Chicago Bears owner Virginia McCaskey dies at age 102
By Todd Feurer
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CHICAGO (WBBM) — Chicago Bears owner Virginia McCaskey has died at the age of 102, the team announced Thursday.
“While we are sad, we are comforted knowing Virginia Halas McCaskey lived a long, full, faith-filled life and is now with the love of her life on earth,” the family said in a statement provided by the Bears. “She guided the Bears for four decades and based every business decision on what was best for Bears players, coaches, staff and fans.”
Mrs. McCaskey was the eldest child of “Papa Bear” George Halas Sr., who founded the Bears. He came on as a player/coach with the team – originally the Decatur Staleys – in 1920.
Born in 1923, she learned all about the team from her father, and inherited the team after his death in 1983. Her only brother, George “Mugs” Halas Jr., had died of a heart attack in 1979, leaving her as the sole heir to the franchise.
Two years after taking over as the team’s principal owner, the famed 1985 Chicago Bears team won Super Bowl XX in dominant fashion, beating the Patriots 46-10.
“Mrs. McCaskey understood, not only her father’s love and appreciation of football and the team which he played for, coached and owned, but also the love of the Chicago Bears by its fans. She always kept in mind what the Bears meant to the City of Chicago and what the city meant to the Bears,” the team said in a statement. “She had a passion for the team that matched her father’s, celebrating every win with grace while quietly suffering every loss.”
Mrs. McCaskey attended Chicago public schools until the 8th grade, when she transferred to St. Hilary Catholic school. She attended St. Scholastica Academy high school before getting her college degree from Drexel University in Pennsylvania in 1943.
It was at Drexel where she met her future husband, Ed. The two married on in February 1933 at St. Margaret Mary’s Church in Maryland.
While Mrs. McCaskey has been the team’s principal owner for more than 40 years, she left the operation of the team up to her late husband and children.
Her husband, Ed McCaskey, was already the team’s vice president when George Halas Sr. died in 1983, and he then took over as team chairman until he died in 1999.
“There is no one word to describe him,” Virginia McCaskey said of her husband in a 2013 interview for Drexel’s LeBow College of Business. “We had 60 good years. They weren’t always easy. We had eight sons and three daughters. He used to call me ‘Laughing Girl’ because it was either laugh or cry. But it was all good.
Their eldest son, Michael McCaskey, took over as president of the Bears after Halas’ death, and became chairman of the board in 1999, following his father’s death.
Michael McCaskey retired as team chairman in 2011, and his brother, George, took over as chairman and has run the team since. Michael McCaskey died of cancer at the age of 76 in 2020.
Mrs. McCaskey had 11 children, eight sons and three daughters. She is survived by her sons – Patrick (Gretchen), Edward Jr. (Kathy), George (Barbara), Richard, Brian (Barbara) and Joseph – and daughters Ellen (Barney) Tonquest, Mary and Anne (Mike) Catron. Her husband passed away in 2003. Their son, Timothy, passed in 2011 and Michael passed in 2020. She is also survived by 21 grandchildren, 40 great-grandchildren and four great-great-grandchildren.
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