A brief timeline of key moments in Virginia Halas McCaskey’s life

Chicago Bears team owner and matriarch Virginia Halas McCaskey died at age 102 on Thursday, the team announced.

McCaskey saw more football history than maybe anyone else in America. She accompanied her father on the Red Grange barnstorming tour in 1925 and attended the first indoor NFL game at Chicago Stadium in 1932. She was in charge of the organization during the 1985 Super Bowl run.

Below is a timeline of her life, which will be forever linked to the Chicago Bears.

1920: George Stanley Halas, who briefly played baseball for the New York Yankees, moved to Decatur, Illinois, and joined the A. E. Staley Company as a sales representative. He joined the company-sponsored football team the Decatur Staleys.

1921: George Halas bought the Staleys football team for $100 and moved the team to Cubs Park (later named Wrigley Field) in Chicago. The team won its first championship during the 1921 season.

1922: George Halas changed the team’s name to the Chicago Bears.

1923: Virginia Marion Halas was born on Jan. 5.

1925: The Bears signed Red Grange and went on a barnstorming tour across the country.

1932: Virginia Halas attended the NFL’s first unofficial championship game, where the Bears won their second league title against the Portsmouth Spartans. Prior to 1932, the NFL did not have any playoff games. The league instituted an official championship game beginning in 1933. Virginia Halas also attended the NFL’s first indoor game that same year.

1933: After retiring as a player-coach following the 1929 season, George Halas returned to the sidelines as a the Bears head coach in 1933. The Bears won another championship in 1933 too.

1940: George Halas led the Bears to their most successful stretch with championships in 1940, 1941, 1943 and 1946. He entered the Navy in 1942 and served during World War II.

1943: Virginia Halas married Edward W. McCaskey on Feb. 2. Their eldest son Michael McCaskey was born on Dec. 11. Michael was the first of 11 McCaskey children.

1956: Current Bears chairman George Halas McCaskey was born on March 29.

1963: The Bears named Virginia McCaskey’s brother George “Mugs” Halas Jr. team president in 1963. That same year Bears won their first NFL championship in nearly two decades.

1968: George Halas Sr. retired as a coach on May 27.

1971: The Bears moved their home games from Wrigley Field to Soldier Field.

1979: George “Mugs” Halas Jr. died of a heart attack on Dec. 16. Halas Jr. had been the heir apparent to the Chicago Bears. Halas Jr.‘s death left Virginia McCaskey as the only living child of Halas Sr.

1983: George Halas Sr. died at age 88 from pancreatic cancer on Oct. 31. Virginia McCaskey took over ownership of the Chicago Bears. Her eldest son Michael McCaskey became team president that same year.

1985: The Bears put together a historic 15-1 season that culminated with their last championship at Super Bowl XX in January 1986. It remains the team’s only championship in the Super Bowl era.

1992: The Bears fired Super Bowl-winning coach Mike Ditka after a 5-11 campaign in 1992.

1999: Virginia McCaskey fired her son Michael McCaskey as team president not long after the team botched the hiring of Dave McGinnis as head coach. The team announced a news conference before finalizing the coach’s contract, which caused McGinnis to back out of the deal. The Bears promoted Ted Phillips to the role of team president. Michael McCaskey assumed the role of chairman of the board of directors.

2001: The state and city approved renovation plans for Soldier Field.

2003: Virginia McCaskey’s husband Ed McCaskey died on April 8.

2006: The Bears put together their best season in years, going 13-3 on the strength of coach Lovie Smith’s defense. They reached Super Bowl XLI in January 2007, but lost to the Indianapolis Colts.

2011: Michael McCaskey retired as team chairman and his younger brother George McCaskey took the position.

2019: Arizona Cardinals owner Bill Bidwill died on Oct. 2, which made Virginia McCaskey the NFL’s longest-tenured owner.

2023: Virginia McCaskey turned 100 years old on Jan. 5. That same month the Bears hired Kevin Warren as team president with Ted Phillips set to retire.

2025: The Bears defeated the hated Green Bay Packers on Virginia McCaskey’s 102nd birthday in what would be the last game of her lifetime. Virginia McCaskey died at 102 years old on Feb. 6, 2025.