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 select quarterback Terry Bradshaw), the Bears traded the second pick to the Green Bay Packers for linebacker Lee Roy Caffey, running back Elijah Pitts, and center Bob Hyland.
This was Chicago's final season at Wrigley Field. They moved into Soldier Field beginning the next season, and would play there until the 2002 season.
Offseason June 16, 1970 – After a seven-month battle with cancer, running back Brian Piccolo died at age 26.
NFL draft
Undrafted free agents
+ 1970 undrafted free agents of notePlayerPositionCollegeFrank GrimmGuardTulsaDick HillWide receiverUT ArlingtonGary KerrWide receiverCal Poly
Roster
Regular season 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. (The Cubs were in contention in the National League East until the final week of the season, thus rendering the anticipation moot.)
In addition, the NFL was pressuring the Bears to move out of Wrigley Field, because it had no lights (installed in 1988) 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;Historical Newspapers from 1700s–2000s – Newspapers.com the Bears moved to Chicago's Soldier Field.Historical Newspapers from 1700s–2000s – Newspapers.com
Schedule 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.
Season summary Week 1 at Giants
Week 2
Pro-Football-Reference.com
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved 2014-Sep-14.
Week 8
Week 9
Week 10
Pro-Football-Reference.com
Week 11
Week 12
Week 13
Source: Pro-Football-Reference.com
Week 14
Jack Concannon 26/50, 280 Yds Dick Gordon 9 Rec, 119 Yds Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved 2014-Sep-14.
Standings
References