Speaker 1: All right, another walkdown memory lane for one of the
Speaker 1: greatest teams in Bears history of the sixty three champions,
Speaker 1: first championship since nineteen forty six. They won four of
Speaker 1: their last five games, including a three nothing a regular
Speaker 1: season finale against the Lions. And then from what we heard, gentlemen,
Speaker 1: many of you guys said, it was one of the
Speaker 1: toughest games ever played, that game against the Detroit Lions.
Speaker 1: Thanks for being here and Tom and I Boat. I
Speaker 1: was telling Johnny, you can see the nineteen sixty three
Speaker 1: game in its entirety on YouTube, and to take the
Speaker 1: time to watch those guys play back then it was
Speaker 1: a treat. We'll start with Mike because, like we said
Speaker 1: last night, your play as a tight end, it's probably
Speaker 1: the most underrated aspect of your football career in my opinion.
Speaker 1: And being on that championship team and you coming there
Speaker 1: a couple of years earlier, it changed the face of
Speaker 1: the offense, didn't it. Well, I don't you know. We
Speaker 1: had a block. We were tight ends and we blocked.
Speaker 1: They don't block anymore. They received or we blocked, and
Speaker 1: we blocked a lot. And we had great running backs,
Speaker 1: had Willie Gallimore. I played. I mean we had we
Speaker 1: made great backs. We had a quarterback I'd like to
Speaker 1: throw the football, Bill Wade. So we threw the ball
Speaker 1: to Johnny every once in a while. We throw it
Speaker 1: to me once in a while, but not very much.
Speaker 1: You threw it to Johnny all the time because Johnny
Speaker 1: was faster and he got open more night. Did yeah,
Speaker 1: come on, you tore it up? No, I didn't you
Speaker 1: tore it up? Did we not tear it up? But hey,
Speaker 1: coach I saw highlights of you. I saw highlights of
Speaker 1: Coach Dicka where you're lined up almost what by a
Speaker 1: wide receive, you know, six seven yards off of your
Speaker 1: offensive tackle, So you weren't always right there with your
Speaker 1: nose in the dirt. Hey A, I was a tight end,
Speaker 1: That's all I know. Actually, Mike and probably John Mackie
Speaker 1: if you remember him with Baltimore. You know before in
Speaker 1: the sixties, before the sixties, your tight end was usually
Speaker 1: tall guy, catch the look and look past six eight
Speaker 1: yards for the first down. Mike who had decent speed,
Speaker 1: He had good speed, especially when he was younger, and
Speaker 1: he he changed the game. He and John Mackie changed
Speaker 1: the game. They became threats downfield. And that that's that's
Speaker 1: what changed the game. And the other thing that changed
Speaker 1: the game was putting the smaller guys out as wide
Speaker 1: receivers that usually uh you know, usually the smaller guys
Speaker 1: were running backs, and they put him out as wide receivers.
Speaker 1: Changed John John till I was really fast. I was
Speaker 1: a real fast tight end. I'll run everybody. Hey, how
Speaker 1: are the you know, when we look at that game, Bob,
Speaker 1: how are the field conditions? Like, where did your spice
Speaker 1: get into the ground. Did you have a choice of
Speaker 1: shoes to wear? The field conditions? They had hay on
Speaker 1: the field and then they tried to heat and then
Speaker 1: took all the hay off the field before he played. Obviously,
Speaker 1: that was that was for the for the championship game
Speaker 1: that they put hay in the field. They put huge
Speaker 1: tarps across the field and huge blowers and so for
Speaker 1: about two weeks before the game they put these blowers
Speaker 1: and blew the tarps high. So when we took the
Speaker 1: field on the champion the championship game, the turf was
Speaker 1: in good shape. It was hard as this though, no
Speaker 1: it got hard the second half. Yeah, it was. It
Speaker 1: was still pretty good the first half, but In the
Speaker 1: narration of the game, they referred to the Wrigley Field
Speaker 1: as a modern day structure. Did it feel that way
Speaker 1: to you, guys or not? Did not? Not really, especially
Speaker 1: if you saw the locker rooms. U. The facilities weren't
Speaker 1: weren't the best, but it was what we had to
Speaker 1: live with. I just want to say one thing. Uh,
Speaker 1: you're talking about Mike Ditka in the tight end. Uh.
