December 29 Illinois History Minute

It’s December 29th, and the Chicago Bears won the NFL Championship on this day in 1963, beating the New York Giants 14 to 10 at Wrigley Field in single-digit temperatures. It was the Bears’ first championship victory since 1946, when fullback Bill Osmanski was part of the team.

Osmanski was born on this day in 1915 and helped form the backbone of the Bears’ championship-winning teams of the 1940s.

Middle linebacker Ray Nitschke anchored the defense for the Bears’ traditional rivals, the Green Bay Packers in the 1960s. Nitschke was born on this day in 1936 in the Chicago suburb of Elmwood Park.

Player and coach Sean Payton was born in California on this day in 1963 but raised in Naperville. He coached the New Orleans Saints to their first-ever Super Bowl win in 2010.