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Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on Jan. 10, according to the Tribune’s archives.

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Front page flashback: Jan. 11, 1988

The Chicago Bears lost unexpectedly to the Washington Redskins on Jan. 10, 1988, at Soldier Field. It was the second consecutive year the Bears were knocked out of the playoffs by the Redskins, and also was Bears running back Walter Payton's final NFL game. (baiduhai)
The Chicago Bears lost unexpectedly to the Washington Redskins on Jan. 10, 1988, at Soldier Field. It was the second consecutive year the Bears were knocked out of the playoffs by the Redskins, and also was Bears running back Walter Payton's final NFL game. (baiduhai)

“A whole bunch of eras ended for the Bears Sunday in Soldier Field, where the Washington Redskins knocked them out of the NFC divisional playoffs for the second year in a row, 21-17,” Tribune reporter Don Pierson wrote.

Running back Walter Payton gained 85 yards in his final NFL game. When asked why he lingered on the bench in the bitter cold after the clock ran out, he said he was simply avoiding retirement as long as he could.

“I didn’t want to hurry up the moment. I didn’t feel like forcing it,” Payton said. “(Being retired) hasn’t sunk in yet.”

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Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago)

  • High temperature: 60 degrees (1975)
  • Low temperature: Minus 26 degrees (1982)
  • Precipitation: 2.29 inches (1975)
  • Snowfall: 8.4 inches (2009)
People picket the use of mobile classrooms that were placed next to Guggenheim Elementary School at 7146 S. Sangamon St. in Chicago in 1963. (Al Phillips/baiduhai)
People picket the use of mobile classrooms that were placed next to Guggenheim Elementary School at 7146 S. Sangamon St. in Chicago in 1963. (Al Phillips/baiduhai)

1962: Chicago Public Schools earmarked $1.35 million for the purchase of mobile trailer classrooms.

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Superintendent Benjamin Willis refused to allow Black children to be bused from their crowded neighborhood schools to those in white areas with more resources. That’s why the portable classroom trailers were nicknamed “Willis wagons” and became symbolic of the city’s long struggle over segregated education.

At minus 26 degrees, Jan. 10, 1982 was the coldest day in Chicago history until minus 27 degrees was recorded on Jan. 20, 1985. (baiduhai)
At minus 26 degrees, Jan. 10, 1982, was the coldest day in Chicago history until minus 27 degrees was recorded on Jan. 20, 1985. (baiduhai)

1982: Chicagoans suffered through what was then the coldest day in city history — with a low temperature of minus 26 degrees.

Chicago weather: A look back at our coldest recorded temperatures

 

The bitter cold felt throughout the city was worse than what thermometers registered in the tiny town of Hell, Michigan, which was minus 17 degrees.

“There is not a place in Hell that isn’t frozen, but it sounds like you people have it a lot worse than we do,” Jan Davis of the Hell Creek Ranch, a recreation area about 20 miles north of Ann Arbor, told the Tribune. “We’re all warm, which is appropriate for Hell, don’t you think?”

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1996: Chicago water commissioner John Bolden resigned his $102,792-a-year post after he told Mayor Richard M. Daley he took several thousand dollars from FBI mole John Christopher. Bolden was named as part of Operation Silver Shovel, which was the FBI’s more than three-year sting.

Bolden pleaded not guilty on April 11, 1997, to taking bribes. A jury found Bolden guilty of tax evasion in September 1997, but acquitted him of more serious charges.

Chicago Bears coach Matt Nagy and general manager Ryan Pace were both fired on Jan. 10, 2022, by the organization. (baiduhai)
Chicago Bears coach Matt Nagy and general manager Ryan Pace were both fired on Jan. 10, 2022, by the organization. (baiduhai)

2022: Chicago Bears coach Matt Nagy was fired

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(and so was general manager Ryan Pace) after going 6-11 in Nagy’s fourth season.

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