Speaker 1: We played the Pittsburgh Steelers the Sunday after the assassination
Speaker 1: of Ted Kennedy or a president Kennedy, John Kennedy, and
Speaker 1: it was a tough game and we were losing, and
Speaker 1: Mike did caught a short pass and everybody under Pittsburgh
Speaker 1: Steelers had a shot at this guy. Here it is
Speaker 1: he ran over about three or four people. Three or
Speaker 1: four is more than that. One count two, three, four, five, five, six.
Speaker 1: And that that that catch and run, that catch and
Speaker 1: run enabled us to kick a field goal that tied
Speaker 1: the game. And that's why we ended up in the
Speaker 1: champions Right, you were tuckered out, not too much speed, Well,
Speaker 1: now you were tired. I didn't The breakaway speed came
Speaker 1: later in life. I didn't have it dead. But when
Speaker 1: you see that run set the dynamics of that because
Speaker 1: you you admitted you were you were out of gas.
Speaker 1: A different play was called and you said, hey, give
Speaker 1: me a short pass and bam. Yeah, I can tell exactly.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you remember, John, but Bill Bill
Speaker 1: asked me, he said, what can you run? I said, no,
Speaker 1: I can't run. I said, throw me a short pass
Speaker 1: and I'll try to run with it. And he threw
Speaker 1: me a look in and I ran with it. I'm serious.
Speaker 1: I was dead. That's the first time that I had
Speaker 1: been back to Pittsburgh and I played in front of
Speaker 1: the people. That's where I went to score and everything
Speaker 1: but my family, everybody's there. I mean, I was so
Speaker 1: hyped up for the game. And the standards were a
Speaker 1: good football team. They were good football. They had a
Speaker 1: good defense. But it just I got lucky. They didn't
Speaker 1: have tackling practice that way. Everybody missed me. But the
Speaker 1: reality of it, and we have a graphic of this
Speaker 1: as well with the assassination. How difficult was it to play, guys?
Speaker 1: How hard was it to play that game? For you? Well,
Speaker 1: we really didn't know that we were going to play
Speaker 1: the game until Saturday morning when we came to practice.
Speaker 1: We were coming off the practice field on Friday and
Speaker 1: the clubhouse guy Bill Martell, said, the president's been shot.
Speaker 1: And so before we after everybody showered, they still didn't
Speaker 1: know where, if the game was going to be played
Speaker 1: or not. So Hallis said, you pack your bags as
Speaker 1: if we're going to be going on the trip. And
Speaker 1: we never really knew that we were going until we
Speaker 1: came to practice on Saturday morning and going there, you know,
Speaker 1: it's just very quiet. The stadium was dead silence. There
Speaker 1: was no public address, there was no bands, there was
Speaker 1: no noise, there was nothing. It was just just eerieus. Heck,
Speaker 1: you know you share the same memory of that, Johnny. Yes,
Speaker 1: nobody really wanted to play, but we just, uh, it
Speaker 1: was decided that we were going to play, and the
Speaker 1: decision was made, and so we did it. And I'll
Speaker 1: never forget that that whole weekend the United States of
Speaker 1: America was really affected by that. Bob. You're also quoted
Speaker 1: on the way to the stadium, Lee, Harvey Oswald, you
Speaker 1: heard was shot, and I read this that mister Hallis
Speaker 1: smashed the radio explained what happened. Well, we were driving
Speaker 1: over to the from the from the hotel to the stadium,
Speaker 1: and somebody had the radio on in the luggage track
Speaker 1: and they were talking about the transfer of leave Harvey
Speaker 1: Oswald from one prison to the next, you know. And
Speaker 1: so we're listening to this intently all the way from
Speaker 1: the hotel to the to the field. And just before
Speaker 1: we got to the field, just as the bus was
Speaker 1: stopping and the guy was announcing how Harvey Oswald was
Speaker 1: being transferred all and everything, and all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: he's stilled. He's been shot. He's been shot. You know.
Speaker 1: That hallis jumps up and he says, we got a
Speaker 1: game to play. Shot that blank radio WAF Bengal. That
Speaker 1: was over. You know, crazy time. Yeah, you know, every
Speaker 1: time I sit see Bob. You gotta remember football was
Speaker 1: a little different back most of our playing days. The
Speaker 1: quarterback called the plays. Now, maybe from the sidelines they
Speaker 1: would send in a player with the play, but the
Speaker 1: quarterback called the plays. And of course they they ran
Speaker 1: a lot more back in those days than they passed.
