Virginia Halas McCaskey (born January 5, 1923) is the principal owner of the Chicago Bears of the National Football League. She is the eldest child of former Bears coach and owner George Halas, who left the team to his daughter upon his death in 1983.

Chicago Bears matriarch Virginia McCaskey dies at 102

She inherited the Bears from her father in 1983, one of the few women in sports to hold such a powerful position.
By Patrick Finley Updated Feb 6, 2025, 11:34am CST

Virginia Halas McCaskey, the matriarch of the Bears franchise and the NFL’s most direct link to its founding, died Thursday morning at the age of 102.

In a statement, the Bears said, “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.”

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said she left a “legacy of class, dignity and humanity” and the “Bears that her father started meant the world to her.”

One of founder George Halas’ two children, Mrs. McCaskey was born Jan. 5, 1923. She and her late husband Ed McCaskey raised 11 children in an unassuming Des Plaines home.

After her brother, George “Mugs” Halas Jr., died in 1979, she was in line to inherit the team from her father. She did upon his death on Oct. 31, 1983, becoming one of the few women in sports to hold such a powerful position.

“He could have done things differently,” she told the Sun-Times in a rare interview in May 2018. “Some owners have planned to sell the team instead of handing it on to the next generation. He had faith in me after ‘Mugs’ died.

“I hope to justify the thing.”

Within two weeks of her father’s death, she and Ed — whom Virginia made chairman — named their son Michael the Bears’ president/CEO. Ted Phillips took his place in 1999, when Virginia decided to demote Michael to chairman in place of his father. When Michael retired in 2011, his brother George took over the role.

Ed died in 2003, two months after he and Virginia celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary.

Virginia represented 13 family members in holding about 80% of the Bears. On the board of directors, she voted her family’s shares.

How that voting bloc will be affected after her death is unclear. When asked in recent years about the team’s future, George has said repeatedly that his mother had a plan that would keep the team in the family after her death. The NFL mandates each team have a succession plan, though public details are vague.

For years, Virginia, a devout Catholic, quoted her son, Pat, who said the Bears would stay in the family until the “second coming.”

Witness to football history

Halas bought the franchise for $100 in 1920 and attended the famous meeting in Canton, Ohio, that founded the American Professional Football Association. Two years later, it became the National Football League. The Staleys, who had relocated from Decatur to Chicago the year before, were renamed the Bears.

When Halas took Red Grange on a barnstorming tour after his 1925 college season — a move that helped to legitimize the professional sport — he brought along his young daughter. When Virginia was 9, she attended the NFL’s first championship game.

“It’s a special feeling to be part of that Bears history, which was very significant in the survival and history of the team,” she said. “And for George Halas.”

She enrolled at Drexel University at age 16, in part to be under the supervision of her uncle, Walter Halas, who coached football, baseball and basketball. She met Ed, a Penn student, as a sophomore. They attended the 1942 NFL title game between the Bears and Washington, hoping to ask Halas for permission to marry.

The Bears lost — so they eventually eloped.

“Early on in my childhood, I realized that if I really wanted something, the best time to ask was after the Bears won a game,” she said. “When we didn’t win? ‘Let’s wait awhile.’ ”

The face of the game

Virginia graduated in 1943. She and her husband were close with running back Brian Piccolo, who died in 1970 of cancer after playing for the Bears for four years. She learned then not to get too close to Bears players — until star running back Walter Payton joined the team.

“After Brian Piccolo died, my husband Ed and I promised ourselves we wouldn’t be so personally involved with any of the players,” she said, eulogizing Payton in 1999. “We were able to follow that resolve until Walter Payton came into our lives.”

Even into her late 90s, Virginia was an active part of the franchise. Her sedan with a bumper sticker that read “Pray the Rosary” was often seen parked near the entrance of the facility named after her father.

The league’s oldest owner since the Bills’ Ralph Wilson died in 2014, Virginia and George traveled to NFL owners meetings and to Bears road games, where they sat in the owner’s box. She made fewer and fewer such trips in recent years.

Virginia made her most public appearance in years on the final day of the Bears 100 Weekend Celebration in June 2018. She charmed her way through a round-table discussion, joking that the team’s throwback socks “don’t turn me on” and claiming that, as a girl, she paid more attention to the players wearing the uniform.

Under her guidance, the Bears won their only Super Bowl of the modern era in January 1986. The franchise struggled until 21 years later, when she accepted the NFC championship trophy named after her father. She declared it her best day since the Bears beat the Patriots to win Super Bowl XX.

“It’s beautiful,” she said, looking at the trophy. “Just beautiful.”

She’s pissed off — allegedly

The Bears lost to the Colts in Super Bowl XLI and returned to the playoffs only once — a 2010 run that ended with an NFC title-game loss to the rival Packers — until reaching the postseason in 2018.

The media-shy Virginia’s words were invoked by her son in recent years — and after franchise-changing decisions. After the 2014 season, George McCaskey decided to fire general manager Phil Emery and coach Marc Trestman.

“She’s pissed off,” George said then, explaining his decision. “She’s fed up with mediocrity. She feels that she and Bears fans everywhere deserve better.”

Virginia said later she never used that wording. When a nun chided her for it, Virginia smiled and told her not to be upset with her son for exaggerating.

In September 2018, George recounted the moment when he told his mom the Bears could trade for star pass rusher Khalil Mack. They were in a Halas Hall elevator, and she spent the ride with her mouth agape in disbelief. She was in the building that day to present the Virginia Award, given by the Bears to an employee who best displays the characteristics synonymous with the matriarch herself: grace, humility, loyalty and dedication.

Brian Urlacher exemplified the respect the Bears had for her in August 2018. Two days before he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the former linebacker threw a party at a Canton, Ohio, hotel, not far from where Virginia’s father founded what would become the NFL.

Virginia arrived to the party at 12:15 a.m., after the Bears’ exhibition game had ended. The room stopped, Urlacher said, and he went immediately to hug her.

“Unbelievable,” Urlacher said then. “She walked into the room, and everyone was like, ‘Whoa. That’s George Halas’ daughter.’ ”

She was that — and more.

“I’m still trying to find words for what [the Bears] have meant to me, and, I hope, to all of you,” she told the crowd at Bears 100. “It has made me even more grateful for what my life has been, and the position that I’m in. There’s so many privileges and perks and blessings. I just can’t believe I’m here and I’m enjoying life at my age, the way I am.”

She is survived by 21 grandchildren, 40 great-grandchildren and four great-great-grandchildren.

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Feb 7 2025, 13:12:09 UTC