Team: | Chicago Bears |
Year: | 1970 |
Record: | 6–8 |
Division Place: | 4th NFC Central |
Coach: | Jim Dooley |
Owner: | George Halas |
Stadium: | Wrigley Field |
Playoffs: | Did not qualify |
Shortnavlink: | Bears seasons |
The 1970 Chicago Bears season was their 51st regular season completed in the National Football League. The team finished with a 6–8 record, a significant improvement over the 1–13 record of the previous season, the worst in franchise history.
After losing the coin flip for the number one pick in the 1970 NFL draft (which Pittsburgh used to draft Terry Bradshaw), the Bears traded the 2nd pick to the Green Bay Packers for Lee Roy Caffey, Elijah Pitts, and Bob Hyland.[1]
See main article: 1970 NFL draft.
As an experiment, the Bears hosted their first home game of the season at Northwestern University's Dyche Stadium in Evanston. The Bears' Wrigley Field landlord, the Chicago Cubs, were in a pennant race and might play in the National League Championship Series and World Series, and that Wrigley Field would be unavailable (at least for installation of temporary seating in right and center field) until well into October.[5] (The Cubs were in contention in the National League East until the final week of the 1970 season, thus rendering the anticipation moot.)[6] [7]
In addition, the NFL was pressuring the Bears to move out of Wrigley Field, because it had no lights and its seating capacity was under 50,000 (even with additional seating in right field for football games), stipulations of the AFL–NFL merger agreement. The Bears planned to move to Evanston for the 1971 season, but Evanston residents petitioned city officials to block the move, and the Big Ten Conference ultimately barred the Bears from using Dyche Stadium;[8] the Bears moved to Chicago's Soldier Field.[9]
Week | Date | Opponent | Result | Record | Venue | Attendance | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | at New York Giants | W 24–16 | 1–0 | Yankee Stadium | 62,936 | |||
2 | September 27 | Philadelphia Eagles | W 20–16 | 2–0 | Dyche Stadium | 53,463 | ||
3 | at Detroit Lions | L 14–28 | 2–1 | Tiger Stadium | 58,210 | |||
4 | October 11 | Minnesota Vikings | L 0–24 | 2–2 | Wrigley Field | 45,485 | ||
5 | October 18 | San Diego Chargers | L 7–20 | 2–3 | Wrigley Field | 45,278 | ||
6 | October 25 | Detroit Lions | L 10–16 | 2–4 | Wrigley Field | 45,632 | ||
7 | November 1 | at Atlanta Falcons | W 23–14 | 3–4 | Atlanta Stadium | 58,850 | ||
8 | November 8 | San Francisco 49ers | L 16–37 | 3–5 | Wrigley Field | 45,607 | ||
9 | November 15 | at Green Bay Packers | L 19–20 | 3–6 | Lambeau Field | 56,263 | ||
10 | November 22 | Buffalo Bills | W 31–13 | 4–6 | Wrigley Field | 41,015 | ||
11 | November 29 | at Baltimore Colts | L 20–21 | 4–7 | Memorial Stadium | 60,240 | ||
12 | at Minnesota Vikings | L 13–16 | 4–8 | Metropolitan Stadium | 47,900 | |||
13 | December 13 | Green Bay Packers | W 35–17 | 5–8 | Wrigley Field | 44,957 | ||
14 | December 20 | at New Orleans Saints | W 24–3 | 6–8 | Tulane Stadium | 63,518 | ||
Note: Intra-division opponents are in bold text. |