Speaker 1: And I'd be right next to Bob in the huddle
Speaker 1: and Dicker was close by, and we with the quarterback
Speaker 1: calling the players, you could say, hey, let's do this.
Speaker 1: We could talk in the huddle, and you know, sometimes
Speaker 1: I'd say, let's let's do this call. Listen Bob to say, hell, no,
Speaker 1: we're gonna run the ball. We gotta get three yards,
Speaker 1: you know. So it was more fun in the huddle
Speaker 1: than nowadays. The play comes into the quarterback right, and
Speaker 1: you know that's the play that the coach is called,
Speaker 1: and so nobody says anything. You know, I'm I don't
Speaker 1: think they say that much in the huddle, like like
Speaker 1: we used to. We used to have fun in the huddle, right, Doddle,
Speaker 1: He said, you guys had fun in the huddle? Was
Speaker 1: it fun? Very much? Attention, Johnny? Did you come out
Speaker 1: of a three point stance as a wide receiver back then?
Speaker 1: Because I thought I saw some highlights of you extended
Speaker 1: out there, and it seemed like that was a transition
Speaker 1: in the NFL that wide receivers made from a three
Speaker 1: point stance into a two point stance. But you are
Speaker 1: also a great track man. Well, I think they when
Speaker 1: at first see back, the wide receiver was called a
Speaker 1: flanker in those days. The flankers the same thing as
Speaker 1: a wide receiver. And I had been a running back
Speaker 1: for the so I was kind of used to going
Speaker 1: in a three point stance. But once I was there
Speaker 1: for a few you know, for a training camp of
Speaker 1: one season, I said, no, you got to stand up.
Speaker 1: And the thing is you can get a much quicker
Speaker 1: start when you stand up. To start running, you have
Speaker 1: to kind of put your feet back and you don't
Speaker 1: get off as quickly. It's kind of hard to explain,
Speaker 1: but did you track background help you in those terms
Speaker 1: of getting off the ball quicker? Yeah, it helped you,
Speaker 1: especially as a running back. Yes. As a wide receiver,
Speaker 1: I still think that if you're up and you can
Speaker 1: survey to feel better certain things, it's just better to
Speaker 1: stand up as a as a wide receiver, it's more
Speaker 1: effective in the long run. Did you know that Johnny
Speaker 1: held the world record for the forty yard or informal record? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, it's it is interesting because you know,
Speaker 1: not a lot of time to speed translated to being
Speaker 1: a good football player. And when I look at some
Speaker 1: of the numbers you had, you had a great year
Speaker 1: in sixty four two. So who fed who? Did you
Speaker 1: feed passes for Dick Ga or did Difca feed passes
Speaker 1: for you? Well? I think it's back and forth. Both
Speaker 1: of us did the same for each other. But the
Speaker 1: thing was Mike and I were usually we were just
Speaker 1: on the same side of the field. I was strong side,
Speaker 1: so it was hard for the teams to double both
Speaker 1: of us when we're When you have a strong tight
Speaker 1: end with the wide receiver, it was hard to double.
Speaker 1: You go only double one guy, you got double both guys.
Speaker 1: So that was one of the strengths we had in
Speaker 1: our team. There's a quote from Rica Serras that always
Speaker 1: rings with me. Said, if you were a bear, you
Speaker 1: were a king in Chicago. Did you feel that way
Speaker 1: back in nineteen sixty three, I guess it's been And
Speaker 1: what bars you hung out in? No, it was great,
Speaker 1: it really was. We used to go to a place
Speaker 1: called the Cottage. I mean, that's what I really remember.
Speaker 1: Freddie Hattenberg had a place down All the Cubs used
Speaker 1: to go there on a Bear player right down on
Speaker 1: Clark Street, on the North Clark Street, and I mean
Speaker 1: on a Sunday night, and the place would be packed.
Speaker 1: But then everybody would come to see the Bear players.
Speaker 1: You know, Mike Ditka, I remember watching films. He is
Speaker 1: the only guy that I can remember that I saw
Speaker 1: on many occasions, throw a block, cut a guy down,
Speaker 1: and immediately roll over and get the next guy. Because
Speaker 1: you when you have a block to make it, you
Speaker 1: make your block. You know, you look up at hey.
