, we thought all hundred deserved to be on that list, but there are probably twenty other guys that deserved to be on that list too, did we we gotta we gotta run. But did you keep rearranging? Yeah, you got a number, you stuck with it. No, we would probably change it again a lot if we could. Right,

All right, Well, we only scratched the surface of the book. Clearly, it's uh cover to cover, it's it's beautiful, number one, great photos, great documents from scouting reports to all the difference stuff that min Hallis collected and her scrapbook, which was the genesis of this particular title of this book, the one under your scrap book History of the Chicago Bears, penned by the Hall of Fame author's Dan POMPEII and

Don Pearson. Thanks so much for joining us. We could have spent a few more hours talking about all the great history and Bears history. Appreciate it. Thank you, Jeff. Our pleasure got to say condolences to the family a Daryl Drake, Bears Wide Receivers coach for nine years here. He was great to all of us, great to me. I couldn't tell you how many stories late at night here in this building over coffee I had with that

man passed away just a couple of days ago. Current Steelers wide Receivers coach condolences that Darryl Drake, four time fair Paul's Oranger engineer, and Jordan Tredup. And for Don and Dan, I'm Jeff Joniac. That'll do it for us tonight on Chicago Sports Radio six seventy The Score. Thanks for listening to this Chicago Bears Network presentation of Bears All Access podcasts are available on Chicago Bears dot com and on iTunes, or download the official Bears Mobile app bears.

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