Chicago Bears Owner and Matriark Virginia Halas McCaskey dies at 102

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Football: NFC Playoffs: Chicago Bears owner Virginia Halas McCaskey Victorious during trophy presentation after winning Game Vs New Orleans Saints. Chicago, IL 1/21/2007 Credit: John Biever (Photo by John Biever/Sports Illustrated Via Getty Images) (Set Number: X77371 TK4 R4 F41)

Chicago Bears owns Virginia Halas McCaskey, after Bears’ victory over New Orleans Saints in 2007 NFC Championship. (John Biever /Sports Illustrated Via Getty Images)

Chicago Bears Principal Owner Virginia Halas McCaskey has died at 102, the team announced on Thursday.

McCaskey was the oldest daughter of Bears founder George Halas. Her brother George “Mugs” Halas was appointed team president in 1963, but died of a heart attack in 1979. When their father died in 1983, McCaskey took control of the team with her husband, ed. Their son, George McCaskey, is the current chairman of the team.

McCaskey celebrated Her 102 -year birthday earlier this month, January 5, and only went three days before the Super Bowl Lix.

“While we are sad, we are comforted knowing Virginia Halas McCaskey lived a long, full, faithful life and is now with love for his life on earth,” the family said in a statement. “She led the bears for four decades and based every business decision on what was best for Bears players, coaches, staff and fans.”

In a statement, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell McCaskey and her work praised as owner and noted that she “leaves a legacy of class, dignity and humanity.”

“Faith, family and football – in that order – were her northern stars, and she lived by the simple saying to always ‘doing the right thing.’ The bears that her father started meant the world to her, and he would be proud of the way she continued the family business with such dedication and passion, ”Goodell wrote.

McCaskey had one The front of the NFL story to NFL When she saw the league growing from two teams to Juggernaut, it is today. She went to Drexel University for the purpose of becoming her father’s secretary. Instead, she spent more than four decades responsible for the team.

During McCaskey’s tenure, the bears went to two Super Bowls and won the Super Bowl XX in 1986. Chicago won the NFC Championship and her father’s namesake against New Orleans Saints in 2007 before falling to Indianapolis Colts in the Super Bowl XLI. McCaskey has seen the team hire 10 head coach in her 42 years as owner, with the latest hiring of Ben Johnson being her last. Appropriate enough, the last Bears game in McCaskey’s Life was a 24-22 win over Packers, a rare occurrence in recent years.

McCaskey was a devoted Catholic and threw largely away from the limelight and kept a modest home in the Chicago suburb, but participated in almost every Bears game.

Before her death, McCaskekey was the oldest and longest rented owner of an NFL franchise and one of 10 female owners in the league. McCaskey and her family own 80% of the franchise.

McCaskey had 11 children and more than 40 grandchildren and great -grandchildren. Her eldest son, Michael, was team president from 1983, until she removed him from the position in 1999, and he became chairman of the Bears’ Board of Directors until he resigned in 2011. George, the eighth of Virginia McCaskey’s children, then took over and has been Chairman of the Board. Michael McCaskey died in 2020.

Virginia’s husband, Ed McCaskey, who at one point was chairman and treasurer of Bears, died in 2003.