From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

List of Chicago Bears head coaches

None

There have been 18 head coaches for the Chicago Bears, including coaches for the Decatur Staleys (1919–1920) and Chicago Staleys (1921). The Bears franchise was founded as the Decatur Staleys, a charter member of the American Professional Football Association. The team moved to Chicago in 1921, and changed its name to the Bears in 1922, the same year the American Professional Football Association (APFA) changed its name to the National Football League (NFL).

The Chicago Bears have played more than 1,000 games. Of those games, five different coaches have won NFL championships with the team: George Halas in , 1933, 1940, 1941, 1946 and 1963; Ralph Jones in 1932; Hunk Anderson and Luke Johnsos in 1943; and Mike Ditka in 1985. George Halas is the only coach to have more than one tenure and is the all-time leader in games coached and games won, while Ralph Jones leads all coaches in winning percentage with .706. Abe Gibron is statistically the worst coach of the Bears in terms of winning percentage, with a .268 average.

Of the 18 Bears coaches, three have been elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame: George Halas, Paddy Driscoll, and Mike Ditka. Several former players have been head coach for the Bears, including George Halas, Hunk Anderson, Luke Johnsos, Paddy Driscoll, Jim Dooley, Abe Gibron and Mike Ditka.

After Ditka was fired following the 1992 season, the Bears went through six head coaches starting with Dave Wannstedt, who coached until 1998. Dick Jauron took over in 1999 until he was fired in 2003. Lovie Smith was hired on January 14, 2004. Smith was fired on December 31, 2012, after the Bears missed the playoffs with a 10–6 record after starting the season 7–1. On January 16, 2013, Marc Trestman was hired to be the new head coach to take Smith's place. Trestman was fired on December 29, 2014, with a 13–19 record over two seasons. On January 16, 2015, John Fox was hired as the new head coach of the team. He compiled a 14–34 record over three seasons before being fired on January 1, 2018. A week later, Matt Nagy became the new head coach. Nagy was fired after the 2021 season. Matt Eberflus was named the new head coach on January 27, 2022. After losing a sixth game in a row on Thanksgiving, November 28, 2024, Eberflus was fired and finished with a .304 winning percentage, the third worst in team history. Thomas Brown was named interim Head Coach for the remaining 5 games of the season. Ben Johnson was named the current head coach of the team on January 21, 2025.

Key

§	Spent head coaching career in both CFL and NFL

Coaches

:Note: Statistics are accurate through the end of the 2024 NFL season.

