NFL team season
The 1970 Chicago Bears season was their 51st regular season completed in the National Football League . The team finished with a 6–8 record, a significant improvement over the 1–13 record of the previous season , the worst in franchise history.
After losing the coin flip for the number one pick in the 1970 NFL draft (which Pittsburgh used to draft Terry Bradshaw ), the Bears traded the 2nd pick to the Green Bay Packers for Lee Roy Caffey , Elijah Pitts , and Bob Hyland .[ 1]
Offseason
NFL Draft
Roster
Regular season
As an experiment, the Bears hosted their first home game of the season at Northwestern University 's Dyche Stadium in Evanston . The Bears' Wrigley Field landlord, the Chicago Cubs , were in a pennant race and might play in the National League Championship Series and World Series , and that Wrigley Field would be unavailable (at least for installation of temporary seating in right and center field) until well into October.[ 5] National League East until the final week of the 1970 season, thus rendering the anticipation moot.)[ 6] [ 7]
In addition, the NFL was pressuring the Bears to move out of Wrigley Field, because it had no lights and its seating capacity was under 50,000 (even with additional seating in right field for football games), stipulations of the AFL–NFL merger agreement. The Bears planned to move to Evanston for the 1971 season, but Evanston residents petitioned city officials to block the move, and the Big Ten Conference ultimately barred the Bears from using Dyche Stadium;[ 8] Soldier Field .[ 9]
Schedule
Week
Date
Opponent
Result
Record
Venue
Attendance
1
at New York Giants
W 24–16
1–0
Yankee Stadium
62,936
2
September 27
Philadelphia Eagles
W 20–16
2–0
Dyche Stadium
53,463
3
at Detroit Lions
L 14–28
2–1
Tiger Stadium
58,210
4
October 11
Minnesota Vikings L 0–24
2–2
Wrigley Field
45,485
5
October 18
San Diego Chargers
L 7–20
2–3
Wrigley Field
45,278
6
October 25
Detroit Lions
L 10–16
2–4
Wrigley Field
45,632
7
November 1
at Atlanta Falcons
W 23–14
3–4
Atlanta Stadium
58,850
8
November 8
San Francisco 49ers
L 16–37
3–5
Wrigley Field
45,607
9
November 15
at Green Bay Packers
L 19–20
3–6
Lambeau Field
56,263
10
November 22
Buffalo Bills
W 31–13
4–6
Wrigley Field
41,015
11
November 29
at Baltimore Colts
L 20–21
4–7
Memorial Stadium
60,240
12
at Minnesota Vikings
L 13–16
4–8
Metropolitan Stadium
47,900
13
December 13
Green Bay Packers
W 35–17
5–8
Wrigley Field
44,957
14
December 20
at New Orleans Saints
W 24–3
6–8
Tulane Stadium
63,518
Note: Intra-division opponents are in bold text.
Season summary
Week 1 at Giants
Game information
First quarter
Second quarter
NYG – Pete Gogolak 20-yard field goal. Giants 13–7.
CHI – Mac Percival 28-yard field goal. Giants 13–10. Third quarter
Fourth quarter
NYG – Pete Gogolak 45-yard field goal. Bears 17–16.
CHI – Dick Gordon 19-yard pass from Jack Concannon (Mac Percival kick). Bears 24–16.
Top passers Top rushers Top receivers CHI – Bob Wallace – 6 receptions, 82 yards
NYG – Ron Johnson – 8 receptions, 85 yards, TD
Week 2
1
2 3 4 Total
Eagles
6
3 0 7
16
• Bears
7
10 0 3
20
[ 10]
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
1
2 3 4 Total
• Bears
10
3 7 3
23
Falcons
0
7 7 0
14
Date: November 1Location: Atlanta Stadium , Atlanta Game start: 1:00 p.m. Game weather: 62 °F (17 °C); wind 7 mph (11 km/h)
[ 11]
Week 8
Week 9
Week 10
1
2 3 4 Total
Bills
6
0 0 7
13
• Bears
0
14 7 10
31
Date: November 22Location: Wrigley Field • Chicago Game start: 1:00 p.m. CST Game weather: 43 °F (6 °C) • Wind 22 mph (35 km/h)Referee: John McDonough
[ 12]
Week 11
Week 12
Week 13
Green Bay Packers at Chicago Bears
1
2 3 4 Total
Packers
3
0 0 14
17
• Bears
14
7 7 7
35
Date: Sunday, December 13Location: Wrigley Field , Chicago Game start: 1:00 p.m. CST Game weather: 32 °F (0 °C), wind 11 mph (18 km/h)Referee: Fred Silva
Week 14
1
2 3 4 Total
• Bears
0
7 3 14
24
Saints
0
3 0 0
3
[ 13]
Standings
Note: Tie games were not officially counted in the standings until 1972.
References
^ "These deals didn't work" . Chicago Tribune ^ "Cancer fatal to Piccolo of Bears at 26" . Milwaukee Journal . press dispatches. June 16, 1970. p. 13, part 2.[permanent dead link ] ^ "Brian Piccolo is dead at 26" . Spokesman-Review . (Spokane, Washington). Associated Press. June 17, 1970. p. 19.^ "Sayers, Halas praise Piccolo's courage" . Milwaukee Sentinel . Associated Press. June 17, 1970. p. 1-part 2.^ "Historical Newspapers from 1700s–2000s" . August 4, 2023.^ "Pennant race at a glance" . Spokesman-Review . (Spokane, Washington). September 16, 1970. p. 16.^ "1970 Chicago Cubs Schedule" .^ Historical Newspapers from 1700s–2000s – Newspapers.com ^ Historical Newspapers from 1700s–2000s – Newspapers.com ^ Pro-Football-Reference.com ^ Pro-Football-Reference.com . Retrieved 2014-Sep-14.^ Pro-Football-Reference.com ^ Pro-Football-Reference.com . Retrieved 2014-Sep-14.
Franchise Records Stadiums Culture Lore Rivalries Minor league affiliates Retired numbers Key personnel Division championships (21) Conference championships (4) League championships (9) Media
Broadcasters Radio:
Personnel:
Television:
WFLD (pre-season and most regular season games through Fox , official pre-game and post-game alternate)Marquee Sports Network (official post-game and in-season programming)
Personnel:
Lou Canellis (gameday television host, pre-season sideline reporter)
Adam Amin (pre-season play-by-play)Jim Miller (pre-season analyst) Current league affiliations
Formerly the Decatur Staleys (1920) and the Chicago Staleys (1921)
