Virginia Halas McCaskey was not supposed to be the principal owner of the Chicago Bears, but it’s not like she complained about it.
“It’s a wonderful kind of burden, isn’t it?” she told the Chicago Tribune in 1998.
McCaskey, the Bears’ matriarch, died Thursday at the age of 102, leaving behind an unmatched legacy felt throughout the National Football League.
McCaskey was the Bears’ principal owner since 1983 when her father, George Halas, the founder of the Bears and the NFL, died. Her younger brother, George “Mugs” Halas, Jr., was supposed to be the heir to the Bears, but he died suddenly in 1979, leaving Virginia to inherit the team.
“For a long time, being born into the Bears was something I took for granted,” McCaskey wrote on Dec. 14, 2018, in the Chicago Bears Centennial Scrapbook. “My dad, George Halas, was the coach. That’s how I thought of him — the coach, not the owners. I never thought of owning a franchise because I wasn’t involved in the business end of it. I don’t take being a part of the Bears for granted anymore. I understand how blessed I am that this has been my life.”
Over the last four decades, McCaskey quietly led the Bears from the background, granting very few interviews. Because her father helped found the National Football League, many referred to her as the first lady of the NFL. While she appointed others to serve as team president and chairman of the board over the years, McCaskey still attended all games and carried a strong voice in major organizational decisions.
“Everybody wants to win one for her. And we’re doing everything we can to make that happen,” current chairman George McCaskey said on Jan. 10, 2022, after the team fired general manager Ryan Pace and head coach Matt Nagy. “At one point in our conversations, I asked her for her assessment of our season, and she said, as only a mother can, ’I’m very, very disappointed.’”
Virginia McCaskey’s drive to see another Super Bowl winner was felt by many coaches and players at Halas Hall. She would speak to the team before every season and answer questions from players. She traveled to every road game, even during the COVID-19 pandemic, and remained invested in issues pertaining to the entire league. She was an advocate for women getting more involved in football and stressed the need for increased player safety.
On game days, McCaskey would arrive at Soldier Field around three hours before kickoff before fans were allowed to enter the stadium. Her son, George, would usually accompany her, with an elevator waiting near the north garage entrance to take the family to the owner’s suite.
McCaskey’s disappointment in her team’s struggles over the last decade was not hidden despite rarely speaking publicly. In 2015, after firing then-general manager Phil Emery and then-head coach Marc Trestman, George McCaskey said: “She’s pissed off.”
“There have not been as many good memories in recent years. It has been difficult,” Virginia McCaskey wrote in the Chicago Bears Centennial Scrapbook. “I appreciate the fact that it has been hard on our fans. We certainly don’t take our fans for granted. We owe it to them. We hope they will stay with us and that we will be deserving of their support. We must continue to get better and have winning seasons again.”
The McCaskey family released a short statement through the team announcing her passing on Thursday morning: “While we are sad, we are comforted knowing Virginia Halas McCaskey lived a long, full, faith-filled life and is now with the love of her life on earth. She guided the Bears for four decades and based every business decision on what was best for Bears players, coaches, staff and fans.”
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell also released a statement on McCaskey’s death.
McCaskey “leaves a legacy of class, dignity, and humanity,” Goodell said. “Faith, family and football — in that order — were her north stars and she lived by the simple adage to always ‘do 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. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the McCaskey and Halas families and Bears fans around the world.”
McCaskey was born in Chicago on January 5, 1923. At that time, the Bears and Packers had played only one previous time, which means she was alive for the next 209 meetings of the NFL’s longest running rivalry.
That of course included the Bears’ last-second victory over the Packers on January 5 — her 102nd birthday and the final Bears game of her long life.
Virginia McCaskey attended Drexel University in Philadelphia, where she majored in secretarial studies. While a student at Drexel, she took a train to Washington D.C. to see the Bears beat Washington 73-0 in the NFL Championship Game. Two years after McCaskey took over control of the Bears from her father, the team won Super Bowl XX over the New England Patriots. She appointed her husband, Ed McCaskey, as chairman of the board, a position he held until 1999, when it was handed over to their oldest son, Michael. Ed McCaskey died in 2003 at the age of 83. Michael McCaskey died in 2020 at the age of 76.
“She has outlived her dad, her mom, her only sibling, her husband and a son,” George McCaskey said in 2017, a day before his mother turned 94. “She’s had her share of heartache. But she is a remarkably resilient person. I tell people that she’s tougher than her dad was. And those who know her don’t disagree.”
