Obviously, these players aren't Cubs. Follow me after the jump to discuss the significance of this photo.
This photo was taken on the date of the last NFL game played at Wrigley Field, a 35-17 Bears win over the Packers on December 13, 1970. Wrigley Field held the record for hosting the most regular-season NFL games (365) until 2003. Giants Stadium passed it that year, but only because both the Giants and Jets played there. Lambeau Field surpassed the 50 seasons that Wrigley hosted football (1921-70) in 2007.
#51 should be instantly recognizable to you as Hall of Famer Dick Butkus. #11 is quarterback Jack Concannon, who that day threw for 338 yards and four touchdowns. (#67 is lineman George Seals, and the Packers' #29 is defensive back Al Matthews.) Note the "C" on the helmets was plain white -- the orange stripe within the "C" on the Bears helmet logo wasn't added until a couple of years later. In fact, there was a time when Bobby Douglass was the starting QB when the Bears seriously considered changing their helmet color to orange so that Douglass could see his receivers better (he was famous for overthrowing just about everyone).
What's also fascinating about this photo is what you see in the background. Behind the LF catwalk are -- well, what are those? Curtains? Some sort of windscreen? (Doubtful, with the holes in it.) If anyone here attended Bears games in the last few years at Wrigley Field, can you tell us what those were?
Remember, if you want high-quality prints of any of these historic photos, email Leo Bauby at this address.
0 recs | 62 comments
I would have absolutely hated
to be hit by Dick Butkus. That’s assuming I lived through the experience!!
Fonzie2178 - December 22, 2009
That is a sweet picture!
Butkus just looks like he wants to hurt people every time I see him in picture or film.
goodstuff96 - December 22, 2009
Layout of Football field
I would love to see an overhead photo of the football layout at Wrigley. It would have to be very cramped, because I don’t believe any of the seating is retractable. How were the bleacher seats for football?
perseman - December 22, 2009
They put temporary bleachers in right field for football.
It looked like this:
Al Yellon - December 22, 2009
ask and ye shall receieve
they used a temporary structure of some sort on the RF side. also, I’ve read that Halas put up a chair at the end of every row to squeeze more people in.
mjk83 - December 22, 2009
LOL
We found the same photo. Also, the end zones were only eight yards long, not ten.
Al Yellon - December 22, 2009
as cool as it would be
the more I look at Wrigley Field the less I think it’s possible that they will ever be able to do the NU-UI football game there that they were talking about.
mjk83 - December 22, 2009
What they are talking about doing...
… if they do that NU game, is to place the field from home plate to CF, instead of the layout in the photos above.
Al Yellon - December 22, 2009
right
I remember that. I still don’t know that it would work though. I would think that it would get real tight in the corners of the endzone on the home plate side.
mjk83 - December 22, 2009
Probably so.
But it would be the only way to do it and have a legitimate-length football field — as noted above, doing it the way they have it in the photos above would result in end zones that would be too short.
Al Yellon - December 22, 2009
Where did you get that info on the end zones?
The SE corner end zone was cut off because it would run into the baseball visitors dugout. The LF foul line is 355’ (plus accounting for the well) and it looks like most of the South end zone is in baseball foul territory.
Zoom in on the pic. Even though its a bit blurry, it seems to me the end zones are 10 yards deep except for the SE corner.
blackhawk24 - December 22, 2009
I can't find a link right now.
But I recall reading from many different sources that the Wrigley Field end zones were not regulation size.
Al Yellon - December 22, 2009
I love this picture
My favorite Bear ever. No one can ever replace your childhood sports heroes.
rlpete - December 22, 2009
Yes.
We all loved George Seals. :)
the nth - December 22, 2009
What?
Yours’ wasn’t Jack Concannon like mine?
propheteer - December 22, 2009
Ed O'Bradovich, FTW!
:-)
CaughtInTheVines - December 22, 2009
I remember we always used to...
… yell for the Bears to replace whatever QB was sucking at the time, with backup Larry Rakestraw.
I looked it up. Rakestraw played in 12 NFL games in his three-year career.
Great football name, though.
Al Yellon - December 22, 2009
Typo.
13 games. But he still wasn’t very good.
Al Yellon - December 22, 2009
Can we still do that?
It’s not like whatever QB was sucking at the time has changed
chitownhawkeye - December 22, 2009
It's hard to argue that the Bears would have been any worse...
… if Caleb Hanie had started every game this year.
Al Yellon - December 22, 2009
Melky Cabrera + prospects to the Braves
for Javy Vazquez and Boone Logan.
KillaAK - December 22, 2009
This comment would have been better...
