Bear Digest

A Trip Through All of the Chicago Bears Coaching Debuts

Thomas Brown makes his debut as Bears interim head coach, and here's how all of the other Chicago head-coaching debuts went.
Gene Chamberlain|
Justin Fields celebrates in the rain at Soldier Field after a fourth-quarter comeback win in Matt Eberflus' coaching debut.
Justin Fields celebrates in the rain at Soldier Field after a fourth-quarter comeback win in Matt Eberflus' coaching debut. | Daniel Bartel-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

Sunday's game marks the head coaching debut for Thomas Brown, the second black head coach of the team and the 18th head coach overall.

It's a strange situation for the Bears because they've never had a head coach fired and then someone else make their debut but they have had a coaching debut in the middle of the season.

It's been a while.

George Halas went back into the Navy during World War II in 1942 after he had been in the Navy in 1918.

When he left it was the middle of the 1942 season and he put as

1920: George Halas

Decatur Staleys 20, Moline Universal Tractors 0

On Oct. 3, Halas' American Professional Football Association team played at Staley Field in Decatur against another industrial-based team of pros and won. Dutch Sternamen accounted for all three Staley touchdowns on runs of 7, 5 and 4 yards and Hugh Blacklock kicked two extra points in a game played at Staley Field. The Staleys then moved to Chicago the next season and agreed to keep the company name for one season when they played at Cubs Park (Wrigley Field), before they changed the name to the Bears, and the league changed its name to the National Football League.

1930: Ralph Jones

Chicago Bears 0, Brooklyn Dodgers 0

Halas stepped away from coaching the team for the first time after the depression hit and it was difficult to keep the team going financially. They played this game at Wrigley Field in Ralph Jones' debut. Halas stepped away as coach for three years and remained owner, and Jones coached the team. A basketball coaching great in high school at Indiana, then at Purdue and Illinois, Jones also coached football and later was a coach at Lake Forest Academy, not far from where the current Halas Hall is. Jones left in the 1933 season when Halas started coaching again. This scoreless debut on Sept. 21 was played before 10,000 fans at Wrigley Field.

1942: Hunk Anderson/Luke Johnsos

Bears 16, Detroit Lions 0

The Nov. 1, 1942 debut of assistant coaches Anderson and Johnsos as co-head coaches represented Halas' second time leaving the team but this time he did it at midseason to rejoin the U.S. Navy. The Bears were 5-0at the time en route to a perfect 11-0 regular season before losing the NFL Championship Game. The Bears scored in this debut game for Anderson/Johnsos at Wrigley Field on a 33-yard Scooter McLean TD pass from Charlie O'Rourke, a 26-yard TD pass from Sid Luckman to Harry Clarke and a 16-yard Frank Maznicki field goal. Halas returned after the war in 1946 to coach the team to the NFL championship, the last of four won by the 1940s Monsters of the Midway

1956: Paddy Driscoll

Baltimore Colts 28, Bears 21

On Sept. 30, 1956, the Bears opened with Paddy Driscoll takeing over as Halas stepped aside for the third time after an 8-4 season in 1955. Weeb Ewbank's Colts got two Alan Ameche 1-yard TD runs, a George Shaw 5-yard TD pass to Lenny Moore and a 37-yarder to Royce Womble. For the Bears, Ed Brown thew a 42-yard TD pass to Harlon Hill and a 6-yarder to Bobby Watkins, and they also had a 51-yard punt return TD by Perry Jeter.

Driscoll's team went on to make the NFL Championship Game but lost to the New York Giants.

1968: Jim Dooley

Washington Redskins 38, Bears 28

Halas' former assistant and former Bears wide receiver Jim Dooley became head coach when Halas stepped away from the sidelines for the fourth and final time. The Bears got 105 yards rushing and 39 receiving by Gale Sayers in that Sept. 15 season opener at Wrigley Field, and his backfield sidekick Brian Piccolo ran for 26 yards and had a TD rushing. However Redskins great Sonny Jurgensen threw four TD passes, three to Pat Richter and a 99-yarder to Gerry Allen. Jurgensen finished 14 of 21 for 276 yards. The Redskins defense picked off Bears QB Jack Concannon twice.

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1972: Abe Gibron

Atlanta Falcons 37, Bears 21

Another former Halas assistant, the rotund one, Abe Gibron, taook over after Dooley's dismissal and in his debut at Wrigley Field Bob Berry threw for TDs to Art Malone and Ken Burrow while Bears QB Bobby Douglass managed only four completions. The Bears did get 113 rushing yards on 20 carries by Jim Harrison and 68 yards rushing by Douglass, who threw for only 73 yards. He did find tight ends Bob Parsons and Earl Thomas for TD passes.

1975: Jack Pardee

Baltimore Colts 35, Bears 7

GM Jim Finks fired Gibron and hired Pardee, who had a nice run starting in 1976 as Bears coach but in his debut he had a miserable day on the road. The debut of rookie running back Walter Payton didn't go quite as expected as he had eight carries for no yards and was outrushed by teammates Douglass (34 yards), Cid Edwards (11 yards) and fullback Roland Harper (2 yards). Douglass threw for only 87 yards and was picked off twice. He ran for the only points on the day.

