George S. Halas*

George Halas was born in Chicago in 1895, and grew up on the streets of Chicago's tough West Side. He loved athletics and attended the University of Illinois and lettered in football, basketball, and baseball. He also joined Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity.

After graduation in 1918, he served a stint with the U.S. Navy and then played right field briefly for the New York Yankees. Football was his chief interest, and in 1920 he organized a professional team backed financially by the A. E. Stanley Co. of Decatur, Illinois.

In 1921, the team moved to Chicago, where it played at Wrigley Field, home of baseball's Chicago Cubs. Halas called his team the Bears, after the Cubs. Halas not only sparked the Bears to an enviable win-lose record, but also contributed to the development of a number of all-time great players in the National Football League and the sport as a whole.