For a minute, the Bears thought they could be the Team of the Decade. The San Francisco 49ers interrupted.
So did the Washington Redskins, but Mike Ditka didn`t throw gum at their fans and Buddy Ryan didn`t make fun of their head coach.
From the fateful day in 1979 when the Bears reneged on plans to draft Joe Montana and the 49ers took him in the third round, the fortunes of the two franchises have been entwined.
The decade was won decisively by the 49ers. The Bears will be but a footnote. But it is fitting the Bears end their `80s Sunday against the team that spawned the ruin of so many Chicago dreams.
They have played seven games in the `80s, all of them significant milestones for both clubs.
– Sept. 13, 1981, at Candlestick Park. 49ers 28, Bears 17.
In his first season as a full-time starter, Montana threw three touchdown passes to beat the Bears and Vince Evans in the second game of the season. Rebounding from an opening day loss to Detroit, the 49ers went 13-3 and won their first Super Bowl in coach Bill Walsh`s third season.
Montana led the league in passing and threw his famous touchdown pass to Dwight Clark in the back of the end zone to beat Dallas in the National Football Conference title game.
The loss made the Bears 0-2 on their way to a 1-6 start and a 6-10 record that cost coach Neill Armstrong his job. Mike Ditka was hired shortly after standing on the sidelines as a Dallas assistant coach watching Clark make
”The Catch.”
– Nov. 27, 1983, Soldier Field. Bears 13, 49ers 3.
In the first meeting between Walsh and Ditka, the Bears became the first team to hold the Walsh 49ers without a touchdown in his five years as coach. Ryan never let anyone forget that.
The ”46” defense was still in its formative stages and caught the 49ers by surprise, sacking Montana five times. They went home and tried to figure out how to block it. Too many bodies, they decided.
”I love to play those great offensive teams. They`re heavily typed even though nobody knows it,” Ryan said.
Jim McMahon threw a 49-yard touchdown pass to Dennis McKinnon and scrambled nine times for 74 yards to lead all Bears` rushers.
The 49ers were on their way to a 10-6 season and a trip to the NFC title game, which they lost to the Redskins.
The Bears gained confidence from their victory and won three of their final four games to finish 8-8.
– Jan. 6, 1985, Candlestick Park. 49ers 23, Bears 0.
This was the NFC championship game one week after the Bears had upset the Redskins in Ditka`s first playoff appearance.
Ditka`s contract was going to expire after the season and Michael McCaskey had yet to renew it, so he used the occasion of the title game to announce an extension through 1987.
The 49ers shut out sub quarterback Steve Fuller and the Bears and added insult to injury by sticking guard Guy McIntyre in the backfield in an
”Angus” formation as a blocking back late in the game.
”I apologize to the fans and to the team,” said Ditka. ”I never thought in my wildest dreams we wouldn`t score a point. I thought we`d handle the 49ers. I just didn`t think they were that much of a better football team.”
The 49ers went on to win their second Super Bowl of the decade with an 18-1 record.
”The 49ers said in the papers we ought to bring an offense the next time,” Ditka said. ”That loss was a tremendous catalyst for our 1985 season.”
– Oct. 13, 1985, Candlestick Park. Bears 26, 49ers 10.
The Bears brought an offense and dumped the defending world champions. Walter Payton gained 132 yards and McMahon was healthy again as the Bears hiked their record to 6-0 en route to their 18-1 copy of the previous 49ers`
season.
Montana was sacked seven times and the 49ers again failed to score an offensive touchdown, their only one coming on an interception return.
Ditka ran out the clock by ordering William ”the Refrigerator” Perry to carry the final two plays. It was a reminder to Walsh that what comes around goes around. A week later, Perry scored once and blocked twice at the goal line against Green Bay to become an international phenomenon.
Ditka got so happy on the plane ride back he was arrested for driving under the influence on Int. Hwy. 294 on his way home.
”I celebrated too much,” Ditka said. ”It was the most embarrassing thing that could ever happen to me. I don`t have a right to drink and drive. That right nobody has.”
– Dec. 14, 1987, Candlestick Park. 49ers 41, Bears 0.
With both teams 10-2 and playing for home-field advantage in the playoffs, the 49ers handed the Bears their worst defeat under Ditka and provided a glimpse of the future that most Chicagoans were slow to grasp.
McMahon was hurt, leaving the quarterbacking to Mike Tomczak and Jim Harbaugh. Tomczak was intercepted four times. McMahon nicknamed him ”Lotto, Pick Four.”
Montana got hurt on the second series, but backup Steve Young threw four touchdown passes, three to Jerry Rice. Although Rice had faced the Bears as a rookie in his sixth game in 1985, this was his first confrontation as a seasoned receiver.
The smashing victory was duly noted by Walsh, who said: ”I want to pause for a minute and take a lot of pride in it. We`re not America`s Team, the Monsters of the Midway or the darlings of the networks and nation. But we are a good, solid team.”
Ditka took out his frustration by tossing a wad of gum at a screaming fan near the locker entrance. The fan pressed charges in what became one of the great gumshoe investigations in Bay Area crime annals. Before charges were dropped, Ditka`s wife, Diana, provided mouth-witness testimony that her husband never chewed green gum.
Both teams lost in their first playoff games.
– Oct. 24, 1988, Soldier Field. Bears 10, 49ers 9.
This Monday night encounter was one of the great defensive games of the decade, a classic that not only re-established the Bears` pride but reminded the nation that the 49ers always were much more than a finesse team. Their defense, coached by George Seifert, had finished No. 1 in 1987 and had been as responsible as Montana for the 49ers` dominance over the years.
Rice scored first, but the Bears went ahead in the second quarter on a run by McMahon and a field goal by Kevin Butler. A safety by Charles Haley in the third quarter was the only other scoring. Montana was staggered by the finish and was replaced by Young on the final drive.
– Jan. 8, 1989. 49ers 28, Bears 3.
Their second NFC championship game of the decade was played in ”Bear weather,” 17 degrees and wind gusts up to 30 miles an hour.
The 49ers turned it into a gentle bay breeze, with Montana finding Rice twice for touchdowns in the first half. After completing 17 of 27 passes and another touchdown to John Frank, Montana`s performance was called by Walsh
”his greatest game under the conditions.”
McMahon was starting his first game since a knee injury Oct. 29. He completed 14 of 29 passes before he was replaced by Tomczak in the fourth quarter. It was McMahon`s second playoff loss in Soldier Field in two years, and though it was his first loss to the 49ers in four starts, it turned out to be his final Chicago appearance in a Bear uniform.
The 49ers had helped mold and end an era. They went on to win their third Super Bowl.
”You have to look at it this way: Personnel-wise, they`re a little better than us,” Ditka said. ”It will be a tough road back, but we`ll be back. It`s not the end of the world.”
Just the end of the decade. The Bears aren`t back yet and the 49ers never went anywhere. For the first time, their game Sunday means nothing to either team.