'First Lady of Chicago sports': Bears family members remember matriarch Virginia McCaskey
Members of the Bears family remember Virginia McCaskey
Virginia McCaskey knew football. Those who knew her close knew this to be true. Lou Canellis talked to members of the Bears family who remembered her memory.
There was no bigger football fan in Chicago.
Chicago Bears team owner Virginia McCaskey sat in the box on game days at Soldier Field and closely followed the action, dating back to the days Dave Wannstedt was coaching the Bears.
"(Dave Wannstedt's) wife Jan would be sitting next to her and she was writing down all the plays," Bears Hall of Fame defensive lineman Dan Hampton said.
She was just like the rest of Bears fans. She reveled in the team's success. Everything else? Well, there's always the next play.
"When they would throw an interception," Hampton said, "she would just put a big X and turn the page."
McCaskey passed away at 102 years old. The final Bears game during her lifetime was a 24-22 win over the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field.
Those in the Bears family remembered her as someone who never reveled in the idea of owning an NFL team. Instead, she carried herself with grace.
"She truly never got into the big entourage: 'I'm the owner of the Bears. My dad founded this league,'" Wannstedt said. ""She always was very steady, kind of very independent and carried herself with a lot of pride."
That pride and independence was evident even with the Bears' biggest stars.
"She was the grand old lady of all Chicago sports, of all the NFL," Hampton said. "It's a sad day for Chicago sports, but to know that she lived so long and loved the Chicago Bears for so much of her life, it's just a glorious thing."
It goes beyond the Bears, too.
McCaskey held respect all over the NFL. Her status as an NFL icon grew greater as the years went on.
"It's a loss for the National Football League," Wannstedt said. "I would see her at the owner's meetings, obviously when I was at the Bears, when I was at the Dolphins and on and on, and everybody respected Virginia McCaskey."
That respect came from how she carried herself. That identity was in her Catholic faith. McCaskey mixed her faith and football, too.
When she would chart those games in the boxes, she would have the pencil in one hand, her cards in front of her and a rosary in her other hand.
That memory of her will live on as a matriarch in Chicago sports who transcended time.
"We will always have the grand memories of the First Lady of Chicago sports," Hampton said.