He'd be a proud Papa Bear

McCaskey: 'We're just the recipient of a tremendous legacy'

The Bears will return to practice today to begin preparations in earnest for the trip to Miami and a date with the Indianapolis Colts on Feb. 4 in Super Bowl XLI. Most of the focus will be on players and coaches from here on out, but Wednesday was a time for architects and owners to share the spotlight.

General manger Jerry Angelo spun references to Roman gladiators and childhood roller coaster rides around some interesting nuts-and-bolts talk about building a team. Team president Ted Phillips chided the media for not understanding his decision to stretch out contract negotiations with coach Lovie Smith and key members of the coaching staff and front office.

But the most interesting stuff of all came from a sanitized, team-controlled interview with owner/matriarch Virginia McCaskey, the daughter of George Halas. She recalled attending the 1932 championship game as a 9-year-old with a ticket that cost $1.25, spoke fondly of memories from 1963 and 1985 title seasons and explained how the team fielding the league's first African-American quarterback, Willie Thrower in 1953, wasn't about social issues, but merely part of the game.

Most interesting to Bears fans was her thoughts about maintaining the legacy of her father.

''It's important all of our family understands that we really haven't done anything to earn this,'' McCaskey said. ''We're just the recipients of a tremendous legacy. I use the word custodian, and we want to pass it on the best way we can.''

McCaskey and her late husband, Ed, raised 11 children in a small house in Des Plaines. That house was passed on to a daughter, Anne, in 1994, when Ed and Virginia moved to a smaller house a block away.

''I probably live in the smallest house of any NFL executive, but that's what Ed and I were comfortable doing,'' McCaskey said.

Not as comfortable has been the struggle to keep the team competitive.

''It was a bumpy road a lot of times, how I should sell the team and give Chicago competent ownership,'' McCaskey said. ''OK, maybe I'm not competent, but Ed and I found people to do the job. Actually, we found Ted Phillips, and he found Jerry Angelo and Jerry Angelo found Lovie Smith. And here we are.''

The subject of the future ownership of the Bears was not broached in the interview conducted by the Chicago Tribune's Don Pierson with questions submitted from team broadcaster Jeff Joniak and Channel 5 reporter Peggy Kusinski. The Sun-Times declined an invitation to submit questions.

Street and Smith's Sports Business Journal reported earlier this month that the NFL was examining the Bears ownership structure, specifically how family ownership would survive beyond Virginia McCaskey's lifetime. George Halas left the team to his grandchildren, with his daughter maintaining voting interest. That means there will be no problem with estate taxes, an issue that has forced the sale of other franchises.

But the publication reported that NFL rules require a single individual to own 30 percent of a franchise, with family-controlled teams grandfathered in needing just 20 percent ownership from a single individual. What the NFL finance committee wanted to know in December, according to the Sports Business Journal, was if one of the 11 children would have enough ownership percentage to keep the team under existing NFL rules.

Speculation has been that Michael McCaskey, the team's chairman of the board, would somehow buy out one or two of his siblings to gain the controlling interest needed. But the publication pointed out that most of his wealth is believed to be connected to the team, and NFL rules restrict borrowing against the team to buy more of it.

Michael McCaskey did not request that the league bend or change rules to accommodate him, according to the Sports Business Journal.

Team sources and family members have been vehement over the years that a mechanism was in place to keep the franchise under family control. Chicago businessmen Pat Ryan and Andrew McKenna own 20 percent of the Bears, having bought their shares in 1990.

Virginia McCaskey was asked if her hope and expectation was that the family would own the Bears forever.

''Of course,'' she said.

Will that happen?

''I certainly hope so,'' she said. ''We've been working on that for a long time.''

McCaskey said Stephen Halas and Christine Halas Wood, the children of her late brother George ''Mugs'' Halas Jr., would be at the Super Bowl with their families. The two were involved in a 1987 lawsuit brought by their mother, Therese, charging that they were frozen out of team affairs during a 1981 reorganization.

''The healing has started,'' McCaskey said.

McCaskey was reminded of a famous quote of hers from years ago when she said the family could either remain the poor McCaskey's who own the Bears or the rich McCaskey's and sell. Now, with revenue at an all-time high, the franchise is an asset that continues to grow. But of most importance to the team matriarch is maintaining her father's legacy.

''We're enjoying the privileges and perks that go along with ownership, but we have to keep reminding ourselves we didn't do anything to earn this,'' she said. ''George Halas started it all, and I think he'll be around to finish it all. I look on it as a very serious responsibility.''