Speaker 1: I did my job. He had that natural instinct to
Speaker 1: go for the second block. And how many times do
Speaker 1: you see a guy make a second block in one play, right, Bob?
Speaker 1: I used to see you block. Johnny That's what we
Speaker 1: called him, was sneaky because he would go down the
Speaker 1: field and they'd be passed caught by somebody else and
Speaker 1: he would sneak up behind the defensive back and get
Speaker 1: down on all fours. So when the guy turned around,
Speaker 1: he fall over. John Bob, what was the Bear signature
Speaker 1: play of that year for offensive line or what type
Speaker 1: of running play was your signature play? Running play? Probably
Speaker 1: the quarterback sneak. I think we scored more touchdowns with
Speaker 1: a quarterbacks saw you're running in that game a few times? Bill, Wait,
Speaker 1: didn't he score both touchdowns on quarterback sneaks after throwing
Speaker 1: to Mike For a couple of team plays. Yeah, we
Speaker 1: had a sweep, we had a knoptacle play, and we
Speaker 1: had we had the fullback right up the middle. I
Speaker 1: don't remember who Hello, A lot of players that we had.
Speaker 1: It wasn't too complicated. I know we had one where
Speaker 1: tackle on the tight end, I blocked down, a tackle
Speaker 1: came out, we kicked out. I don't know, but I did.
Speaker 1: It was interesting, all right? Tell us about that defense, gentlemen,
Speaker 1: because ten points a game it allowed, that's it. In
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty three. How great was the sixty three defense?
Speaker 1: You know, I can't win in this. I think it
Speaker 1: was the best. I really do think it was the best. Well,
Speaker 1: you're going to give up ten points. Hello, those those
Speaker 1: guys were trying to score our defense and was unbelievable.
Speaker 1: I mean, people don't remember back and remember how Joe
Speaker 1: Fortunato or Bill George and those guys. They were good.
Speaker 1: They were really good. J C. Caroline, I ain't going
Speaker 1: on Rosie Tatter. They were good football players. They were
Speaker 1: really good. They didn't get the claim that they would
Speaker 1: get today. No, we have Bill George, Doug Atkins. I mean, uh, Mike,
Speaker 1: you're that you're a really good judge. You played on
Speaker 1: that team and you also coached the the Super Bowl team.
Speaker 1: Could you compare the Bears sixty three defense to the
Speaker 1: eighty five defense? Well, you know that would be unfair
Speaker 1: to both. But uh, I'm just glad I was a
Speaker 1: part of the sixty three thing because, uh, those guys
Speaker 1: were good. I mean Richie Pettybone, I mean he he
Speaker 1: was bigger than me and he played safety six. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean bigger many way more troop. And then we
Speaker 1: had Benny McCrae was as fast as the cattle. It
Speaker 1: was a little painting pain and the ass uh cornerback
Speaker 1: Benny mccraig, Dave Whitson, Will Dave Whitson. Yeah, he was good.
Speaker 1: How were how were the p You know, we we
Speaker 1: are fortunate to practice against the eighty five defense, and
Speaker 1: we practiced live most times. How what was the temple
Speaker 1: of practice back against the team of the sixty three defense? Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: we never really had difficult practices, to be honest with you.
Speaker 1: It was just more or less walkthrough plays and all
Speaker 1: that stuff. Once the season started, we really didn't heed.
Speaker 1: Yeah that's interesting, coach, I thought, George Hallis raised you
Speaker 1: as a coach. You're killing us in practice and when
Speaker 1: you were going through walkthroughs. Yeah, I didn't hurt him.
Speaker 1: Look at him. Um, that is funny. I never realized
Speaker 1: that you guys, didn't you know, going back to that
Speaker 1: the sixty three defense, there's no question that they were
Speaker 1: were excellent, and the offense really wasn't that potent. So
Speaker 1: whenever they get the you know, get the ball and
Speaker 1: we'd go on the field ed Obada, which used to
Speaker 1: tell us, okay, guys, hold him, Yeah, that Dakins. They
Speaker 1: didn't count sacks in those days. Uh, Doug Yatkins. I
Speaker 1: bet if they went back and looked at his thirteen
Speaker 1: year career and check out, I wonder how he would
Speaker 1: rate on sacks because it seemed like he had three
Speaker 1: or three or four sacks the game. To me, Well,
Speaker 1: he said uh at once that he thinks he would
Speaker 1: have had twenty five sacks in one year. So it
Speaker 1: is a shame that they didn't keep that statistic. By
Speaker 1: the way, that team picture that was put up, twenty
Speaker 1: six players and coaches on that team photo right there again,
Speaker 1: coaches included on former Bears players that became coaches were
Speaker 1: ranked in Don Pearson and Dan Pompey's top one hundred list.
