Chicago Bears Uniform History (1920-2005) |
Logos
The
club has had few official logos throughout their history. The first was
introduced in the early 1940s with a bear running with a football. The
next logo featured a navy blue bear on top of a football. The team kept
this until 1962, when the Bears trademark 'C' logo was first introduced
by the team.
The
change in their logo from the black bear was due to the addition of
logos on helmets, which pro football teams started adding in the late
1950s and early 1960s. Unlike some NFL franchises that have had many
different looks over time, the Bears have kept the wishbone 'C' for over
40 years. In 1974, the team decided to keep the same white 'C' logo but
to change the color of it from white to orange with a white trim. This
is the current logo to this date; however, the club has experimented
with some alternative logos throughout the past decade, including a navy
blue bear inside of the orange wishbone 'C', introduced in 1995, and an
orange bear head, introduced in 1999.
Uniforms
In
1920 the team introduced the official team uniforms containing brown
and blue stripes. In the 1930s, the franchise's team uniform underwent
some substantial alterations. After many subtle and not-so-subtle
changes, by 1933 the Bears donned all-orange jerseys with navy numbers
and matching navy blue helmets. In 1936, they modified this design into
"an early version of psychedelia" by adding three orange stripes to
their helmets, changing the color of the jerseys from orange to white,
complementing the new white jerseys with fourteen navy and orange
alternating stripes on the sleeves, and introducing socks with a similar
striped pattern extending from ankle to knee. Due to poor response from
the fans and the media, this design lasted only one season.
By
1949, the team was wearing the familiar navy blue shirts with white,
rounded numbers. In 1956, the team added "TV numbers" to the sleeves.
The Bears 'C' logo first appeared on the helmets in 1962. The logo
changed from white to a white-bordered orange logo eleven years later,
and has remained unchanged ever since. The Bears added the initials GSH
to the left sleeve of their jerseys in 1984 in memory of George Halas.
For
decades, the team was known as the only NFL team to wear jersey numbers
that were not the traditional block-style numbers. Although a handful
of other NFL teams and the Houston Oilers during their early AFL days
experimented with rounder jersey numbers, by the mid-1960s the Bears
were the only team left to continue wearing rounded jersey numbers.
Since the mid-1990s, however, several teams have shifted away from the
block numbers in favor of numbers that match a specific team font (e.g.
Denver Broncos, Baltimore Ravens, Philadelphia Eagles, etc...) or in the
case of the Pittsburgh Steelers, match the jersey number font with the
helmet numbers while otherwise leaving the jersey design alone.
Other
variations to the Bears uniforms over the years include the addition of
navy blue pants as a part of the road kit in 1984. During the 1994
season, the Bears – with most of the other NFL franchises – introduced
throwback uniforms to be worn in the honor of the NFL's 75th
Anniversary. These uniforms with brown and blue stripes resemble the
original uniforms worn by the team in the 1920s. On October 7, 2002 the
Bears wore navy blue pants with their navy blue home jerseys for the
first time, and lost at home to Green Bay before a national Monday Night
Football audience. The Bears did not wear the all-blue combination
again until the 2006 regular season finale against the Packers, also a
loss, on December 31.
Also,
the Bears wore all-white uniforms during their final two road games in
the 2006 season, and for all of the 2008 season. On November 13, 2005
and October 29, 2006 (both times in games against the San Francisco
49ers), the Bears introduced an orange alternate home jersey. The orange
swaps roles with the navy blue on this alternate jersey, as it becomes
the dominant color while the navy complements. The Bears also donned the
orange jerseys on October 28, 2007 against the Detroit Lions, a game
that they lost 16-7. The Bears again wore the orange jerseys for the
fourth consecutive year on October 19, 2008 when they hosted the
Minnesota Vikings. The Bears previously wore orange jerseys as part of a
throwback uniform in a Thanksgiving Day game at the Dallas Cowboys in
2004. For the 2010 season, the Bears introduced throwbacks representing
the original Monsters of the Midway of the 1940's. They wore the
uniforms against the Green Bay Packers on September 27th, 2010 and
against the Vikings on November 14th later that season. Both of those
games were wins for the Bears. The classic look of the club's uniforms
has given it the title of one of the best uniform sets in the league.
Mascots
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