If you’re a fan of Chicago’s professional sports teams, then it’s been a mostly forgettable year.
Okay, there have been a few highlights. The Blackhawks selected 17-year-old Canadian phenom Connor Bedard with the No. 1 pick in the NHL draft. The Bears also had the first pick for the first time in 77 years in April’s NFL draft but traded it to the Carolina Panthers.
Otherwise, disappointment has been a common theme. The Bulls let a late lead slip away in a 102-91 loss to the Miami Heat on April 14, ending their season 1 win shy of a playoff berth and then lost the NBA lottery for a first-round pick. The Sky, despite losing star players and their coach/general manager James Wade, made the first round of the WNBA playoffs in September — but were quickly swept by the Las Vegas Aces, the league’s reigning champions.
Terrible seasons might be in the eye of the beholder — or sports reporter, in this case — so what follows is a look back at the season when each of Chicago’s current pro sports teams experienced its fewest wins.
“If it were a book, it would be written by Stephen King. If it were a movie, it would be scripted by Brian DePalma. The year was 1969, the worst season in Bears history. Try to forget it. Just try,” Tribune reporter Robert Markus wrote at the 25-year anniversary of the 1969 team.
In their second season under Jim Dooley, who replaced George Halas as coach, the Bears lost 17-0 in their season opener to the Packers in Green Bay and started the season 0-7. They notched their only win, 38-7, against a Pittsburgh Steelers team that also went 1-13.
That win, however, would come back to bite the Bears. Running back Gale Sayers returned from a knee injury to rush for 1,032 yards in his last full season, but the big controversy of the season surrounded three starting quarterbacks — Bobby Douglass, Jack Concannon and Virgil Carter — as Dooley tried unsuccessfully to lift his team out of its funk.
Carter got his opportunity late in the season, but Dooley pulled him at halftime of a loss to the Packers, and Carter called him “gutless and a liar.” Carter also said he hoped management wouldn’t be “chicken(bleep)” enough to make him return to Chicago the following season to play out his option. The outburst earned Carter a $1,000 fine from the organization, and he left the team a game early.
A more serious and heartbreaking moment in the season was that running back Brian Piccolo was diagnosed with cancer after he went to doctors for a persistent cough and they found a chest tumor. He died about seven months later.
Pete Muldoon was the first Hawks coach in franchise history. Fired after one season, he reportedly said, “This team will never finish in first place,” a statement that later became known as the “Curse of Muldoon.”
Now, there are those who claim it never happened, that Muldoon just packed up his hockey stick and quietly left town. Yet, the outcome of the team’s second season in Chicago — with only 7 wins in 44 games and a last-place finish in the league’s rankings — made some wonder if the curse were real.
Playing in the old Chicago Coliseum, the Hawks opened 1-0-1 and quickly went downhill from there, posting two 10-game losing streaks, including one to (mercifully) end the season. Charlie Gardner absorbed much of the pounding, starting in goal for 40 games and posting a respectable 2.84 goals-against average. Duke Keats “led” the team in scoring with 14 goals and 22 points.
The frustration reached a boiling point in the last game of the season — a 6-1 loss to the Rangers in the Coliseum. Keats and New York defenseman Ching Johnson squared off in a bitter brawl that required players from both teams, the referee and two uniformed policemen to break up. The fans had had enough too. Three times during the game, play stopped for attendants to clear the ice of newspapers showered down from the stands.
Not one coach could take all the blame. Barney Stanley, who presided over a 21-game stretch in which his Hawks went 3-17-1, was fired on Jan. 18, 1928. His replacement was Hugh Lehman, who had started the season as goalie. Lehman’s record was 4-17-2.
The next season, the Hawks posted a similar record (7-29-8) that included a 15-game winless streak at home and an NHL record number of shut outs at home — 20 times in a 44-game schedule.
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Okay, there have been a few highlights. The Blackhawks selected 17-year-old Canadian phenom Connor Bedard with the No. 1 pick in the NHL draft. The Bears also had the first pick for the first time in 77 years in April’s NFL draft but traded it to the Carolina Panthers.
Otherwise, disappointment has been a common theme. The Bulls let a late lead slip away in a 102-91 loss to the Miami Heat on April 14, ending their season 1 win shy of a playoff berth and then lost the NBA lottery for a first-round pick. The Sky, despite losing star players and their coach/general manager James Wade, made the first round of the WNBA playoffs in September — but were quickly swept by the Las Vegas Aces, the league’s reigning champions.
Terrible seasons might be in the eye of the beholder — or sports reporter, in this case — so what follows is a look back at the season when each of Chicago’s current pro sports teams experienced its fewest wins.
Bears: 1969 season (1-13)
“If it were a book, it would be written by Stephen King. If it were a movie, it would be scripted by Brian DePalma. The year was 1969, the worst season in Bears history. Try to forget it. Just try,” Tribune reporter Robert Markus wrote at the 25-year anniversary of the 1969 team.
In their second season under Jim Dooley, who replaced George Halas as coach, the Bears lost 17-0 in their season opener to the Packers in Green Bay and started the season 0-7. They notched their only win, 38-7, against a Pittsburgh Steelers team that also went 1-13.
That win, however, would come back to bite the Bears. Running back Gale Sayers returned from a knee injury to rush for 1,032 yards in his last full season, but the big controversy of the season surrounded three starting quarterbacks — Bobby Douglass, Jack Concannon and Virgil Carter — as Dooley tried unsuccessfully to lift his team out of its funk.
Carter got his opportunity late in the season, but Dooley pulled him at halftime of a loss to the Packers, and Carter called him “gutless and a liar.” Carter also said he hoped management wouldn’t be “chicken(bleep)” enough to make him return to Chicago the following season to play out his option. The outburst earned Carter a $1,000 fine from the organization, and he left the team a game early.
A more serious and heartbreaking moment in the season was that running back Brian Piccolo was diagnosed with cancer after he went to doctors for a persistent cough and they found a chest tumor. He died about seven months later.
Blackhawks: 1927-28 season (7-34-3)
Pete Muldoon was the first Hawks coach in franchise history. Fired after one season, he reportedly said, “This team will never finish in first place,” a statement that later became known as the “Curse of Muldoon.”
Now, there are those who claim it never happened, that Muldoon just packed up his hockey stick and quietly left town. Yet, the outcome of the team’s second season in Chicago — with only 7 wins in 44 games and a last-place finish in the league’s rankings — made some wonder if the curse were real.
Playing in the old Chicago Coliseum, the Hawks opened 1-0-1 and quickly went downhill from there, posting two 10-game losing streaks, including one to (mercifully) end the season. Charlie Gardner absorbed much of the pounding, starting in goal for 40 games and posting a respectable 2.84 goals-against average. Duke Keats “led” the team in scoring with 14 goals and 22 points.
The frustration reached a boiling point in the last game of the season — a 6-1 loss to the Rangers in the Coliseum. Keats and New York defenseman Ching Johnson squared off in a bitter brawl that required players from both teams, the referee and two uniformed policemen to break up. The fans had had enough too. Three times during the game, play stopped for attendants to clear the ice of newspapers showered down from the stands.
Not one coach could take all the blame. Barney Stanley, who presided over a 21-game stretch in which his Hawks went 3-17-1, was fired on Jan. 18, 1928. His replacement was Hugh Lehman, who had started the season as goalie. Lehman’s record was 4-17-2.
The next season, the Hawks posted a similar record (7-29-8) that included a 15-game winless streak at home and an NHL record number of shut outs at home — 20 times in a 44-game schedule.
Vintage Chicago Tribune: Worst Chicago pro sports teams
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