Chicago Bears owner, matriarch Virginia Halas McCaskey dies at 102

Chicago Bears owner and matriarch Virginia Halas McCaskey died Thursday at the age of 102, the Bears announced in a news release Thursday morning.

McCaskey was the daughter of team founder, coach and NFL legend George S. Halas. She has been the principal owner of the team since Halas died on Oct. 31, 1983. The team has been in her family since George Halas took over control of the Decatur Staleys in 1921.

Born on Jan. 5, 1923, McCaskey has been around the Bears since she was a little girl.

She celebrated her 100th birthday in 2023 with a small family gathering. Virginia and her husband Ed McCaskey married in 1943 and had 11 children, 21 grandchildren, 40 great-grandchildren and four great-great-grandchildren. Her husband Ed McCaskey died in 2003.

Few people have witnessed as much football history as McCaskey has up close. She accompanied her father on the Red Grange barnstorming tour in 1925 and attended the first indoor NFL game at Chicago Stadium in 1932. She was in charge of the organization during the 1985 Super Bowl run.

McCaskey has guided the organization since her father’s death in 1983, but in recent years she mostly left the daily operation to her children. According to the Bears’ website, she remained on the organization’s board of directors until her death. Following the death of Arizona Cardinals owner Bill Bidwell in 2019, McCaskey became the longest-tenured NFL owner.

The Bears always have been a family-run business. Her father represented the Decatur Staleys at the first meeting of the American Professional Football Association [which became the NFL] in 1920 and became the team’s owner in 1921. Her brother, George “Mugs” Halas Jr. served as team president from 1963 until his death in 1979. Her husband, Ed McCaskey, was the team chairman between 1983 and 1999, while her son Michael McCaskey was team president during that same period.

In one of the more difficult decisions of her tenure, Virginia McCaskey essentially fired her son in 1999 and Michael McCaskey moved from president to chairman from 1999-2011. Michael’s younger brother George McCaskey currently is the chairman and has been since 2011.

“While we are sad, we are comforted knowing Virginia Halas McCaskey lived a long, full, faith-filled life and is now with the love of her life on earth,” the family said in a statement. “She guided the Bears for four decades and based every business decision on what was best for Bears players, coaches, staff and fans.”

The Bears are in the midst of great change as an organization. The team is searching for its next home stadium, with opportunities in Arlington Heights and along the Chicago lakefront. Wherever the team lands its next stadium deal, the decision is sure to alter the pro sports landscape in Chicago.

The team hired Kevin Warren as its fifth president in 2023. He is the first outside hire ever brought in to lead the organization. The previous four presidents were either part of the Halas-McCaskey family tree or were hired from within the organization.

The Bears began as a football team sponsored by the A.E. Staley Manufacturing Company in Decatur in 1919. This was typical of how many teams began in the early days of professional sports. Halas took a job with the company after briefly playing baseball for the New York Yankees in 1919. Halas was the player-coach of the Staleys in 1920 and selected the orange and blue colors to match his alma mater at the University of Illinois.

In 1921, the company gave Halas control of the company football team, along with a $5,000 bonus to move the team to Chicago. The team moved to Cubs Park – later renamed Wrigley Field – and won its first NFL championship in 1921. In 1922, Halas changed the team’s name to the Chicago Bears. Virginia was born just after the new year in 1923.

Losing the organization’s matriarch, who has been involved since nearly the beginning, is a blow that will be felt at Halas Hall and beyond.