Virginia McCaski Burial: Family, friends gather to honor the owner of late bears – FOX 32 Chicago

Chicago – The family and friends of Virginia Halas McCashi will gather on Wednesday morning to honor the owner of the late bears.

A private funeral service was set at 10:30 am at the Catholic Church of St. Emily in the Mountain Prospect.

McChaski died last week at the age of 102. It has served as the bear owner since father and founder, George S. Halas died in 1983.

Virginia McCaski’s heritage

The story:

McCaski was born in 1923 in Min and George Halas. She grew up in Chicago and visits the University of Drexel in Philadelphia, where she met with her future husband Edward W. McCaski. The two married in 1943

McCasky had 11 children, eight sons and three daughters. She recently celebrated her 102nd birthday on January 5th. For their birthday, the Chicago bears beat Green Bay Packers 24-22 at a goal goal to complete the 2024 season.

Like his father, the co -founder of NFL, McCashi held the team in family hands. She gave operational control and title to the president of her oldest son, Michael McCaski, who in 2011 was the chairman until he was succeeded by Brother George McCaski.

During her leadership, the bears won a superboul in 1986 and lost a second 21 years later.

Four of McCaski’s sons remain on the Board of Bear Directors: George, Patrick, Brian and Ed. A recent estimate from Forbes.com tied the value of the $ 6.4 billion team.

Despite her role in Chicago bears and NFL, she kept a low profile and lived in Des Plains.

McCasky, the older of Halas’s two children, never expected to be responsible. Her brother George Halby Halas Jr. was maintained to take over the team, but suddenly died of a heart attack in 1979.

McCaski took ownership of her father’s death in 1983, and her late husband, Ed McChaski, inherited Halas as chairman. Not long after, she turned control to Michael, the biggest of her 11 children.

“I think it is important that all our family remembers that we really did nothing to win this,” McChaski said in a rare interview in 2006. “We are just recipients of a huge heritage. I use the word” guardian, and We want to convey it in the best way.

The official title of McCashi was the secretary of the Board of Directors. Despite the usual approach to the hands and the low public profile, it occasionally exercised the ultimate authority of team decisions such as the matriarch of the family.

He survives from his sons Patrick, Edward Jr., George, Richard, Brian and Joseph and daughters Ellen, Mary and Anne. She also survived from 21 grandchildren, 40 great -grandchildren and four great -grandchildren.

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Football life

Virginia McCaski came honestly from her Fandom. According to family members, she would often not serve dessert on Sunday when bears were lost. In the same 2006 interview, she recalled that she attended the first playoff game in the league history when she was 9 years old.

Bears and Portsmouth The Spartans ended the 1932 season in the first draw for the first place, so the league added a game to set a champion. Due to the snow, the game was moved indoors to the old stadium in Chicago, the bears won 9-0, playing in a field with 80 yards, which came right to the walls.

“I remember not saving my ticket for my ticket, but one of my cousins ​​saved him,” McChaski said. “We sat on the second balcony and the ticket price was $ 1.25.

“I took it to one of the super -bows to show (former commissioner) Pete Rosel and then I don’t know what happened to it afterwards,” she added. “But that’s good.”

Beyond football

Her mandate as a bear owner included the creation of the Bear Care Program in 2005. Bears said Bears issued grants totaling over $ 31.5 million to 225 qualifying agencies to improve people’s quality of life In the Chicago area, especially disadvantaged children and their families. Bears’s care has also supported the health awareness programs focused on breast and ovarian cancer.

What they say:

“Virginia Halas McCaski, the Matriarch of the Chicago Bears and the daughter of George Halas, the founder of NFL, leaves a legacy of the class, dignity and humanity,” NFL Commissioner Roger Guwel said in a statement. “Faith, family and football – in this order – were her northern stars, and she lived with a simple saying to” do the right thing. ” The bears that her father started in mind were meant the world, and he would be proud of the way she continued the family business with such dedication and passion. “