1978: Neill Armstrong

Bears 17, St. Louis Cardinals 10

The defense did the job in the debut of Armstrong, a former Vikings assistant under Bud Grant who stepped in when Pardee decided to quit and go to coach the  Redskins. Walter Payton ran for 101 yards and a TD on 26 carries and Harper ran for 93 yards on 18 carries with a TD as the Bear started a three-game winning steak, before going on an eight-game losing streak. Bob Avellini threw for only 72 yards on 8 of 19 but didn't need to do much to complement his running back and fullback because the defense held Jim Hart to only 152 yards passing on 17 of 33, with Virgil Livers and Terry Schmidt making interceptions in the rain at Soldier Field.

1982: Mike Ditka

Detroit Lions 17, Bears 10

The Bears defense held Billy Sims to 33 rushing yards and QBs Eric Hipple and Gary Danielson to 168 yards passing but the start of Mike Ditka's era was underwhelming. The Lions sacked Bob Avellini four times and Vince Evans once. Avellini threw for only 51 yards, Evans for 89 and Detroit held Payton to 26 rushing yards at the Silverdome on Sept. 12 to start a season later interrupted by a players strike. A year later Halas died, and in 1985 the Bears won it all in grand style.

1993: Dave Wannstedt

N.Y. Giants 26, Bears 20

At Soldier Field, Ditka's highly successful run ended with his firing after the 1992 season and Michael McCaskey's hand-picked coach took over. Wannstedt, the former Dallas defensive coordinator, lost the opener when Phil Simms threw a 1-yard TD pass to Jarrod Bunch in the fourth quarter. QB Jim Harbaugh threw for 178 yards on 16 of 28 with a 2-yard TD to WR Terry Obee and Myron "The Touchdown Maker" Baker returned a block punt 5 yards for a TD, while Kevin Butler connected on field goals of 34 and 20 yards in Chicago.

1999: Dick Jauron

Bears 20, Kansas City Chiefs 17

Jauron became coach after Michael McCaskey botched the hiring of Dave McGinnis, and the former Cardinals and Bears assistant left town for Arizona without signing a contract. Former Chiefs coach Gunther Cunningham termed the new Bears offense under coordinator Gary Crowton as "razzle dazzle" and a college-style attack, but it worked that day at Soldier Field with Curtis Enis catching a 10-yard TD pass and TE John Allred a 1-yarder from QB Shane Matthews while Brian Gowins made field goals of 21 and 24 yards. Cunningham was ultimately correct about the offense as Crowton left before the season to be head coach at BYU and the Bears' offense struggled on under coordinator John Shoop, who is a mentor of Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson.

2004: Lovie Smith

Detroit Lions 20, Bears 16

A successful run during Smith's coaching career as the first black Bears head coach begin with a loss as Bracy Walker returned a blocked field goal 92 yards for a TD and Joey Harrington hit Az-Zahir Hakim for a 4-yard winning T with 9:54 remaining. The Bears had a 2-yard TD run by Thomas Jones to take a 14-13 fourth-quarter lead in a Sept. 12 game at Soldier Field.

2013: Marc Trestman

Bears 24, Cincinnati Bengals 21

Marc Trestman was hired over Bruce Arians by GM Phil Emery, after the firing of Smith, and lasted only two seasons. In this Sept. 8 opener at Soldier Field, Matt Forte scored on a 1-yard run Jay Cutler found Martellus Bennett for an 8-yard TD and then got it to Brandon Marshall for a 19-yard TD with 7:58 left for the game-winning points.

2015: John Fox

Green Bay Packers 31, Bears 23

After the firing of Trestman and GM Emery, the Bears rebuilt under GM Ryan Pace and Fox. They got only three losing seasons and in the opener at Lambeau Field Randall Cobb broke open a 17-16 game that the Packers led with a 5-yard TD catch from Aaron Rodgers and then Eddie Lacy powered in from 2 yards out to lock it up at Lambeau Field.

2018: Matt Nagy

Green Bay Packers 24, Bears 23

Nagy's four-year run began with a fast start as Khalil Mack intercepted a Rodgers pass and returned it for a TD and the Bears knocked the Packers QB out of the game. But the Bears blew a 20-0 lead over the final 18:37 as Rodgers returned from the injury to lead a comeback that culminated in a 75-yard winning TD catch-and-run by Cobb.

2022: Matt Eberflus

Bears 19, San Francisco 49ers 10

GM Ryan Poles hired Eberflus from a pre-packaged group of three candidates supplied by George McCaskey, Bill Polian and Ted Phillips. The former Colts defensive coordinator made an impression in the opener as the Bears defense used its cover-2 approach to shut down QB Trey Lance, and QB Justin Fields rallied the Bears to a win. The HITS principle defense worked for two takeaways and Fields threw a 51-yard TD pass to Dante Pettis and 18-yarder to Equanimeous St. Brown as the Bears rallied from a 10-0 deficit in the last 20:32 of the game.

*In 1988 defensive coordinator Vince Tobin coached the Bears 2 games after Mike Ditka suffered a heart attack but was deemed acting coach. The games counted on Ditka's record.

In 2021 special teams coordinator Chris Tabor coached the Bears in one game but was only deemed acting head coach for the game, with Matt Nagy suffering from COVID. The Bears lost 33-22 to the 49ers. The game counted on Nagy's record.

Twitter: BearsOnSI

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.