Speaker 1: So that's quite a testament to the quality on that team, gentlemen,
Speaker 1: including Now I'll tell you what of all the things
Speaker 1: on that team. I remember one thing. We had the
Speaker 1: best damn punter I've ever seen in Bobby Joe Green.
Speaker 1: He could punch the football. I mean, I'm really unbelievable.
Speaker 1: And I was a putter and colleague. So I come
Speaker 1: out and Hollis had me out there putting. I'm setting
Speaker 1: next to this guy putting. I'm going, hey, I can't
Speaker 1: punt with this guy. He was unbelievable. He was, and
Speaker 1: he was. You know, people don't think about the putter
Speaker 1: A big part of that team change field position for
Speaker 1: us a lot of time by just the way he
Speaker 1: putted the ball. But his big strong suit was it
Speaker 1: was a hang time. It was punts. Oh yeah, he'd
Speaker 1: be over forty yards, but it'd be so high that
Speaker 1: they kicked, the team would be able to get down
Speaker 1: there for the defense before the ball would He's the
Speaker 1: second best punter I can ever remember in the NFL,
Speaker 1: next to the Gray guy. Yeah. You know. Um when
Speaker 1: mister Buckets was on before, he said that Doug Gakins
Speaker 1: never worked out and if he would have worked out,
Speaker 1: he would have been the superman of the NFL. Did
Speaker 1: any were any of you guys introduced to wait at
Speaker 1: that time, time or any type of fitness or when
Speaker 1: was your introduction to fitness and weights? Well, actually it
Speaker 1: came after the sixty three season, I think him sixty
Speaker 1: three Emrick joined the team. We were doing uh isometric exercises.
Speaker 1: The one guy that did it was Stan Jones. I
Speaker 1: remember him. Yeah, he did work out and he had
Speaker 1: a weight program and everything, and a few guys got
Speaker 1: involved in it. But I'll be honest, most of us. Mike,
Speaker 1: did you ever did you ever commit to the weight room?
Speaker 1: Only when I was with the Cowboys, But no, we
Speaker 1: didn't do all that much walls. I got in great
Speaker 1: shape in Dallas. You know, that's a whole different thing.
Speaker 1: And if the weights on your legs, we were told,
Speaker 1: and I agree with it, that if you want to
Speaker 1: maintain quickness and speed, you don't build up the muscles
Speaker 1: in your legs. You've got to be kind of life,
Speaker 1: you might say, especially fancy players receivers and backs and
Speaker 1: stuff that. So some guys do kind of overdo that,
Speaker 1: I think in this day and age. Bob, did you
Speaker 1: finish your career the same way you started your career? No? Actually,
Speaker 1: the weight was a real problem with the Hollis used
Speaker 1: to be have a real fixation on weights. He would
Speaker 1: give everybody to sign weight, and every Thursday he would
Speaker 1: have a weigh in of the whole team, and if
Speaker 1: you're more than three pounds over your assigned weight, he
Speaker 1: would define you fifty dollars a pound and take it
Speaker 1: out of your paycheck. So on Wednesday nights, every steam
Speaker 1: room in the city of Chicago was occupied by bear
Speaker 1: players trying to sweat off the weight. So and they
Speaker 1: did all kinds of shenanigans to try to fix the
Speaker 1: scales and everything else, but nobody ever was. They tried
Speaker 1: getting fish string, in visible fish string, so the guys
Speaker 1: were staying the scale and hold on the string or
Speaker 1: stuff stuff underneath, you know. But I started out at
Speaker 1: two forty nine, and as I got older, I was
Speaker 1: in the steam room myself. I finished up about two
Speaker 1: fifty five. For me, it was just the opposite. I
Speaker 1: only waited one seventy eight. So when I was rookie
Speaker 1: and we started weighing in, I had two two two
Speaker 1: pound lead weights that I put under my in my
Speaker 1: arm kits. Because you had a great thing. I wanted
Speaker 1: to be over one hundred and eighty, so that mister
Speaker 1: Hollis wouldn't think I was, you know, too small. So
Speaker 1: I used those weights for the first year until I
Speaker 1: made the team, and then I stopped doing it. But
