why are the bears called the bears

The Chicago Bears are called “the Bears” because their original owner, George Halas, renamed the team in 1922 to tie it to the Chicago Cubs baseball team and to emphasize that football players were like grown “bears” compared with “cubs.”

Name origin in simple terms

• The franchise started in 1919 as the Decatur Staleys, a company team that later moved to Chicago.

• By 1921–1922 they were playing at Cubs Park (now Wrigley Field), home of the Chicago Cubs baseball team.

• Halas wanted the football club’s identity linked to the already popular Cubs brand, so he chose the name Bears as a kind of “bigger version” of Cubs.

Why “Bears” specifically?

• Halas reportedly reasoned that football players were bigger and rougher than baseball players, just as adult bears are bigger and tougher than bear cubs.

• The name also made marketing sense in the 1920s: fans could easily connect the new football team with the established Cubs, helping the Bears gain recognition in Chicago’s crowded sports scene.

Fun language side note

• The animal name “bear” in English itself comes from Old English “bera,” likely meaning “the brown one,” used as a euphemistic name for the animal.

• That general word origin is separate from the team’s branding choice; Halas used “Bears” mainly for the visual, local, and symbolic connection to the Cubs rather than for linguistic history.

So, “why are the Bears called the Bears?”
Because they played at Cubs Park, wanted a connection to the Cubs, and a tougher, “grown‑up” version of a cub naturally became the Chicago Bears.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.