Virginia Halas McCaskey, Chicago Bears Owner, Dies at 102

Mar. 15, 2025

Virginia Halas McCaskey in 2019.Photo:AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast

AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast

Virginia Halas McCaskey died onThursday, Feb. 6 at the age of 102.

McCaskey became the official owner of the Chicago Bears after her father and the team’s founder, George Halas, died in 1983 and left the team to her. During her tenure, the team won its first Super Bowl at the end of the 1985 season.

She was born Virginia Marion Halas in Chicago in 1923. She was the eldest child of George and Minnie Bushing Halas. George was not only the team’s founder, but also their first coach, and McCaskey remembered her father more for the latter than the former.

“His complete focus as far as I was concerned was on coaching the team, the ownership part never seemed as important as the results on the field,” she toldThe New York Timesin 2016.

Virginia Halas McCaskey in 2007.AP Photo/Dan Yuska

AP Photo/Dan Yuska

In 1932, at age 8, she attended her first NFL championship game (in the pre-Super Bowl era), and the Bears won. They won it six more times before the Super Bowl was created.

McCaskey studied business management at Drexel University, intending to become her father’s secretary, which she did. In 1943, she wed Ed McCaskey, who also began working for the Bears. Ed told theChicago Tribunein 1986 that Virginia’s father kept a scorecard of every play of every Bears game, and Virginia did the same.

“She has her fathers chin, her fathers determination,” he said. “She and I still surround ourselves with the Bears. But we’ve learned not to live and die with it. There`s more to live for than the Bears.”

Virginia Halas McCaskey celebrating a win in 2007.REUTERS/Shaun Best

REUTERS/Shaun Best

The couple had 11 children, who gave them more than 40 grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Ed died in 2008. Virginia was devoutly Catholic; when the Chicago Bears starred on HBO’sHard Knocksin 2024,the players weren’t shown cursing out of respect for her and the McCaskey family.

McCaskey’s father intended for her younger brother, George “Mugs” Halas Jr., to inherit the team, and he became team president in 1963. But Mugs died in 1979 from a heart attack. When George Sr. died in 1983, Virginia took over.

“I realized that I was in that position because my dad had enough faith in me to make it possible,” she toldMarket Street Magazinein 2013, perBears.com. “I think we both knew how much the Bears meant to me.” The Bears won their first Super Bowl in 1986.

Virginia Hala McCaskey (left) and her son George in 2011.Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

In the 2000s, McCaskey began speaking to Bears rookies at the invitation of then head coach Lovie Smith. “I like to remind them that it hasn’t always been charter flights and very good hotels, millions of dollars and bonuses and high salaries,” she toldThe New York Timesin 2016. “I like to give them a little thought to what the original players did to help all of this get started.”

McCaskey often brought her children and grandchildren to league meetings, because she wanted them to care not just about the Bears but the entire NFL. “I want our family to attend so they get some idea that it isn’t just our interest in the Chicago Bears,” she toldThe New York Times. “We are part of a much larger picture, and we have a great deal of responsibility. The best things people have said to me were Dad and Mugs did what was best for the good of the league rather than what was best for the Chicago Bears.”

Virginia Halas McCaskey (left) and former Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher in 2018.Mike Wulf/CSM/Shutterstock

Mike Wulf/CSM/Shutterstock

“I kind of like to think of her like the queen of Chicago,” Bears tight end Cole Kmet said when McCaskey turned 100 in 2023, perCBS. “She’s like royalty. Pretty amazing stuff — you know, she’s been around, and she just takes great pride in this organization, and you know, we all feel that from the top down.”

She had mixed feelings about her place as one of the most powerful women in football. “Pride is a word I try to avoid because I’m in this position due to my inheritance,” she toldABCin 2019 when the Bears turned 100. “I haven’t done anything to earn it. I still consider it a man’s world, and I’m very grateful to be involved as much as I am. I think it’s a great privilege, and I have to make sure that I don’t disappoint.”

Virginia Halas McCaskey in 2018.AP Photo

AP Photo

McCaskey attended every Bears game, home and away. “I’m slow, but I’m grateful for what I’m able to do,” she told theTimes. “People are very kind to me.” On road trips, the team would joke, “The buses wait for no man — and only one woman.” She was the oldest owner in major league sports in the United States and the longest tenured.

source: people.com