Speaker 1: it worked. Tom did that man. When I my last
Speaker 1: year I played for the Miami Dolphins, that I had
Speaker 1: a hard time keeping my weight down because we practiced
Speaker 1: in the eighty degree weather every time. So we used
Speaker 1: to wear these girdles underneath our path and I would
Speaker 1: take and stick a ten pound plate in the back
Speaker 1: of my girdle and then get out in the scale
Speaker 1: and the guy waging the engles, Damn, you're thick for
Speaker 1: a little guy, and so you know he's just trying
Speaker 1: to whatever. However you could get that weight, you could. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Dickon never had a problem. He always used to wore
Speaker 1: it were rubbers, uh, shirt over under his pads whenever
Speaker 1: he practiced, so he was always wet. He had to
Speaker 1: lose ten pounds of practice or whatever. It worked. Huh
Speaker 1: did you ever get fined for weight? Did he find you,
Speaker 1: guys if you were under or overweight? Five people? I
Speaker 1: know I never got fined for it, but he find people. Yeah, well, yeah,
Speaker 1: you got to make your weight. I mean we had
Speaker 1: guys like Herman Lee. I mean, we had you guys
Speaker 1: that couldn't make their weight, didn't We have to run
Speaker 1: the mile the first day that we got there, had
Speaker 1: a mile under six minutes or you had to keep
Speaker 1: running it well. Training training camp back in the Dames
Speaker 1: in Rensseleer, did you guys go to training camp for
Speaker 1: six or seven weeks at a time? That's right, Renstler
Speaker 1: are Indiana the armpit of the nation. Yeah, yeah, we
Speaker 1: would be there six days a week. We never got there,
Speaker 1: we trained for We'd get there at the middle of
Speaker 1: July and not leave camp until after September. I think
Speaker 1: I remember, like we were there almost three weeks before
Speaker 1: we played a preseason game, weren't Yeah yeah, And we
Speaker 1: only got Sunday one practice on Sunday, but the rest
Speaker 1: were two days, weren't they. Yeah? Yeah? But you know again,
Speaker 1: the first time I ever went to training camp with
Speaker 1: the Bears, and we went twenty two straight days of
Speaker 1: doubles in full pads every practice, with conditioning and weightlifting,
Speaker 1: so all these things at the Great George Hallis we
Speaker 1: were hoping they were you know, some of that would
Speaker 1: come off on Mike Didka I learned from the best. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you did, you know? I did want to. I wanted
Speaker 1: to ask you this coach, because two fifty North Washington,
Speaker 1: come up here and I'll kick your ass the role
Speaker 1: or don get your mouth shut? All these quotes by
Speaker 1: you as a head coach, would George Hallis say that? What?
Speaker 1: So during your your time as a head coach, I
Speaker 1: said some of your press conferences in your radio show,
Speaker 1: you told one guy, hey, I was nuts. I mean,
Speaker 1: you come on, I was certified bit crazy. But you
Speaker 1: can't go by it any I was out of touch
Speaker 1: with reality for about twenty years. Now I'm back in
Speaker 1: touch reality. I'm a pretty good guy now. But the
Speaker 1: painting the ass then I know that. I man, that's
Speaker 1: like so like he said, what were you? What were
Speaker 1: your initial impressions of mister Hollis? All three of you
Speaker 1: Sharef's story. We'll start with Mike, and you know he
Speaker 1: brought you back twice. Well, the the first time I
Speaker 1: met him. Of course, there were one sixty three West Madison,
Speaker 1: I guess, or wasn't it. So I came in from
Speaker 1: Pittsburgh on a plane, I got in a cab and
Speaker 1: I drove down to one sixty three West Madison, and
Speaker 1: I went up and I saw a man named Alice
Speaker 1: and he's the guy who started the national football and
Speaker 1: you got to realize he was he was. He was
Speaker 1: really considered. To me. He was an old man. I
Speaker 1: was twenty one years old. And I went into the
Speaker 1: office and and I mean the conversation was kind of amazing.
Speaker 1: I was a six sixth player picked in the first round.
