Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #36682 in Books
• Published on: 2008-09-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 192 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781572439856
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From the Publisher
"I think you're a great football team, the greatest ever assembled. Go out on the field and prove it." --George Halas, talking to his team before the 1940 NFL Championship Game

"Back then, we weren't interested in records and anything like that. If you got ahead by 20 points, you took out the first string and put in the second string. I probably could have scored eight touchdowns that particular day." --Gale Sayers, on his six-touchdown day against the 49ers in 1965

"I always tell people I want to live to be 150 and they say, `Why would you want to do that?' I say, `Well, there's a few people I haven't made mad yet; I want to get them.'" --Mike Ditka

"Continuity is important.... We are a few years into having Lovie Smith and Jerry Angelo together, and I think we are seeing the fruits of all those labors." --Bears president Ted Phillips

From the Inside Flap
When George Halas moved the Decatur Staleys to Chicago in 1921 and renamed them the Bears a year later, he never could have imagined they would someday become one of the most famous and celebrated franchises in all of sports. Known around the world as the "Monsters of the Midway," Bears legends like Mike Ditka, Dick Butkus, Gale Sayers, Mike Singletary, and Walter Payton have become synonymous with football excellence.

"Then Ditka Said to Payton..." chronicles more than 80 years of the greatest Bears stories ever told, from the team's early beginnings as a football squad sponsored by a starch manufacturer to the Super Bowl XLI meeting with the Indianapolis Colts in 2007. Written and compiled by former Bears offensive lineman Dan Jiggetts and Chicago Tribune columnist Fred Mitchell, "Then Ditka Said to Payton..." gives you an insider's view of the most important people and moments in Bears history; sheds new light on the lives and careers of Ditka, Sayers, and Payton; reveals legendary training camp stories from Platteville, Wisconsin; and goes inside the coaching regimes of Da Coach, Dave Wannstedt, and current head coach Lovie Smith. Also included is an exclusive audio CD featuring highlights from Walter Payton's 275-yard rushing game against the Minnesota Vikings in 1977.

Even Bears fans who know their team inside and out will find something new within the pages of "Then Ditka Said to Payton...". Get the true story behind the hiring of Mike Ditka in 1982, Walter Payton's notorious training camp pranks, the franchise's frustrating search for great quarterbacks, Devin Hester and the team's Super Bowl run in 2006-07, and everything else that makes the Bears their city's favorite team--now and forever.

About the Author
Dan Jiggetts is a former Bears offensive lineman who blocked for Hall of Fame running back Walter Payton between 1976 and 1982. Jiggetts played in 98 games over seven seasons with the Bears. A first-team All-Ivy League tackle, Jiggetts captained Harvard's first undisputed Ivy League championship team in 1975. Since the end of his playing career, he has enjoyed a distinguished career as a radio and television sportscaster. A former NCAA record-holder for career points scored by kicking and a member of the 1968 Lutheran College All-America team at Wittenberg University, Fred Mitchell now gets his kicks as a 34-year veteran of the Chicago Tribune. Mitchell was inducted into the Wittenberg Athletic Hall of Fame in 1995 and received an honorary doctorate from his alma mater in 2000. Over the course of his career, Mitchell has served as the beat reporter covering the Chicago Bears, Bulls, and Cubs, and is the author of seven other sports books. For the past 10 years, he has written the "Around Town" column for the Chicago Tribune.

Customer Reviews

Easy to read Bears history
Bear's stories and snippets from their history in an easy-to-read format of short stories and anecdotes. A good adjunct to a Bears fan's library.