LAKE FOREST — Chicago Bears owner and matriarch Virginia Halas McCaskey turned 100 on Thursday. McCaskey is the daughter of team founder, coach and NFL legend George Halas.
McCaskey has been the primary owner of the team since Halas’ death in 1983. She has been with the Chicago Bears since she was little and her father coached the organization.
According to the bearsMcCaskey celebrates his 100th birthday with a small family reunion.
McCaskey was born on January 5, 1923, just three years following her father coached the Decatur Staleys (later to become the Chicago Bears) in their first season in 1920. Few people have as many football witnesses as McCaskey has. from close. She accompanied her father on the Red Grange barnstorming tour in 1925-26 and attended the NFL’s first indoor game at Chicago Stadium in 1932.
McCaskey has guided the organization since her father’s death in 1983, but in recent years she has been a quiet, low-key owner. Her husband, Ed McCaskey, was the team’s president between 1983 and 1999. Ed McCaskey died in 2003. Virginia and Ed McCaskey had been married for 60 years and had 11 children. Their son George McCaskey has served as the team’s president since 2011.
Since the death of Arizona Cardinals owner Bill Bidwell in 2019, Virginia McCaskey has been the NFL’s longest-serving owner.
She continues to be the #1 Bears fan.
“His first conversation we had together was on the phone, and his last comment was, ‘Matt, you know I’ll be your biggest fan,'” first-year head coach Matt Eberflus said this week. . “That’s what she told me. Then I talked to her at the gala and different events, when she’s here she had lunch with [my wife] Kelly here one day, which was great. I had the chance to talk to him then, always encouraging, always optimistic, always thoughtful, and it was a joy to get to know him last year.
Bears tight end Cole Kmet, who grew up as a Bears fan in Lake Barrington, said he first met Virginia McCaskey when he was 15 during pre-season practice. Bears season.
“I kinda like to think of her as the queen of Chicago,” Kmet said. “She’s like royalty. Pretty amazing stuff. She has been around and she is very proud of this organization. We all feel this from the top down.
