When the Chicago Bears last beat the Green Bay Packers in the postseason 85 years ago, many feared it was the last time the two teams would meet. Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor happened just one week prior and plans for the next NFL season were uncertain due to World War II.
“If so, the fans will have plenty to remember them by until this war runs its course,” Tribune reporter Edward Prell wrote.
The 1940 Chicago Bears won the NFL championship. (Chicago Tribune archive)
The Bears or Packers either won the NFL title or appeared in the championship game 15 times in 17 years during the 1930s and 1940s, former Tribune reporter Don Pierson wrote in 2011.
“Before a layered playoff system, the two battled for regular-season dominance in their Western Division, which became the National Conference in 1950 and the Western Conference in 1953,” Pierson said. “But the only winner-take-all showdown was the 1941 playoff.”
The Bears entered the 1941 season triumphantly after shutting out the Washington Redskins 73-0 in the 1940 NFL championship game. It still stands as the biggest blowout in NFL championship history and helped earn the Bears the “Monsters of the Midway” nickname. The Packers were looking to improve from a 6-4-1 record in 1940.
This Saturday’s game marks the 213th meeting between the Bears and the Packers and just their third postseason meeting. Here’s a look back at how the teams forced an unexpected playoff game against each other in late 1941.
Their regular-season game (Nov. 2, 1941)
The Chicago Bears lost to the Green Bay Packers 16-24 on Nov. 2, 1941, at Wrigley Field. (Chicago Tribune)
It was the Bears’ only loss of the season and a monster upset in front of more than 46,000 fans at Wrigley Field. Two people — including the wife of Bears’ traveling secretary Frank Halas — died of heart attacks that began during the game, the Tribune reported.
“The Chicago Bears, champions that they are, learned to their sorrow yesterday that you can’t spot the Green Bay Packers 16 points,” the Tribune’s Edward Prell wrote.
The Bears mounted a comeback in the fourth quarter — “with victory in sight” — until first-team All-Pro Sid Luckman fumbled the ball after he was hit by Packer Harry Jacunski. It was the fifth fumble by the Bears in the game.
Though the Chicago Bears scored two touchdowns in the fourth quarter in a game on Nov. 2, 1941, it wasn’t enough to beat the Green Bay Packers. It was the only loss for the Bears during the 1941 season. (Chicago Tribune)
The Bears got the ball one more time with seconds remaining but couldn’t get the officials to recognize their call for a timeout before the clock wound down. The Packers won 16-14.
“Why did we lose? You can’t explain these kinds of defeats,” Bears assistant coach Paddy Driscoll told reporters after the game.
“You go along knocking over every one in sight, then you have a bad day,” said Luke Johnsos, another Bears assistant coach.
The Bears had to win out the rest of the season — which they did — in order to earn another crack at the Packers in a tie-breaking playoff game.
How the teams got to the playoff game
The Green Bay Packers beat the Washington Redskins 22-17 on Nov. 30, 1941, and next faced the Chicago Bears in a tie-breaking playoff game for the Western Division championship. (Chicago Tribune)
“Outplayed” and outscored, the Packers “rallied with almost unbelievable spirit,” Tribune reporter Wilfred Smith wrote, to beat the Washington Redskins 22-17 in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 30, 1941. The Packers concluded the regular season with a 10-1 record.
Though they trailed 14-0 in the second quarter, the Chicago Bears came back to defeat the Chicago Cardinals 34-24 on Dec. 7, 1941, at Comiskey Park. (Chicago Tribune)
A group of Packers players and coaches watched from the stands as the Bears also had to come from behind — three times — to beat the Chicago Cardinals on Dec. 7, 1941 (Pearl Harbor Day), at Comiskey Park to also end the regular season with a 10-1 record. Two touchdowns by George McAfee “brought the Bears from the shadows of a humiliating upset and returned them 34 to 24 victors,” the Tribune’s Edward Prell wrote. Hugh Gallarneau scored another touchdown in the third quarter.
The win solidified home field advantage for the Bears in the playoff game, but was not without drama. Bears coach George Halas was later fined $100 (or more than $2,000 in today’s dollars) for straying out of the coaching box, and Ray Bray was fined $50 for fighting.
‘Sudden-death’ rule ensured playoff wouldn’t end in a tie
New NFL Commissioner Elmer Layden in his Chicago office on June 10, 1941. (Carl E. Linde/AP)
At a special meeting in Philadelphia, NFL Commissioner Elmer Layden announced the Bears-Packers game — if tied at the end of regulation — would be played to a decision. Following a three-minute rest, there would be a coin toss and a kickoff. The first score would end the game.
It became the first NFL game conducted with rules allowing for sudden-death overtime, which had been in effect since 1933 but not needed in a sectional title game.
Gameday (Dec. 14, 1941)
The Chicago Bears beat the Green Bay Packers 33-14 in a playoff game on Dec. 14, 1941, at Wrigley Field in Chicago. (Chicago Tribune)
Tickets to the game at Wrigley Field were hard to get. Five thousand bleacher seats — which sold for $1 each (or about $21 in today’s dollars) — disappeared as soon as they were available. Only 500 standing room-only tickets remained. Otherwise, it was officially a 46,484-person sell out. Thousands of tickets, however, went unused. Scalpers cut their prices in half because of the cold weather.
The Packers were well-rested with two weeks between their last regular-season game and the playoffs. The Bears had less than a week to prepare for Green Bay. Bears coach George Halas warned his players to keep cool heads.
“Anger doth a bonehead make,” Halas said.
Chicago Bears running back Hugh Gallarneau (8) stumbles as a Green Bay Packers defender attempts a diving tackle during a playoff game at Wrigley Field in Chicago on Dec. 14, 1941. (AP)
The Packers scored first after Hugh Gallarneau fumbled the opening kickoff (he also fumbled the next one).
The Bears then scored 30 unanswered points in 16-degree weather. Gallarneau took a 81-yard punt return to the end zone in the first quarter. Norm Standlee scored two consecutive touchdowns and Bobby Swisher had another for the Bears in the second quarter. Overtime wouldn’t be needed.
Chicago beat Green Bay 33-14 to claim the Western Division National League title.
Afterward, the Bears’ clubhouse was a scene of joy. Owner-coach George Halas unexpectedly celebrated with players, members of the staff and well-wishers.
Tribune reporter Prell wrote that the Bears would face the New York Giants in the championship, “but to all intents and purposes the 1941 National League crown was settled” with this win over the Packers.
Championship (Dec. 21, 1941)
The Bears celebrate in the locker room after a 37-9 victory over the Giants in the NFL title game on Dec. 21, 1941. (Chicago Tribune historical photo)
The Bears topped the New York Giants 37-9 in the NFL title game at Wrigley Field for the team’s fifth championship — and first back-to-back titles. All four of the Bears’ touchdowns were scored in the second half.
The Bears’ 37th and final point was scored on a drop kick from Ray “Scooter” McLean. It was the last time a drop kick was used successfully in the NFL until Jan. 1, 2006. (That’s when New England Patriots quarterback Doug Flutie — in his final NFL game — converted a point-after-touchdown by drop kick against the Miami Dolphins. According to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the drop kick remains a legal maneuver in the NFL.)
The unbeaten Bears made it to the championship game again in 1942, but lost to the Redskins.
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