List Of Chicago Bears Seasons
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Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine NF ...
franchise Franchise may refer to: Business and law * Franchising, a business method that involves licensing of trademarks and methods of doing business to franchisees * Franchise, a privilege to operate a type of business such as a cable television p ...
was founded as the Decatur Staleys, a charter member of the
American Professional Football Association The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the maj ...
(APFA). The team moved to
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
, Illinois, in 1921 and changed its name to the Bears in 1922, the same year the APFA changed its name to the
National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...
(NFL). This list documents the franchise's completed seasons from 1920 to present, including postseason records and results from postseason games. The Chicago Bears have played over 1,000 games in their history, and have had eight
NFL Championships Throughout its history, the National Football League (NFL) and other rival American football leagues have used several different formats to determine their league champions, including a period of inter-league matchups to determine a true national c ...
victories and one
Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual final playoff game of the National Football League (NFL) to determine the league champion. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966, replacing the NFL Championship Game. Since 2022, the game ...
win. The Bears' nine championships are the second most by any team in NFL history. The franchise has captured 18 NFL divisional titles and four NFL conference championships. The Bears have also recorded more regular season victories than any other NFL franchise. The franchise has experienced three major periods of continued success in their history. The first period of success came from to when the Bears won six NFL Championships. In this period the Bears participated in the first National Football League playoff game, the first
NFL Championship Game Throughout its history, the National Football League (NFL) and other rival American football leagues have used several different formats to determine their league champions, including a period of inter-league matchups to determine a true national c ...
, and become the American football sports dynasty of the 1940s. The Bears played in four straight NFL Championship Games between and , winning three of them, including an NFL record 73–0 victory over the
Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) N ...
in 1940. The second period of success was between and when the Bears captured six
NFC Central Division The National Football Conference – Northern Division or NFC North is one of the four divisions of the National Football Conference (NFC) in the National Football League (NFL). Nicknamed the "Black and Blue Division" for the rough and tough r ...
titles in eight years and won
Super Bowl XX Super Bowl XX was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Chicago Bears and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion New England Patriots to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for ...
. A brief period of success stretched from to
2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...
when the franchise captured two straight
NFC North The National Football Conference – Northern Division or NFC North is one of the four divisions of the National Football Conference (NFC) in the National Football League (NFL). Nicknamed the "Black and Blue Division" for the rough and tough ri ...
titles and a
NFC Championship The NFC Championship Game is the annual championship game of the National Football Conference (NFC) and one of the two semi-final playoff games of the National Football League (NFL), the largest professional American football league in the world. ...
title, which earned them a berth in
Super Bowl XLI Super Bowl XLI was an American football game played between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Indianapolis Colts and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Chicago Bears to decide the National Football League (NFL) champio ...
, a game that the club lost to the
Indianapolis Colts The Indianapolis Colts are a professional American football team based in Indianapolis. The Colts compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) South division. Since the 2008 ...
. Despite their historic championship record and long periods of success, the Bears have also experienced periods of failure in their history. The franchise finished in last place within its division five times in the 1970s. In 1971, the team moved from
Wrigley Field Wrigley Field is a Major League Baseball (MLB) stadium on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois. It is the home of the Chicago Cubs, one of the city's two MLB franchises. It first opened in 1914 as Weeghman Park for Charles Weeghman's Chicago Wh ...
to
Soldier Field Soldier Field is a multi-purpose stadium on the Near South Side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Opened in 1924 and reconstructed in 2003, the stadium has served as the home of the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL) since 1 ...
to play its home games. In the mid- to late 1990s and early 2000s, the club posted six seasons with 10 or more losses. By chance, these two decades—the 1970s and 1990s—are the only decades in the Bears history that the franchise has not won or played for an NFL Championship or Super Bowl. In the season, the franchise posted their worst regular season record with a 1–13 showing.


