Bears chairman George McCaskey — the namesake of Bears founder George Halas — has resolutely, if awkwardly, embraced the responsibility of upholding his legendary grandfather’s legacy since becoming the team’s chairman in 2011.
But this might be the first time he took a page out of the Old Man’s playbook that could make a difference. With the opportunity to promote from within to replace retiring team president Ted Phillips — a comfortable and familiar tack at Halas Hall — McCaskey instead not only went outside the organization, but went big and bold.
Kevin Warren, the Big Ten commissioner, is highly qualified, has no previous ties to the McCaskeys or Halas Hall and surely did not come cheap. Hiring a well-connected mover-and-shaker like Warren at Halas Hall is like putting a modern stadium inside the colonnades at storied Soldier Field. It’s better than what they had but still surrounded by a remnant of Bears history that limits its potential.
It remains to be seen if Warren can and will change the way they do business at -Halas Hall. But here’s a tip: It works.
It did for George Halas himself. In 1974, after six lackluster seasons of failure (27-56-1) since his retirement, the 79-year-old Halas — at the behest of his son, team president George “Mugs” Halas Jr. — hired former Vikings general manager Jim Finks as the Bears’ executive vice president, general manager and chief operating officer.
Finks was given full authority over anything related to Bears business — the first person outside the Halas family to have that kind of control. And he didn’t mess around.
Finks made immediate changes. He moved the Bears’ downtown offices. He moved their training camp from Rensselaer, Indiana, to Lake Forest. He arranged to have a dedicated practice facility built — the Bears had previously practiced at Wrigley Field and Soldier Field, with dank, antiquated locker rooms and meeting rooms.
Finks backed a plan to build a stadium in Arlington Heights. He replaced the public-relations director with his own guy, Ted Haracz. He fired Abe Gibron and the entire coaching staff and hired Jack Pardee. He revamped the scouting department. And he identified Jackson State running back Walter Payton as the best player in the 1975 draft and took him fourth overall. Two years later, he changed the Bears’ radio outlet from WGN to WBBM, ousting the 24-year broadcasting team of Chicago legends Jack Brickhouse and Irv Kupcinet (one of Halas’ closest friends.)
At the time, hiring Finks was hailed as “the most important acquisition the Bears have made” since signing Red Grange, as Sun-Times columnist Bill Gleason put it. As it turned out, going outside the family was indeed a masterstroke. In 1977, the Bears made the playoffs for the first time in 13 seasons. They made it again in 1979 under Neill Armstrong. Finks built most of the roster of the 1985 team that won Super Bowl XX — though Halas went over his head to hire Mike Ditka, and Ditka gets credit for drafting Jim McMahon.
Finks, his relationship with Halas fractured, resigned in September of 1983. Halas died the next month. After a glorious run, Ditka was fired by Michael McCaskey after the 1992 season, marking the unofficial end of Halas leadership at Halas Hall and the beginning of McCaskey leadership.
Now, it’s the McCaskeys who need to find their Jim Finks. In the last 30 seasons, the Bears are in the bottom 10 of the NFL in -almost any measurement of on-field success. To wit:
• The Bears’ 220 victories rank 21st among 29 teams that have been in the league in that 30-year span. Their .457 winning percentage is 22nd.
• Their nine winning seasons are tied for 22nd. Only five teams have fewer.
• Their seven playoff appearances are tied for 26th. Only three teams have fewer.
• Their four playoff victories are tied for 26th. Only one team that has been in the NFL through that entire 30-year span has fewer (Washington).
• The Bears have made back-to-back playoff appearances just once in the last 30 years (2005-06). Every team that has been in the league in that span has had a streak of three or more playoff appearances except Washington, the Jets and the Cardinals.
• The Bears’ one Super Bowl appearance in that span is tied for 18th. Only eight teams have fewer. And their zero Super Bowl victories are tied for last. Fifteen teams have won the Super Bowl in the McCaskeys’ 30 years in charge.
That 30-year span is no small sample size. To put it in terms longtime Bears fans can appreciate: The Bears’ best run of postseason appearances in the last 30 years — three times in six seasons from 2005 to ’10 under GM Jerry Angelo and coach Lovie Smith — would be the Packers’ worst run of postseason appearances in the last 30 years.
While Warren’s immediate charge as team president is to get a new stadium built, his biggest job is to change that woeful record of on-field success. He not only has to change the culture at Halas Hall, he has to change the definition of culture at Halas Hall — that it’s more than collaboration or a happy locker room and avoiding fracture through difficult times.
Warren has a reputation as a dominating presence with a driven personality. He’s a guy who thinks big, isn’t afraid to do things that have not been done and covers every base — from the general manager to the ticket manager; from the coaching staff to the training staff; from information technology to mental health to diversity to communications to marketing to Staley Da Bear.
Warren accentuated that attention to detail at his introductory news conference Tuesday. (“Minor details are major. I believe in no missed steps.”) But he did not hint at big changes, instead paying dutiful tribute to the legacy of George Halas when asked about being an outsider.
“The benefit and challenge is to keep doing things the right way,” Warren said. “I love that statue with George Halas out front [of Halas Hall]. Something that I will ask myself every morning walking in this building is that if he were with me, would he be proud? If I can make sure that 365 days a year the answer is yes, we’re doing OK whether I’m in the family or not.”
The best guess is that if George Halas were around today — with just four playoff victories in the last 30 seasons — he’d want Warren to shake things up, just like Jim Finks did after he was hired in 1974.
Finks accomplished a lot by keeping the family out of his business as best he could, reportedly telling chairman Ed McCaskey, “You’re an owner. Own,” after George -Halas’ death in 1983. Warren needs to take that same approach. If George Halas can hand the keys to Jim Finks, George McCaskey can hand them to Kevin Warren.
Just as the Finks hire in 1974 was seen as the best thing to happen to the Bears since Grange, Warren could be the Bears’ best front-office hire since Finks. For frustrated Bears fans who have been calling for the McCaskeys to sell the team, the hiring of Warren as team president is a pretty fair compromise. But he has to change Halas Hall before it changes him.
