1934 CHICAGO BEARS

Backstory
As the two-time defending NFL champions, the 1934 Bears were already on their way to establishing themselves as the dominant franchise of the 1930s and 1940s. And the T-formation hadn’t even been installed yet.

The regular season
Chicago opened with five straight road games, winning them all while outscoring their opponents 104-20. The Bears didn’t have any close calls until the last three out of four games, eking out victories once against the New York Giants and twice against the newly relocated (from Portsmouth, Ohio) Lions, including the first Thanksgiving Day game in Detroit, to finish 13-0. Chicago was the first undefeated, untied team in the short history of the NFL.

Even in a single-wing era, the Bears’ rushing was impressive — a record (by more than 600 yards) 2,847 yards, including 1,004 by rookie Beattie Feathers, the first-ever 1,000-plus yard season. Chicago had two other runners finish in the top 10 — Bronko Nagurski (586) and Gene Ronzani (485). Red Grange, in his final season, chipped in 156. Feathers’ average gain of 8.44 yards lasted until 2006, when Michael Vick broke it. Speaking of breaking, Feathers suffered a serious shoulder injury in a 17-6 victory over the crosstown Cardinals, forcing him to miss the final two games and the championship game against the Giants.

The postseason
The Bears played in one of the most storied championship games in NFL history — and not because they won. The championship at New York’s Polo Grounds became known as the “Sneakers Game” because down 13-3 in the fourth quarter on a field made slick by freezing rain, the Giants changed out of their cleats into sneakers they borrowed from the Manhattan College basketball team the night before as the rain fell.

The sure-footed Giants scored 27 fourth-quarter points against the stumbling, cleated Bears for a 30-13 victory.

Postscript
In 1942, the Bears would again finish the regular season undefeated, in even more dominant a fashion than they had eight years earlier (their 26.6 average point differential remains the NFL record).

But again, they lost the championship game, this time at Washington, 14-6. Footwear had nothing to do with this loss. Throwing an interception in the end zone and having another touchdown called back by a penalty did. No pro football team would go undefeated through the regular season and playoffs until the 1948 Cleveland Browns of the AAFC.

The greatest regular seasons ever Introduction 1934 Chicago Bears 1971-'72 Los Angeles Lakers 1972 Miami Dolphins 1976-'77 Montreal Canadiens 1979-'80 Philadelphia Flyers 1990-'91 UNLV Runnin’ Rebels 1995 Nebraska Cornhuskers 1995-'96 Chicago Bulls 1997-'98 Tennessee Lady Vols 2001 Seattle Mariners 2003-04 Arsenal FC VOTE: Which was most impressive?

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