#	Image	Name	Term	Regular season	Playoffs	Achievements	GC	W	L	T	Win%	GC	W	L
(1)		[[File:1919_Robert_E._Brannan_(cropped).jpg	60px]]	Robert E. Brannan			Central Illinois Championship
Chicago Bears	border=2}};"	Decatur Staleys/Chicago Staleys/Chicago Bears
1 (2)	[[File:1922 George Halas (cropped).jpg	60px]]	George Halas †	1920–1929 *	134	84	31	19	.730	No postseason	NFL Championship ()
2 (3)	[[File:Ralph Jones.jpg	60px]]	Ralph Jones *	1930–1932	41	24	10	7	.706	–	–	–	NFL Championship (1932)
–	[[File:1922 George Halas (cropped).jpg	60px]]	George Halas†	1933–1942 *	110	84	22	4	.799	6	4	2	3× NFL Championships (1933, 1940–41)
3 (4)		[[File:Hunk Anderson 1942 (cropped).jpg	60px]]	Hunk Anderson *	1942–1945	36	23	11	2	.676	2	1	1	NFL Championship (1943)
4 (5)	[[File:Luke Johnsos 1942 (cropped).jpg	60px]]	Luke Johnsos *	1942–1945	36	23	11	2	.676	2	1	1
–	[[File:George Halas 1952 Bowman.jpg	60px]]	George Halas †	1946–1955 *	119	75	42	2	.641	2	1	1	NFL Championship (1946)
5 (6)	[[File:Paddy Driscoll.jpg	60px]]	Paddy Driscoll ‡	1956–1957	24	14	9	1	.609	1	0	1
–	[[File:George Halas 1952 Bowman.jpg	60px]]	George Halas †	1958–1967 *	134	75	53	6	.588	1	1	0	NFL Championship (1963)
AP Coach of the Year (1963, 1965)
Sporting News Coach of the Year (1963, 1965)
UPI NFL Coach of the Year (1963, 1965)
6 (7)	[[File:Jim Dooley - 1952 Bowman Large.jpg	60px]]	Jim Dooley *	1968–1971	56	20	36	0	.357	–	–	–
7 (8)		Abe Gibron *	1972–1974	42	11	30	1	.268	–	–	–
8 (9)	[[File:Jack Pardee as Houston Cougars head football coach.jpg	60px]]	Jack Pardee	1975–1977	42	20	22	0	.476	1	0	1	UPI NFC Coach of the Year (1976)
9 (10)	[[File:Neill Armstrong - 1948 Bowman.jpg	60px]]	Neill Armstrong *	1978–1981	64	30	34	0	.469	1	0	1
10 (11)	[[File:Mike Ditka 2008 NFL Experience 48-DPA-02 01 02 08 (cropped).jpg	60px]]	Mike Ditka ‡	1982–1992	168	106	62	0	.631	12	6	6	Super Bowl Championship (1985)
AP Coach of the Year (1985, 1988)
Pro Football Weekly Coach of the Year (1988)
Sporting News Coach of the Year (1985)
UPI NFC Coach of the Year (1985, 1988)
11 (12)	[[File:Dave Wannstedt.jpg	60px]]	Dave Wannstedt	1993–1998	96	40	56	0	.417	2	1	1	UPI NFC Coach of the Year (1994)
12 (13)	[[File:Richard Jauron.jpg	60px]]	Dick Jauron	1999–2003	80	35	45	0	.438	1	0	1	AP Coach of the Year (2001)
Pro Football Weekly Coach of the Year (2001)
Sporting News Coach of the Year (2001)
13 (14)	[[File:Lovie Smith (cropped 2).jpg	60px]]	Lovie Smith	2004–2012	144	81	63	0	.563	6	3	3	AP Coach of the Year (2005)
Pro Football Weekly Coach of the Year (2005)
14 (15)	[[File:Marc Trestman 2017 (cropped).JPG	60px]]	Marc Trestman §	2013–2014	32	13	19	0	.406
15 (16)	[[File:John-Fox NFL-Coaches-Tour June-2010.jpg	60px]]	John Fox	2015–2017	48	14	34	0	.291
16 (17)	[[File:Matt Nagy-P20230605AS-1193 (cropped).jpg	60px]]	Matt Nagy*	2018–2021	65	34	31	0		2	0	2	AP Coach of the Year (2018)
PFWA Coach of the Year (2018)
17 (18)	[[File:Matt Eberflus (7494384) (cropped).jpg	60px]]	Matt Eberflus*	2022–2024	46	14	32	0
18 (19)		*	2024	5	1	4	0	.200
19 (20)		Ben Johnson*	2025–present	17		2	1	1

Defensive coordinators

The Monsters of the Midway is most widely known as the nickname for the National Football League's Chicago Bears since the 1940s. Although the nickname is sometimes applied to the Bears team as a whole, it is primarily applied to the defensive side of the ball. This is due to the Bears having a long tradition of tough and intimidating defenses that date back to the beginning of the franchise. Both the initial association of the nickname to the Bears and its 1980s revival were due mainly to the Bears' strong defensive performances. Founder George Halas primarily played defensive end and the Bears have been credited as defensive innovators, with schemes such as the 4-3 Defense, nickel defense, 46 Defense and the Tampa 2. Over the years, 10 of the Bears defenses were ranked among the 100 stingiest defenses of all time by Cold Hard Football Facts—more than any other franchise.

The following list is a List of Chicago Bears Defensive Coordinators.

1950s

Clark Shaughnessy 1951–1962 – Creator of the first proper 4-3 defense

1960s

George Allen 1963–1965 – HOF, First coach to use "zone defense" against the pass and blitzing from defensive end position
Jim Dooley 1961–1967 – Innovator of the "Dooley Shift" (Type of "nickel defense")
Joe Fortunato 1968
Jimmy Carr 1969 – First to use seven defensive backs, eleven-man fronts, zone blitz schemes and special zones

1970s

Abe Gibron 1970–1971
Bill George 1972
Jimmy Carr (2) 1973–74
Jack Pardee (as head coach) 1975–1977

1980s

Buddy Ryan 1978–1985 – Innovator of the 46 Defense
Vince Tobin 1986–1992

1990s

Bob Slowik 1993–1998
Greg Blache 1999–2003

2000s

Ron Rivera 2004–2006
Bob Babich 2007–2009

2010s

Rod Marinelli 2010–2012
Mel Tucker 2013–2014
Vic Fangio 2015–present

Offensive coordinators

The following list is a List of Chicago Bears Offensive Coordinators.