… in this fanpost which is actually about that exact topic.
Al Yellon - December 22, 2009
Well, not really, since the fanpost states that in the first place
So it would just be redundant in there without additional commentary.
;-)
Shanghai Badger - December 22, 2009
LOL
True. Still, it doesn’t really belong here.
Al Yellon - December 22, 2009
A couple of points of interest
My father had a pair season tickets that were actually in a junket of 8 from my “Godfather” who played a couple seasons on the Bears in the late 40’s but got hurt, Halas gave him the tic’s for one season but he had to buy them who got them each successive season. Marv started a sporting goods store where my father was a friend-investor and got the tics through that exchange, store failed but the kept the tickets and bought them as a junket. They were in the RF temporary bleachers, good seats then, 35 yard line (north end). Before the North Shore Line closed one could catch it in Waukegan just before Noon (Express) and be in your seat by 1PM.
You used be able to bring in food and beverages and the junket commissioned a down blanket to cover all those sitting in the section for colder games. The screen on the north end my father recalls was installed to block the wind (AND a few roof toppers watching the game on Waveland).
As for Butkus when the Bears sucked some of the best moments was watching him intimidate and tee off on the center during punting and FG/extra points. He would get a running start trying to anticipate the snap and drive in and under the vulnerable snapper and then lift him up and onto his back. They later changed the rule not allowing this kind of inside play where if you hit a snapper you had to be in a three/four point stance.
During punts Butkus also took homage on the punter often chasing him around the field.
When the Bears moved to Soldier Field my father’s seats suddenly got worse, pushed down to the 15 yrd line where the sight lines and experience was nothing like Wrigley. As a kid at Wrigley I could remember watching Sayers, Buffone, Dick Gordan, and getting a monster Corn Beef on Rye in a bar/restaurant on Addison called the “End Zone”.
Ivy Walls - December 22, 2009
That must be how we got to Cubs games way back when.
We used to live in Waukegan when until I was almost six. Those were the days. Dad had a ‘67 Galaxie two-door sedan, and we’d fly at 85 MPH down the Interstate to Louisville to visit the grandparents. He’d throw a crib mattress back there in case we wanted to snooze, make us pee in beer bottles (PBR or Schlitz in returnables, ’natch), and generally put up with us being royal pains in the buttocks the whole way down. And back. Especially back.
Once a year, we would get to see the Cubs play a weekend doubleheader. I had little recollection what was going on; I was just glad to be there.
Steaming Pile - December 22, 2009
Hey I lived in Waukegan too.
and taking the train was how I got to Wrigley. Only saw a couple of games as a kid. Somehow became more of hardcore fan after moving to MN.
MinnesotaFan - December 22, 2009
This picture of Wrigley also gives you a good view
of the open area that used to be in the right field corner into the 60s. That’s where they used to drag the batting cages after batting practice. If you walked along the main aisle out to the fence by Sheffield, you would just look down into a big cement area with batting cages and grounds crew equipment.
For football, the seats in front of the area were blocked by the temporary bleachers and covered with the tarp. Obviously the temporary stands in right couldn’t be put up up until the Cubs were done playing so any preseason games at Wrigley were played with fans sitting distantly in the right field bleachers. I did that once in ‘66 or ’67. Not a great view to be sure. Especially with the opposing team’s bench between you and the field.
The fact that the Bears couldn’t play a home game until October meant they had to play their first three and sometimes even four games on the road before coming home to Wrigley. In a 14 game schedule that can put you in a hell of a hole. Of course, so could having Bobby Douglass and Larry Rakestraw as your quarterbacks.
the nth - December 22, 2009
That photo was likely taken in 1968 or 1969.
That area was still under construction, as they were turning the RF corner seats so they would face the plate. The area was eventually filled in as it is now, but not until 1970 or so.
Al Yellon - December 22, 2009
"The fact that the Bears couldn’t play a home game until October"
I’m not nearly the die-hard Cubs fan that a lot of you are, but reading that made me sigh wistfully. I can only imagine what it does to you old-timers…
ballhawk - December 22, 2009
Well, the postseason wasn't so wacky then
As late as 1968 there was just the regular season and the World Series – so baseball would be done by October 10 or so.
ChipSet - December 22, 2009
I remember
going to a Bears game during a December blizzard as a kid. Had standing room tickets behind the grandstand. Froze, but thought I was having fun.
Don’t remember the opponent or whether the Bears won or lost.
Haven’t cared in many years.
Clark Addison - December 22, 2009
Great picture
Even Butkus’ teammates had reason to fear him.
“Please don’t hit me for that incompletion!”
propheteer - December 22, 2009
LOL
Based on the dirt on the uniforms, I’m guessing that photo was taken either at halftime or after the game.
