Chicago Bears Head Coaches
The Chicago Bears have had 13 coaches over the course of 80 years with Halas shouldering the Head Coaching dutied for 40 of them. During those 40 seasons, Halas would take breaks and hire within the organization for the most part by installing people whom he trusted his beloved Bears. After the 1967 season, Halas officially retired from coaching and handed the club over to assistant coach Jim Dooley.
Prior to hiring Dooley, Halas had tapped then assistant George Allen in 1965 to succeed him as Bears Head Coach. A job that Allen wanted desperately. Through a bizarre set of circumstances, misjudgments, and miscommunication, Allen was fired after the 1965 season. The reason? The Los Angeles Rams had entertained Allen as a possible Head Coach and spoke with him about the job. Allen didn't want the job because he wanted to be the Bears Head Coach and was supremely loyal to George Halas. Unfortunately, Halas learned of the meeting and mistakenly assumed Allen was working for leverage and more money. Halas never met with Allen about the Rams offer or to clear up any misunderstandings between the two. Halas just fired him for disloyalty. Allen was crushed by the firing, took the Rams job, and coached his way to the Hall of Fame with the Rams and the Redskins.
The parade of terrible and mediocre coaches began with Jim Dooley, Abe Gibron, Jack Pardee, and Neill Armstrong. To be fair, Halas did little or nothing to restock the team with talent over the Dooley and Gibron years. The game had passed him by and at the urgings of his son Mugs Halas the Bears hired GM Jim Finks. Finks is responsible for re-building the team that Pardee and Armstrong worked into the playoffs and Mike Ditka took to the Super Bowl in 1985 and dominated the 80s.
After Halas died in 1983, the McCaskey's took over the club (because Mugs Halas had died unexpectedly in the late 70s) and they rode the Finks built roster and acted like they were responsible for the success. As a result, they looked for any reason to fire the last remaining Halas man (Ditka) and did so in 1992. His replacement was Dave Wannstedt who was the 'hot' assistant coach of the Super Bowl champion Dallas Cowboys. Wannstedt along with Michael McCaskey drained the Bears of any talent and made the 90s a miserable experience that was continued when Dick Jauron took over in 1999.
The bright spot on the Jauron hirning that was botched so badly by Michael McCaskey got Michael fired by his mother, Virginia Halas-McCaskey. Non-family member Ted Phillips took over as team president and he promptly hired Jerry Angelo as GM: the first GM since Finks. Angelo eventually fired Jauron and hired Lovie Smith as the 13th Bears Head Coach.
| Coach | Seasons | W | L | T | Pct | W | L |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Overall Totals |
673 | 494 | 43 | .574 | |||
| George Halas | 40 seasons 1920-1929, 1933-1942, 1946-1955, 1958-1967 | 324 | 152 | 32 | .681 | 6 | 4 |
| Ralph Jones | 3 seasons 1930-1932 | 24 | 10 | 7 | .706 | -- | -- |
| Luke Johnsos | .5 season 1942 (half season) | 6 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | -- | -- |
| Hunk Anderson | 3.5 seasons 1942-1945 | 24 | 12 | 2 | .667 | 1 | 1 |
| Paddy Driscoll | 2 seasons 1956-1957 | 14 | 10 | 1 | .583 | 0 | 1 |
| Jim Dooley | 4 seasons 1968-1971 | 20 | 36 | 0 | .357 | 0 | 0 |
| Abe Gibron | 3 seasons 1972-1974 | 11 | 30 | 1 | .274 | 0 | 0 |
| Jack Pardee | 3 seasons 1975-1977 | 20 | 23 | 0 | .465 | 0 | 1 |
| Neill Armstrong | 4 seasons 1978-1981 | 30 | 35 | 0 | .462 | 0 | 1 |
| Mike Ditka | 11 Seasons 1982-1992 | 112 | 68 | 0 | .622 | 6 | 6 |
| Dave Wannstedt | 5 seasons 1993-1998 | 43 | 55 | 0 | .439 | 1 | 1 |
| Dick Jauron | 5 seasons 1999-2003 | 35 | 46 | 0 | .432 | 0 | 1 |
| Lovie Smith | 2004- | 16 | 16 | 0 | .500 | 0 | 0 | Totals |
659 | 477 | 43 | .577 | 14 | 16 |
The NFL did not calcuate ties (half-win & half-loss) in the winning percentage of teams until 1972. The following records reflect the respectives year's in-season calculation. Records also include playoffs, which appear to the right of the PCT column.
