Bear With Me: A Family History of George Halas and the Chicago Bears [Hardcover]

Patrick McCaskey (Author), Mike Sandrolini (Collaborator)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 5, 2009

The Chicago Bears are many things: one of the charter members of the NFL; the winningest team in NFL history; owner of nine league championships; and home to 26 Pro Football Hall of Fame inductees, including legends such as George Halas, Dick Butkus, Gale Sayers, and Walter Payton. But the Chicago Bears have always been one thing above all else: a family business. Throughout their nearly 90 years of existence, the Monsters of the Midway have been owned and operated by the Halas and McCaskey families. Bear With Me, written by Papa Bear's grandson Patrick McCaskey, invites readers inside their private world and gives fans a unique perspective on the history of the Bears and the family that lives and dies with every game. From childhood days spent bouncing on his grandfather's knee to his current role as the team's senior director of special projects, Patrick McCaskey has lived and breathed Bears football his entire life. Bear With Me features a lifetime's worth of his personal reflections, including his grandfather's days as the team's coach and owner; receiving coaching tips from quarterback Bill Wade; finding himself on the receiving end of Walter Payton's practical jokes; and how owning the Bears has been a blessing for him, his parents, his siblings, and his own children. The Halases and McCaskeys have always focused on faith, family, and football. Featuring amusing anecdotes, poignant remembrances, and never-before-seen family photographs, Bear With Me is a one-of-a-kind trip into the world of the Chicago Bears from a man who has lived there since the day he was born.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Patrick McCaskey is the grandson of George Halas, a board member of the Chicago Bears, and the team's senior director of special projects. He currently serves on numerous boards and committees including Sports Faith International, the Brian Piccolo Cancer Research Fund, and Chicago Bears Outreach. Patrick and his wife Gretchen live in Lake Forest, Illinois, and have three sons. He first began working on this book in 1969.

Mike Sandrolini, a native of Peru, Illinois, is an award-winning writer, editor, and columnist whose stories have appeared in several suburban Chicago newspapers and nationally published magazines. He has either contributed stories to, or has helped edit, five books. Mike is a graduate of Illinois State University.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Triumph Books; 1 edition (July 5, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1600781284
• ISBN-13: 978-1600781285
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #856,077 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Special Gift for Football Fans, Players, Coaches, Parents, Grandparents, and Chicagoans, December 29, 2009

By 

Thomas M. Loarie (Danville, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Bear With Me: A Family History of George Halas and the Chicago Bears (Hardcover)

Author Patrick McCaskey in "Bear With Me" shares stories - memories of Papa Bear George Halas, a history of the Chicago Bears and many of its great players, a history of the National Football League and many of its great owners, reminiscences of his personal relationship with Halas, his father and mother, many of football's greatest stars, and his years at Notre Dame High School (Niles, Ill.) - he has compiled or composed over several decades. This is a great read for football fans and coaches everywhere, and Chicagoans like me who grew up with George Halas and "duh Bears."

McCaskey provides insights gained only by someone who shared Halas' life as his grandson, godson, and great friend. Halas, as McCaskey highlights throughout the book, was someone who loved and cared for his family and had a tremendous influence not only in his family, but also on his colleagues, coaches and players, and friends.

Halas' life also had an element of divine providence. He just barely missed taking the ill-fated passenger ship, the Eastland, for a trip across Lake Michigan in 1915. The ship overturned taking 812 lives. God had important things for him to accomplish before he called him home...and accomplish them he did. Halas continues through McCaskey's stories as an example for all.

McCaskey takes us through Halas' early years in Chicago; his years at the University of Illinois where he lettered in football, baseball, and basketball; his Navy years as recreation officer at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center; his time as a New York Yankee only to be replace by a youngster, Babe Ruth; his formative years in the pros as a player/coach for the A.E. Staley company football team (Decatur, Ill.); the creation of the American Football League at a Hupmobile Auto Agency in Canton, Oh.); the birth of the Bears: and the emergence of pro football as mass entertainment.

"Bear With Me" includes words of wisdom, not only offered by McCaskey in his closing chapter but also through speeches given to honor Papa Halas, Gale Sayers, Brian Piccolo, George Connor, his Uncle Mugs, and Doug Atkins which are included as Appendices.

All-American, all-around good guy Patrick McCaskey has given football fans, players, coaches, parents, grandparents, and Chicagoans a real gift.