Adam Gase 2015–present

Special Teams Coordinators

The following list is a List of Chicago Bears Special Teams Coordinators.

Footnotes

Official Chicago Bears record books list Halas as the first head coach in franchise history and therefore head coach Ben Johnson would be the 19th head coach in franchise history.
The winning percentage is calculated using the formula: \frac{Wins+\frac{1}{2}Ties}{Games}
Robert E. Brannan became the coach of the club when it was established by the A. E. Staley Company of Decatur, Illinois in 1919 as a company team.
No official records for the 1919 season in Chicago Bears record books, but the team finished the season 6–1.
Halas' full coaching record with the Bears is 497 regular season games coached with a record of 318–148–31 and a W–L percentage of .682. He is also 6–3 in 9 Playoff games.
The NFL did not hold playoff games until 1932.
Anderson and Johnsos were co-Head Coaches from 1942 to 1945. They were appointed by Halas when he left to serve in the US Navy.
Offensive coordinator Thomas Brown served as interim head coach for the final 5 games of the 2024 season.

References

"Mike Ditka's Coaching Record". Pro Football Reference.
"Chicago Bears Championship History". NFLTeamHistory.com.
"Ralph Jones' Coaching Record". Pro Football Reference.
"Abe Gibron's Coaching Record". Pro Football Reference.
"Hall of Famers by Franchise". [[Pro Football Hall of Fame]].
(January 16, 2004). "Bears hire Smith to be head coach". Yahoo Sports.
Pompei, Dan. (December 31, 2012). "Lovie Smith out after nine seasons as Bears coach". [[Chicago Tribune]].
Biggs, Brad. (January 16, 2013). "Trestman chosen to be bears new head coach". [[Chicago Tribune]].
(December 29, 2014). "Chicago Bears fire Marc Trestman". NFL Enterprises LLC.
(January 16, 2015). "Bears hire John Fox as new head coach".
Patra, Kevin. (January 1, 2018). "Chicago Bears fire coach John Fox after 5-11 season". [[National Football League]].
Biggs, Brad. (January 8, 2018). "Bears hire Matt Nagy as franchise's 16th head coach". [[Chicago Tribune]].
Cronin, Courtney. (2025-01-20). "Bears name Lions OC Johnson new head coach".
"George Halas' Statistics". Baseball Reference.
(January 7, 2006). "Bears' Smith wins AP Coach award". ESPN.
"Sporting News NFL Coach of the Year". Super Bowl.
Halas, George. (1979). "Halas by Halas: The Autobiography of George Halas". McGraw-Hill.
"Jack Pardee". Sports Reference, LLC..
"89 – Mike Ditka". chicagobears.com.
Dickey, Glenn. "Ditka's delirium".
"MIKE DITKA". Nationwide Speakers Bureau, Inc..
Taylor, Roy. "Mike Ditka, Chicago Bear '61–'66; '82–'92".
"Dave Wannstedt". Sports Reference, LLC..
"Dick Jauron". Sports Reference, LLC.
"Lovie Smith". chicagoBears.com.
"Lovie Smith". Sports Reference, LLC..
Biggs, Brad. (February 2, 2019). "Matt Nagy caps his 1st Bears season with the NFL Coach of the Year Award". [[Chicago Tribune]].
Ellis, Cam. (January 17, 2019). "Matt Nagy named Head Coach of the Year by Pro Football Writers of America". [[NBC Sports Chicago]].
(March 13, 2013). "Chicago Bears – A Tradition of Defense".
Kerry Byrne. (April 4, 2013). "Monsters of the Midway: We Need The Chicago Bears More Than Ever". Cold Hard Football Facts.

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

chicago-bears-head-coaches lists-of-nfl-head-coaches-by-team chicago-bears-lists

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about List of Chicago Bears head coaches — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report