XL years ago, a Super trip to witness history in New Orleans

This weekend brings Super Bowl LX between the Seahawks and Patriots, which means it has been XL years since the Patriots were plastered by none other than Mike Ditka's Chicago Bears.

There's a civic duty for those of us who were part of the greatest generation of Chicago sports fans — people who actually watched the Bears win a Super Bowl in person — to share the story. It needs to be archived for future historians.

So this is my tale, one that has never been published in print, about a roughly 28-hour (round trip) drive to the city of New Orleans.

Let's start with the rallying cry, which rings in my ears to this day. The Patriots head coach back then was legendary Colts receiver Raymond Berry, who led New England to three road playoff wins to reach Super Bowl XX.

So the Patriots slogan was, “Berry the Bears.” It was on every T-shirt. You could hear it from all corners of Bourbon Street on Saturday night.

Keep in mind, those inebriated Patriots fans had thick Boston accents. So the actual sound was more, “Behry the Behhs, Behry the Behhs!”

The next day, every radio station in Louisiana warned about heavy traffic. So we left super early and there was no traffic at all. We were in our Superdome upper deck seats when the very first player ran out of the tunnel for pregame warmups.

When you're the fan of a heavily favored team, one that's expected to cement its legendary status, the only pregame emotion you can feel is pure terror. If the Bears won, it was expected. But a loss would be horrific. When both teams were lined up on the field for warm-ups, it's easy to imagine how either side could win.

Sure enough, the Bears fumbled on the opening drive and New England took a 3-0 lead. We happened to be sitting on the Patriots side and the break in the action offered a chance to visit the restroom. We'd been sitting inside the dome for a long time.

So another strong memory is that brief moment when the Bears trailed. New England fans were hyped up, sprinting down the hallways with arms spread wide, screaming at the top of their lungs. It was happening. Another Patriots miracle was on the way.

Reality set in pretty quickly, of course. This was as lopsided a Super Bowl game as there ever was, with the Bears leading 44-3 at the end of three quarters. The 49ers set the mark for largest margin of victory a few years later against Denver, but that one was 41-10 at the end of three. The fourth quarter shouldn't matter in a game like that.

Anyway, that brought Chapter III of the Patriots fan journey. I remember looking over my shoulder at the sea of New England fans and every one sat glumly, arms crossed, faces blank. They went to the trouble of attending the Super Bowl, so no one left in the third quarter. They just had to sit there and watch the Bears dominate.

It would have made a great photo. But we didn't run around snapping pictures every few minutes in 1986. Very different era.

That's about all there is to the story. Obviously, a great game for those who grew up with Buddy Ryan's 46 defense. Patriots starting quarterback Tony Eason was 0-for-6 with 3 sacks by the time he left with an injury.

The drive was uneventful, though it was interesting to hear random Southern radio stations playing, “The Super Bowl Shuffle.” Pretty sure that song came close to making the Billboard Top 40.

What was it like in Chicago, when Bears-mania filled every moment of every day? Couldn't really tell you, because I lived in Detroit at the time, doing an internship with the Pistons. That's how I got the tickets, through the Lions, our Silverdome co-tenants.

Don't know anything about the parade, since I was trying to hustle back to Pontiac, Michigan, to staff the walk-up ticket window and maybe keeping game-night stats for someone like Neil Funk, then calling New Jersey Nets games solo on WNBC. Got to start somewhere, right?

What made the whole experience amazing was how Chicago was Loserville in those days. Didn't win any major pro championships between 1963 and '85 (except the Sting in soccer). Our only meaningful sports rivalry was DePaul-Notre Dame. When Chicago teams did do well, they'd suffer excruciating playoff losses.

Super Bowl XX will go down in history as a total mismatch featuring the greatest defense in NFL history. For Chicago sports fans, it was our moon landing — something we never thought was possible.