The '''Chicago Bears''' are a professional American football team based in Chicago. They are currently members of the Northern Division of the National Football Conference (NFC) in the National Football League (NFL). The Bears have won nine American Football championships (eight NFL Championships and Super Bowl XX) trailing only the Green Bay Packers, who have twelve. The Bears have the most enshrinees in the Pro Football Hall of Fame with twenty-six members.
The club was founded in Decatur, Illinois in 1920 and moved to Chicago in 1921. From 1971 to 2001, and from 2003 to the present, the team has played its home games at Soldier Field in Chicago. The stadium is located next to Lake Michigan and was recently remodeled in a controversial modernization that has attempted to bring stadium amenities expected by today's fans to a historic Chicago building. The team also has a fierce, long-standing rivalry with the Packers, with whom they have played over one hundred seventy games.
History
1920–1970
Originally called the '''Decatur Staleys''', the club was established by the A. E. Staley Company of Decatur, Illinois in 1919 as a company team, the typical start for several of the early professional football franchises. The company hired George Halas and Edward "Dutch" Sternaman in 1920 to run the team and turned full control of the team over to them in 1921.
[ Information on Dutch Sternaman] However, official team and league records cite Halas as the founder
as he took over the team in 1920 when it became a charter member of the NFL. The team relocated to Chicago in 1921, where the club was renamed the '''Chicago Staleys'''. Under an agreement that was reached by Halas and Sternaman with Staley, Halas purchased the rights to the club from Staley for $100.
The Bears' rivalry with the Green Bay Packers is one of the oldest and fiercest in American professional sports, dating back to 1921. In one infamous incident in 1921, Halas got the Packers expelled from the league in order to prevent them signing a particular player, and then graciously got them re-admitted after the Bears had closed the deal with that player.
In 1922, Halas changed the team name from the Staleys to the Bears. The team moved into Wrigley Field, which was home to the baseball franchise, the Chicago Cubs. As with several early NFL franchises, the Bears derived their nickname from their city's baseball franchise. Halas liked the bright orange-and-blue
