How Every Chicago Bears Coach Did in Their First Season

On Jan. 21^st, 2025, Ben Johnson was hired as the head coach of the Chicago Bears. The arrival of the 39-year-old, who’d spent the previous three seasons as the offensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions, got us thinking about how Bears coaches have fared in their first season in charge.

By Dave Lifton (@daveeatschicago)

In their 1919 inaugural season, the amateur Decatur Staleys, as they were known, were helmed by Robert E. Brannan, who also played end. The team posted a 6-1 record, and was named as the Central Illinois Champions. Brannan left after that one season to become the head coach at his alma mater, Ottawa University in Ottawa, Kan. The Staleys became a charter member of the American Professional Football Association and hired George “Papa Bear” Halas to coach and play end. The team finished in second place with a 10-1-2 record.

Halas and Edward “Dutch” Sternaman then bought the team and moved them to his hometown of Chicago, christening them the Bears in 1922, the same year the AFPA became the National Football League. He remained player-coach until 1929, when he retired and turned the team over to Ralph “Curley” Jones, who’d coached Halas at the University of Illinois. That first season, the Bears went 9-4-1, a significant improvement over the previous year’s 4-9-2. 

But even though Jones won the NFL in 1932 through a tiebreaking game against the Portsmouth Spartans, the Great Depression greatly affected the Bears’ bottom line. To save money, Halas, who by now owned the team outright, returned to the sidelines. The Bears repeated as champions by going 10-2-1 and beating the New York Giants 23-21 in the first NFL Championship game. 

Ten years later, Halas, who’d served in the Navy during World War I, re-enlisted and left the Bears mid-season with a 5-0 record. Two of his assistants, Heartley “Hunk” Anderson and Luke Johnsos, continued the club’s dominance, finishing 6-0, although they lost to Washington in the Championship game. But they got their revenge in their first full year in charge, going 8-1-1 and beating Washington top capture their fourth title. 

Halas returned to the sidelines after the war ended and picked up where he left off. Chicago bounced back from a disappointing 3-7 season in 1945 with an 8-2-1 record and another NFL Championship at the hands of the Giants. After 10 years, Papa Bear decided that the 1955 season would be his last. Paddy Driscoll, who’d known Halas since their Navy days, took over, finishing 9-2-1, good enough for first in the NFL Western Conference, but losing the Championship to the Giants. 

Driscoll’s tenure was short-lived. Halas would later write that he only intended to let his friend coach for two years as a thank-you for his years of service. Halas kicked off his fourth stint on the sidelines by going 8-4 in 1958 before stepping down for good after the 1967 season.

Former player and assistant coach Jim Dooley had the unenviable task of following Halas, but went 7-7 in 1968. But that turned out to be his best season, and he became the first Bears head coach to be fired in 1971. Dooley’s replacement, Abe Gibron, went 4-9-1 in 1972, which, sadly, was also his best record, and was fired at the conclusion of the 1974 season. 

For the first time, Halas looked outside his organization and found Jack Pardee, whose arrival coincided with that of Walter Payton. Unlike his two predecessors, Pardee’s 4-10 that year would be his worst. But after three years and the Bears’ first winning season since 1965, Pardee bolted for Washington. Neill Armstrong, who’d helped turn the Minnesota Vikings’ defense into one of the league’s best, was brought on. He went 7-9 in 1978 and was fired after 1981. 

Enter Da Coach. Mike Ditka, a standout tight end for the Bears in the 1960s, returned to Chicago and restored the team to national prominence. But no one would have suspected that after he started his career on the sidelines with a 3-6 record in the strike-shortened 1982 season. Iron Mike’s 11 years in charge, during which he would lead the Bears to a Super Bowl XX victory and become one of the most beloved figures in Chicago sports history, is second only to Halas, who died in 1983. But Ditka was fired after going 5-11 in 1992. 

Dave Wannstedt took the reins and made a slight improvement with a 7-9 season in 1993. After six mediocre years, he was replaced by Dick Jauron. In two years, Jauron went from last place in the NFC Central (6-10 in 1999) to first. But 2001’s 13-3 would be his only winning record, and he was terminated two years later. 

Lovie Smith’s nine seasons in charge began in 2004 with an ignominious 5-11 record. But he reversed those numbers the next year, and gave the Bears their second Super Bowl appearance in 2006. However, despite an 81-63 record, Smith was blamed for the team’s inability to get back to the playoffs and was let go at the end of 2012. 

That brings the Bears to the cycle referenced at the top. First came Marc Trestman (8-8 in 2013), who was inexperienced at the NFL level and lasted only two years. He was followed by veteran John Fox (6-10 in 2015), whose three seasons saw Jay Cutler’s tumultuous tenure at quarterback end and Mitch Trubisky’s begin. 

Offensive specialist Matt Nagy replaced the defensive-minded Fox and earned Coach of the Year in 2018 by winning the NFC North with a 12-4 record. Nagy failed to build upon that success and was replaced by Matt Eberflus, who had the worst season of any first-year Bears coach (3-14 in 2022). Eberflus also made team history by becoming the first coach to be fired mid-season, following a Week 13 Thanksgiving Day loss to Detroit. Offensive coordinator Thomas Brown was named interim head coach, and he finished out the year 1-4, with the sole win coming in Week 18 against the hated Green Bay Packers.Can Johnson reverse the trend and give the Bears their first winning season since 2018? The destruction of the Buffalo Bills in the second preseason game looked promising, and fans are starting to get optimistic again. But it’s still too early to tell, and we’ll have a clearer picture when the season kicks off on Monday, Sept. 8^th against the Vikings.