Al Yellon - December 22, 2009
I think those were windscreens -- BECAUSE of the holes...
I’ve hung many professional banners that have ‘slits’ or holes in them to let the breeze pass through…..that’s common practice to keep such banners from ripping in high winds. I think that why the holes are in the tarps.
Of course, knowing the miserly ways of George Halas, perhaps he was making sure there was NO way to see into Wrigley Field to catch the game for free.
The bleachers in RF effectively stopped any rooftop viewing.
But, I believe the tarps ARE windscreens.
San Diego Smooth Jazz Man - December 22, 2009
I've heard that when the Bears played at Wrigley....
they used it for games AND practices. This was obviously before they were based in Lake Forest. How they ever got the field ready for baseball is beyond me, if it was completely destroyed by the end of the football season, then the worst part of winter sets in, and they had to have it ready by April. Had to be a groundskeeping nightmare.
ctcoff99 - December 22, 2009
I remember right field...
… having many dead spots on the grass early in the season, until the Bears moved out.
Al Yellon - December 22, 2009
And that was because BOTH teams were in front of the erector-set
bleachers built over the RF bleachers. Both teams trudging up and down the sidelines had to screw the grass horribly — and probably they had to support those bleachers into the grass too — digging into RF. (No team bench along the west sideline , because they would have blocked the view of all the box seat patrons. You can clearly see that from the aerial shots.)
Those same bleachers moved to the old Soldier Field when the Bears moved. They should have been condemned, as friends who sat in those bleachers have related to me…..
San Diego Smooth Jazz Man - December 22, 2009
I sat in those bleachers in 1973.
They were definitely horrible. Eventually they built permanent seats in the north end zone at Soldier Field.
Al Yellon - December 22, 2009
My brother was born on the same day as this game -
Mom was born in Green Bay so we were raised as Packers fans – for his 39th birthday this year he finally got revenge for the shellacking the Pack took back then
doofus cubs guy - December 22, 2009
Look
at the far right upper side. I think that is Ivy Walls.
wild bill - December 22, 2009
I think if you look at some of the pix that Al has posted lately
— and some of them are early in various seasons….you can still see the worn-out football damage in LF. I seriously doubt if ANYTHING was done to the field except to cover it when it rained and run a mower over it. Re sodding? Doubtful.
I don’t think field standards were of importance to anybody in that era.
If I recall, the old metal ‘slots’ that the goal posts were fastened to were uncovered during the recent rebuild of the field.
San Diego Smooth Jazz Man - December 22, 2009
You're correct about the goalpost supports.
They were found near first base.
Al Yellon - December 22, 2009
That's pretty cool
A useless but fun buried treasure :)
PacificCub - December 22, 2009
The Cubs threw it out.
I’m surprised they didn’t try to auction it off at the Cubs Convention. Could have raised quite a bit of money for Cubs Care.
Al Yellon - December 22, 2009
Or even sent it along to Canton, OH
Maybe they’d want it?
PacificCub - December 22, 2009
Probably so.
Too late now.
Al Yellon - December 22, 2009
Sometimes it's amazing thinking about the things we keep...
thinking they are valuable and then those things we throw away thinking they aren’t.
One person’s junk is another person’s treasure I guess…
Zeke - December 23, 2009
you sure they were thrown out?
I thought somebody (or some group/organization) ended up with them. I remember it was pretty big news when the Cubs found them so it seems it’d be kinda hard to just throw them out.
Or maybe all the “news” came out well after the fact?
ballhawk - December 23, 2009
Screens?
Keep the kicks from going onto Waveland?
Years ago there were no nets to stop the footballs from going into the stands. I remember my Dad telling me about the 1940 NFL championship game in DC. He was visiting the East coast and managed to score a ticket to that December game.
When the Bears scored their final TD of the 73-0 blowout, officials asked them to run or throw for the extra point because they were nearly out of footballs due to all the extra point kicks going into the stands.
blackhawk24 - December 22, 2009
some of the kicks went out onto Waveland anyway
always fun talking to the old-timer ballhawks about trying to catch extra-points out there. Footballs didn’t make it all the way out to Waveland on a regular basis, but often enough that some guys would hang out there, just in case.
The way they tell the stories, every time there was a touchdown in that end of the field, the guys that were out there would all be thinking the same thing – “C’mon, hurry up. Hurry up and kick the extra point. C’mon, c’mon let’s go!!!”