Legend


Season records


Footnotes

* No official standings were maintained for the 1920 season, and the championship was awarded to the Akron Pros in a League meeting on April 30, 1921. Clubs played schedules that included games against nonleague opponents. * The NFL did not hold playoff games until 1933. The team that finished with the best regular season record was named the league champions. * The result of the
1932 NFL Playoff Game The 1932 NFL Playoff Game was an extra game held to break a tie in the season's final standings in the National Football League. It matched the host Chicago Bears and the Portsmouth Spartans. Because of snowfall and anticipated extremely cold te ...
to determine the NFL champion between the Bears and the
Portsmouth Spartans The professional American football team now known as the Detroit Lions previously played in Portsmouth, Ohio, as the Portsmouth Spartans, from its founding in 1928 to its relocation to Detroit in 1934. Originally drawing players from defunct indepe ...
. The game counted in the standings and broke the tie. * The score of the playoff game is in parenthesis with the winning score first no matter the outcome for the Bears. * The Bears were denied perfect seasons on two accounts. The first one was in the
1934 Events January–February * January 1 – The International Telecommunication Union, a specialist agency of the League of Nations, is established. * January 15 – The 8.0 1934 Nepal–Bihar earthquake, Nepal–Bihar earthquake strik ...
when the 13–0 club lost to the
New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. ...
in the Championship game. The second occurrence happened in
1942 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 – WWII: The Declaration by United Nations is signed by China, the United Kingdom, the United States, the Soviet Union, and 22 other nations, in wh ...
when the 11–0 club was denied perfection and a "three-peat" by the
Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) N ...
. * The Bears victory over the Redskins in the 1940 NFL Championship is an NFL record for greatest margin of victory and most points scored in a game. * The Bears tied with the Rams for 1st place at the end of the season, but they lost a one-game playoff tiebreaker and therefore did not win a Conference Championship. * The
1967 NFL season The 1967 NFL season was the 48th regular season of the National Football League. The league expanded to 16 teams with the addition of the New Orleans Saints. The two 8-team conferences were split into two divisions each: the Eastern Conference ...
marks the first season in the league's history where the league was divided into two conferences which were subdivided into two divisions. Up to 1967, the league was either divided into two divisions, two conferences, or neither. * As a result of the
AFL–NFL merger The AFL–NFL merger was the merger of the two major professional American football leagues in the United States at the time: the National Football League (NFL) and the American Football League (AFL). It paved the way for the combined league, w ...
, the league was broken into two conferences, with the AFL teams moving into the American Football Conference. * As of the
2010 NFL season The 2010 NFL season was the 91st regular season of the National Football League and the 45th of the Super Bowl era. The regular season began with the NFL Kickoff game on NBC on Thursday, September 9, at the Louisiana Superdome as the New Orle ...
, this season marks the last tie game the Bears played. It was a game at
Soldier Field Soldier Field is a multi-purpose stadium on the Near South Side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Opened in 1924 and reconstructed in 2003, the stadium has served as the home of the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL) since 1 ...
on September 24, 1972 against the
Los Angeles Rams The Los Angeles Rams are a professional American football team based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Rams compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) West division. The Rams play ...
. The game ended at 13–13. * The 1982 season was a strike-shortened season so the league was divided up into two conferences instead of its normal divisional alignment. * The Bears win in
Super Bowl XX Super Bowl XX was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Chicago Bears and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion New England Patriots to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for ...
, marked the franchise's first
Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual final playoff game of the National Football League (NFL) to determine the league champion. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966, replacing the NFL Championship Game. Since 2022, the game ...
victory and their ninth league championship. * The strike of
1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, k ...
reduced the regular season schedule from 16 to 15 games. * The Divisional Playoff game against the Eagles was known as the Fog Bowl due to the heavy fog that covered the field for most of the game. * As of the
2010 NFL season The 2010 NFL season was the 91st regular season of the National Football League and the 45th of the Super Bowl era. The regular season began with the NFL Kickoff game on NBC on Thursday, September 9, at the Louisiana Superdome as the New Orle ...
, this is the second postseason meeting of the Bears and
Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. It ...
in their longstanding rivalry.


References

;General * * * * * * ;Specific


External links


Chicago Bears season database
{{DEFAULTSORT:List Of Chicago Bears Seasons
Seasons A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and po ...
Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine NF ...