1942: George Halas Goes Off to War and the Bears Go On Defense and Winning Streak-- Part 1

From the November 16, 2019, Chicago Sun-Times.

I have been writing about the Chicago Bears in my Cooter's History Thing blog earlier this month.

When founder and coach George Halas left the undefeated Chicago Bears to serve in the U.S. Navy as a lieutenant commander in the middle of the 1942 season, the Bears responded with one of the great defensive runs of all time in the NFL.

They shut out the winless Detroit Lions 16-0 in their first game without Halas, then beat the Brooklyn Dodgers 42-0 in Brooklyn the next week.

They nearly had a third consecutive shutout when they were leading the rival Packers 38-0 late in the fourth quarter at Wrigley Field -- until Cecil Isbell threw a seven-yard touchdown pass to Don Hutson late in the final quarter.

But the Bears kept on going.  They beat the Lions 42-0 (with 12 takeaways), the Rams 47-0 and they did not allow a offensive touchdown in a 21-7 victory against the rival Cardinals to complete an 11-0 season.  The Cardinals scored off a fumkble on an aborted Bears punt in the waning moments.

--GreGen