Reason being is that right after the touchdown, lots of big burly men would come lumbering out of Murphy’s from the left and Bernie’s from the right, and they would converge on Waveland & Kenmore, trying to get there in time for the extra point. And yes, most times, they would be well-lubricated with alcohol. Catching the football was hard enough – but hanging on to it was the real challenge. You had to catch it quick and run like hell.
Sorry I missed all the fun – I didn’t get here until 1990. Would have liked to have seen some of those scrums.
ballhawk - December 22, 2009
wow
Slamdog - December 22, 2009
To my recollection (and I only saw 2 Bears games at Wrigley)
…all PAT’s and FG’s went sailing onto Waveland, and also into the 1B seating areas. I don’t recall any screens.
San Diego Smooth Jazz Man - December 22, 2009
sadly I cannot ask my Aunt's father-in-law who passed
since he had played at Wrigley while a Bear and Packer
sure it was a two year career of not a whole lot, but he had the NFL pin, and could honestly say he made it.
Cubbie-Tim - December 23, 2009
So is this 7th photo an homage to "football"'s TD + PAT = 7 points Al?
Seems appropriate.
BTW, I love seeing Dick & Jack again. These were the NFL guys I watched on Sundays (not the Lions).
And for whatever reason, I loved watching games in the late 1960s and early 1970s with Oakland’s George Blanda. I always rooted for him and the Raiders when they played their arch nemesis: the Kansas City Chiefs.
I don’t know why. I couldn’t care less about either team now…
Zeke - December 23, 2009
Blanda started his career with the Bears.
Given the quality of most QB’s after he left, it’s a pretty good argument that they might have won more championships in the ’60s with him.
Al Yellon - December 23, 2009
I don't think they would have won any more with Blanda in the 60s.
They just weren’t a very good team. The ‘65 Bears were the best of the lot but put themselves in a hole by losing their first three games. (Those damn road games at the start of the season when they played at Wrigley) Rudy Bukich was their quarterback that year and I think he led the league in passing so it’s hard to see how Blanda would have made too much of a difference that season. They blew their last game of the season to the Vikings (I was at the game – As I recall Minnesota scored three TDs in the fourth quarter) If they had won they would have been 10-4 and I still don’t think that would have been good enough to make the playoffs. (Not as many teams in the playoffs back then)
In ‘68, with the playoffs expanded a bit, the Bears had a chance to squeak in the last day of the season but lost to the Packers. That was the year Sayers was hurt and there’s no way they would have gone anywhere even if they’d made the playoffs and Johnny Unitas was the QB.
the nth - December 23, 2009
Point taken.
And then they screwed themselves by going 1-13 in 1969. How? The one team they beat was the Steelers, who also went 1-13. At that time draft ties were broken by coin flip. The Bears lost the flip.
The Steelers drafted some unknown kid QB named Bradshaw.
Al Yellon - December 23, 2009
Also, you're right about the 1965 playoffs.
Only the division winners made the playoffs. The Packers and Colts (then in the “old” NFL) tied at 10-3-1 and played a tiebreaker game. The Bears still would have been short at 10-4.
The Bears lost that Vikings game 24-17 when Bukich threw an interception that was returned for a TD.
Al Yellon - December 23, 2009
The irony of those Bear teams in '66, '67 and '68 is that
they had the greatest defensive and offensive players in all of football, and very little else. Talk about a team that got off the bus running – I finally had time to look at some stats. In 1968, the year they had a chance to make the playoffs on the last day of the season, Dick Gordon led the team in receptions with 29! Brian Piccolo was next with 28.
But through the 8+ games that Sayers played, he was averaging over 6 yards per carry. Even Ralph Kurek, who I remember as sucking, was over 4 yards per carry. Piccolo was over 3.5 which given the current state of the Bears, sounds downright wonderful.
the nth - December 24, 2009
If Sayers hadn't had the knee injuries...
… he’d likely have set all kinds of rushing records.
Al Yellon - December 24, 2009
The irony of that is,
For many years, the Packers started every season playing two or three home games before heading on the road, and almost always finished the season playing Los Angeles and San Francisco in the last two weeks of the season.
And, even when the playoffs expanded, not all the best teams got in. In 1967, the first year of the expansion, the Baltimore Colts beat both the Packers and Dallas Cowboys, who played for the NFL Title that year in the “Ice Bowl.” And yet, the Colts didn’t make the playoffs because the Los Angeles Rams finished with the same record, and had the head-to-head tiebreaker.
As if that wasn’t enough, the Colts and Rams both had better records than the Packers and Cowboys. I believe Baltimore and Los Angeles finished 1967 with 12-1-1 records, while Green Bay went 9-4-1 and Dallas went 9-5.
Vermont Cubs Fan - December 24, 2009
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