George Stanley Halas
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He was a pioneer of professional football. He
organized, owned, and coached the Chicago Bears, one of
the original teams in the National Football League (NFL).
Halas was born in Chicago. He formed the Decatur (Ill)
Stanleys professional team in 1920. He moved the team to
Chicago in 1921, and renamed it the Chicago Bears in
1922. Halas played end for the tem until 1929. He coached
the Bears from 1920 to 1929, 1933 to 1942, 1946 to 1955,
and from 1958 to 1968. Halas’ Bears won six NFL
championships. In the late 1930’s Halas and Clark
Shaughnessy helped set the stage for modern, wide-open
football by adding the main-in-motion to the T-formation.
Halas was elected to the NFL Hall of Fame in 1963.
The T-Formation was primarily responsible for the
great success of the Chicago Bears in the 1940's. In fact
using this new formation the Bears rolled up the largest
margin of victory and the highest score in the history of
professional football against the New York Giants in the
1940 championship game. The Bears won 73-0. This
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forever entrenched George Halas, or "Papa Bear" as
he is affectionately known, as one of the greatest if not the
greatest coach in the history of pro football. The reason why
most point at George Halas as the key in the 1940 NFL
championship is the fact that prior that year the Giants and the
Bears played in a much closer game in which the Giants won 10-7.
The fact that Halas was able to make enough adjustments to
account for a 76 point turn around in a championship game says
volumes about his coaching ability and his motivational
techniques.
The T-Formation, which was invented by Clark Shaughnessy in
Stanford was perfected by George Halas and he utilized it to
build one of the most successful football teams in the history of
the NFL.
The game that has so long obsessed us began in Chicago
fifty-two years ago when George Halas brought his Decatur Staleys
to town. There, in decent privacy, he commenced to play teams
from Moline, Waukegan, and Hammond. In those days you could claim
the championship of the universe if you could just beat Akron.
But now, at Soldier Field, with Halas raging behind the glass of
his cubucle in the press box, it could be sensed that the game
had run its course.
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