Vintage Chicago Tribune: The Chicago Bears beat the New England Patriots 46-10 to win Super Bowl XX
Hello and welcome to annuder edition of da newsletter, Chicago.
Marianne Mather and myself, I’ve gotta tell you, we’re not here to start no trouble. But we are ready to, well, take a look back at Super Bowl XX.
Sweetness. Refrigerator. Punky QB. Ditka. Let’s revisit Jan. 26, 1986, and a certain football team that topped off a 15-1 regular season with a 46-10 annihilation of the New England Patriots ...
DA BEARSSSSS. (Clink beer glasses and take a drink, my friends.)
We’ll recap the game’s highlights, share our favorite celebration photos, take you back to a frigid ticker-tape celebration parade, compare championship rings with Chicago’s other professional sports teams and give an update on whatever happened to the ‘85 Bears players and coaches. Plus, Tribune columnist Paul Sullivan reminisces about crashing on a couch in the French Quarter before taking in the game as a fan.
Naturally, the super game spawned Super Fans. Colleen Kane and Chris Boghossian have the back story on how a skit based on Bears fans went from its first appearance at a small Chicago theater in 1988 to become a “Saturday Night Live” tradition. (Did you know — George Wendt did NOT appear on the first “Bill Swerski’s Super Fans” sketch in 1991?!?)
My dad and I spent most of Super Bowl XX searching for a replacement belt for my mom’s vacuum cleaner. As my new favorite Twitter follower, @thedickbutkus, rightfully proclaimed “who vacuums on the superbowl?” My family, apparently. Maybe that’s why I married a sportswriter?
Check out @vintagetribune on Instagram, give us a follow @vintagetribune on Twitter and email YOUR suggestions to Marianne and me.
That’s all the time we have for now. See you next week!
— Kori Rumore, visual reporter
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Jan. 26, 1986: The Chicago Bears beat the New England Patriots 46-10 in Super Bowl XX
NEW ORLEANS — It is a good thing Chicago is the city of the big shoulders. How else could it Bear up to the task of carrying an entire football team in a victory parade from here to eternity?
Sporting immortality is where the Chicago Bears are headed. They proved you can get there from New Orleans in a day trip.
With a 46-10 victory over the New England Patriots in Sunday’s Super Bowl XX at the Louisiana Superdome, the Bears also took the entire city on a long-awaited joyride. They found the way to get over the hump that had always overturned the civic bandwagon, littering the streets with broken dreams instead of confetti.
Photos: Chicago Bears win Super Bowl XX on Jan. 26, 1986
Relive special moments from the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans that were captured by Chicago Tribune photographers during Super Bowl XX.
Jan. 27, 1986: Chicago Bears return home to a ticker-tape parade after Super Bowl XX win
A thank-you note written on 10 tons of ticker tape was hand-delivered to the Bears, who returned to sweet home Chicago Monday packing pride and a silver souvenir from New Orleans.
Five hundred thousand fans, hoarse from days of revelry, shouted hosannas as a caravan of cars and buses carried Bears players and management through the streets of the city’s financial district. Gratitude rained down in the form of shredded canceled checks, Yellow Pages, tissue paper and computer printouts.
Paul Sullivan: The Chicago Bears’ Super Bowl XX victory may be their last championship, but their fans set the template on how to celebrate
While the Tampa Bay Buccaneers may be the first team officially to play a Super Bowl in their home stadium, historians note Chicago also hosted Super Bowl XX when the Bears played the New England Patriots 35 years ago.
The game was played in New Orleans, of course, but that didn’t stop the mass migration south of Bears fans to watch the inevitable trouncing of the Patriots on Jan. 26, 1986, occupying the French Quarter like they owned it.
From 2020: The Bears’ Super Bowl XX rings are one of a kind. Here are the unique stories behind the 10-karat-gold jewelry.
Through more than 100 seasons of Bears football, there is only one Super Bowl championship ring. One version of that highly sought symbol of football immortality. It is almost 34 years old but as spectacular as ever.
It’s 10 karat gold with a white gold insert and 40 diamonds, highlighted by one 50-point brilliant-cut round diamond in the center of the iconic wishbone “C” logo.
On May 23, 1986, members of the Super Bowl XX champions received their rings during a boisterous dinner at a suburban hotel. Over time, the mementos have, in a sense, taken on lives of their own. For one thing, their increasing rarity in team annals makes them even more special. And in some instances, that value has perpetuated their colorful existences.
From 2021: Chicago sports teams have won at least 14 championships since 1985. Here’s a look at all their rings.
With the addition of the 2021 WNBA champion Sky, at least 14 professional sports teams in Chicago have won championships since 1985. Here’s a look back at the rings issued to the coaches, players and owners.
From 2021: The 1985 Chicago Bears. Where are they now?
You can probably remember at least one thing about some of the Chicago Bears who played on the 1985 team – Walter Payton, Mike Singletary, Kevin Butler and William “Refrigerator” Perry. But what happened to them and their coaches after they won Super Bowl XX on Jan. 26, 1986?
Some are enduring debilitating conditions as a result of injuries during their playing days. One has turned to medical marijuana to ease his lingering pain. Another has agreed to donate his brain to science after death. One became a doctor who specializes in treating patients in rehabilitation and has consulted on the care for his former teammates. Several players have become coaches themselves - the most unexpected being a guy who was on injured reserve the entire 1985 season, Jeff Fisher. Another coached in Super Bowl 50. And whatever happened to the lesser-known men on the team from that season? One reconstructs bridges in Dallas, and another restores roofs in Grapevine, Texas.
From 2019: Da story behind Da Bears — and how the sausage-eating, Mike Ditka-obsessed, Chicago-aggrandizing Super Fans are still part of Chicago sports today
At the time he crafted the characters that first appeared in a 1991 “Saturday Night Live” sketch, Robert Smigel wasn’t sure if anyone outside of Chicago would appreciate the four sausage-eating, Mike Ditka-obsessed, Chicago-aggrandizing men that made up “Bill Swerski’s Super Fans.”
Twenty-eight years later, the characters — also played by actors Chris Farley and Mike Myers in the ‘90s — remain among the most notable pop-culture figures in the Bears 100-season history. Their catchphrase — “Da Bearsss” — has become an almost reflexive response among Chicagoans when talking about their football team. And the roles have given Smigel and George Wendt a laundry list of experiences any Chicago sports fan would find fascinating.
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