McCaskey to turn over Bears to brother George
Michael McCaskey's association with the Bears, the team his grandfather George Halas founded, goes back a long way.
He attended his first game as a baby at Soldier Field, went to training camps at St. Joseph's College in Rensselaer, Ind., as a boy to watch Halas coach the team, and he ran pass patterns as a college football player in training camp for quarterbacks Billy Wade and Rudy Bukich.
The oldest of Ed and Virginia McCaskey's 11 children, the 66-year-old McCaskey has served as Bears president and CEO for 16 years, assuming those positions on Nov. 11, 1983, two weeks after Halas (Virginia's father) died.
Now Michael, who became the Bears chairman of the board in 1999, will relinquish that position to his 54-year-old brother George at the conclusion of the 2010 season.
"The primary goal here is to ensure an orderly transition," Michael McCaskey said in a Wednesday afternoon news conference at Halas Hall. "My mom and I are both in good health, but you never know what's coming next. That can turn in a minute. We lost Walter Payton (to liver disease in 1999), and that certainly affected me. Walter said it very well. He said, 'Tomorrow's not promised to anyone.'
"This is a part of our planning to make sure that things are in order. I hope it doesn't happen anytime soon, but my mom's going to pass away at some point. I will pass away. It's going to happen to all of us. So let's have a good succession plan in place."
George McCaskey has worked as the Bears' senior director of ticket operations since 1991 and has served on the team's board of directors since 2004. He'll spend the next year learning more about other aspects of the organization, such as finance, marketing and information technology.
"In another life I was a business professor," Michael said, "and that's one of the challenges for an organization, to find a way to have an orderly succession and to hand the baton off to someone else in a way that leaves the organization strong and able to continue pursuing championships. (George) is a terrific choice. He's smart and hard-working."
Over the years, the topic of selling the franchise has been posed to Michael and the other McCaskeys, who would realize a financial windfall as a result of such a transaction. But Michael McCaskey said the possibility of selling the Bears was never mentioned while the succession plan was being discussed by the family.
"We intend for our family to own the Bears as long as you care to think about it," he said. "The Halas/McCaskey family intends to be running the Bears well into the future."
George McCaskey added: "We could sell and make piles of money. But that's not as important as winning championships."
His critics will remember Michael for his role in the botched hiring of Dave McGinnis to succeed Dave Wannstedt as the Bears' head coach in 1999. The signing was announced before McGinnis agreed to terms, and he eventually declined the job, forcing the Bears to construct a Plan B, which resulted in the hiring of Dick Jauron.
The Bears also won Super Bowl XX on Michael McCaskey's watch and played in Super Bowl XLI, which they lost to the Colts. In his tenure, they've qualified for the playoffs 11 times.
The chairman of the board has almost nothing to do with the day-to-day management of the football team as president and CEO Ted Phillips oversees those areas. But the chairman is responsible for the board, which has the ultimate legal responsibility for the franchise.
"The way we've structured it," George McCaskey said, "is that the chairman is also responsible for being the singular person who represents the Bears at the league level. I think the No. 1 job duty is to serve as the owner's representative in league matters."
The chairman attends league meetings and votes for the organization on matters from rules changes to labor policy.