player, coach, owner and pioneer in professional football owner and pioneer in professional football
During the summer of his sophomore year he played baseball with the Western Electric company team in Chicago. Additionally he captained the varsity basketball team during his senior year, but his football skills remained marginal.
Halas graduated from Illinois in 1918 with a degree in civil engineering, only to be caught up in World War I.
He served in the military during both World War I and World War II.He is often referred to as the "Father of the National Football League". In 1920 he helped found the National Football League and established the team that would become the Chicago Bears. He served as the Bears' coach for most of the next 50 years. Under his coaching, the Bears won seven league championships and four division titles.
Innovations:
• Added a man-in-motion and perfected the classic T-Formation
• First coach to hold daily practice sessions
• First to utilize films of opponents' games for study
• First to schedule a barnstorming tour
• First to have his team's games broadcast on radio
1919 Rose Bowl Most Valuable Player
6 National Football League Championships (1921, 1933, 1940, 1941, 1946, 1963)
2× Associated Press National Football League Coach of the Year (1963, 1965)
2× Sporting News Coach of the Year (1963, 1965)
2× United Press International National Football League Coach of the Year (1963, 1965)
National Football League 1920s All-Decade Team
Record for Chicago Bears career wins (324)
Chicago Bears#7 retired
318–148–31 (regular season record)
6–4 (playoff record)
324–152–31 (overall record)
Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of '63
