The Chicago Bears are one of the winningest franchises in NFL history. The NFC North Division giants have a whopping total of nine NFL Championships and a Super Bowl crown from Super Bowl XX back in 1986.
Any fan would know that it takes more than the players on the field to bring a franchise to such great heights. One could argue that a team's head coach is the main architect that would propel any team to success.
Let's look at the five most notable coaches of the Chicago Bears, ranked.
5. Hunk Anderson and Luke Johnsos (1942-1945)
When then head coach George Halas left to serve the Navy in World War II, the reigns were turned over to both Hunk Anderson and Luke Johnsos in 1942 as co-coaches. Johnsos took over the offense while Anderson was in charge of the defense. In their first year as co-coaches, they finished the regular season unbeaten only to bow down to the Washington Redskins in the NFL Championship Game.
The squad came back strong the year after and won the NFL title in a rematch against the Redskins in Wrigley Park. Their short run as co-coaches ended with 23 wins and 11 losses.
4. Ralph Jones (1930-1932)
Ralph Jones took over the head coaching job for the Bears after team owner Halas first retired as a player-coach in 1932. This was an interesting time for the Bears. The franchise battled The Great Depression, as other teams and companies did in the 1930s.
Jones shrugged front-office distractions and focused on the field introducing different offensive schemes that the league had never seen at that time. To date, Jones still has the best winning percentage in franchise history with a .706 mark after a total of 41 games.
3. Lovie Smith (2004-2012)
Lovie Smith was assigned as the head coach of the Bears in 2004. After a rocky start, the Texas-native turned the team around and won the Associated Press NFL Coach of the Year Award in 2005 and brought the Bears to Super Bowl XLI in 2007.
After a total of three playoff appearances under his wing, Smith was sacked in 2012 and ended his stint as the Bears head coach with a 81-63 win-loss record.
2. Mike Ditka (1982-1992)
Mike Ditka actually started his career in the NFL as a Tight End for the Chicago Bears in 1961. After nine years as an assistant coach for the Dallas Cowboys immediately following his lustrous playing career, Ditka went back to Chicago and was tasked to be the head coach of the Bears.
On his fourth season as the head coach, he led the Bears to their first-ever Super Bowl trophy with a dominant 46-10 win against the New England Patriots. The 1985-86 Chicago Bears were said to have one of the best defenses in NFL history to date.
“Iron Mike” ended his decade-long tenure with the Bears with two NFL Coach of the Year awards, a Super Bowl championship and a total of 106 wins, the second-highest in franchise history.
1. George Halas (1920-29, 1933-42, 1946-55, 1958-67)
Last but definitely not least is “Pap Bear” himself, the great George Halas. The Hall of Famer first took over the reigns in 1920 when the Bears were still known as the Decatur Staleys being based in Decatur, Illinois.
“Mr. Everything” did pretty much everything for the Bears early on being a player, a coach and even a ticket salesman for the team all at the same time. He went on to coach the team for over sixty years in four different stints (1920-29, 1933-42, 1946-55 and 1958-67). In those years, he was also the owner of the team until he passed away in 1983.
He ended his career with a whopping 318 wins as a head coach and was the all-time winningest coach in the NFL for quite some time. You must've done something right to have a team name its HQ under your name, right? Legendary status, indeed.
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