Speaker 1: And he said, I'm gonna pay you twelve thousand dollars
Speaker 1: with a six thousand dollars signing bonus. This is what
Speaker 1: he told me. And I knew what my dad made
Speaker 1: working in the mill. I said, hey, man, hey, I'll
Speaker 1: take that. Coach. So I had a real good year,
Speaker 1: made All Pro and everything. And I came back next
Speaker 1: year and I said I was looking to get a
Speaker 1: big contract and he says, uh, I'm gonna pay you
Speaker 1: fourteen thousand this year. I said, Coach, I made sixteen
Speaker 1: last year. He said, no, you made twelve. I said, oh,
Speaker 1: so I took the contract for sixteen. I mean, that's
Speaker 1: just the way it was. And I was happy to
Speaker 1: have it. And we all had another job. Everybody had.
Speaker 1: You had another job, I had, you had another. We
Speaker 1: all had another job. What was your other job? Well,
Speaker 1: I sold for everybody. I don't nobody really remembers, but
Speaker 1: I sold. I would have saund bullshit if I could anything.
Speaker 1: How about you, mister Hallison, mister Harolis, Probably he gave
Speaker 1: me an opportunity. I was in those days. In nineteen
Speaker 1: fifty nine, there were only twelve teams in the NFL
Speaker 1: and there were only thirty eight players on the squad.
Speaker 1: And those are the days of the College All Stars
Speaker 1: used to play the winners of the championship of the
Speaker 1: previous season. And so I was on the College All
Speaker 1: Star Games. And I was rafted by the Redskins and
Speaker 1: forty ninth player picked. And I joined the Redskins a
Speaker 1: couple of weeks late, and after the second exhibition game,
Speaker 1: they said goodbye. You know, here's your plane ticket home. Well,
Speaker 1: I got a call from George Hallis and he said
Speaker 1: I was. We were in North Carolina at that time
Speaker 1: at an exit preseason game and he said, you know
Speaker 1: what do you I'd like you to come back and
Speaker 1: sign with the Bears. And I said, well, I don't
Speaker 1: know what I want to do. You know, I'm enjoying
Speaker 1: the Marines. I was very disappointed. So he said, well,
Speaker 1: you got to come through Chicago anyhow, you're back home
Speaker 1: to Minneapolis, He's just stop by and let's talk. So
Speaker 1: he said, what I'll do is I'll i'd like you
Speaker 1: to sign come on the Taxi squad this year and
Speaker 1: signed the contract for next year, and I'll give you
Speaker 1: a chance to play. Well, he gave me a chance
Speaker 1: to play, and I made it. So I played ten years.
Speaker 1: It was the greatest thrill in my life, you know,
Speaker 1: winning the championship. So to me, he gave me a
Speaker 1: great opportunity and I was fortunate enough to be able
Speaker 1: to capitalize on him. Johnny Well, I had an unusual
Speaker 1: situation too. I was at Santa Barbara College doesn't have
Speaker 1: a football team anymore, and our coach died. I can't
Speaker 1: remember my third or fourth year, but he died and
Speaker 1: Ed Cody, who used to be a Chicago Bear, came
Speaker 1: in as coach. They hired him as a coach. He
Speaker 1: came in as an assistant. He was an assistant when
Speaker 1: the coach died and he took over. And in those days,
Speaker 1: they didn't have scouting systems like they have now, and
Speaker 1: I wasn't a very big player, and Ed Cody called
Speaker 1: Papa Bear Hollis and told him. He said, I got
Speaker 1: a kid that I think can make it, make it
Speaker 1: the team. So make a long story short, the Bears
Speaker 1: were going to pick me up as a free agent
Speaker 1: because they didn't feel they had to draft because nobody
Speaker 1: knew about me. And sure enough, I get a telegram
Speaker 1: five days before the draft from the Green Bay Packers
Speaker 1: and they said we were interested in you. Would you
Speaker 1: like to play for the Packers and all that kind
Speaker 1: of stuff. I gave it to Cody, and Cody called
Speaker 1: Hollis and told him, Hey, the Packers are interested in Johnny,
Speaker 1: and so that changed their philosophy and instead I got
Speaker 1: drafted way way down in the twelfth round. But they
Speaker 1: drafted me instead of trying to sign me as a
Speaker 1: free agent afterwards. So it's one of those things. If
Speaker 1: Ed Cody hadn't been named a coach at Santa Barbara College,
Speaker 1: I might have never played pro football. You know, you
Speaker 1: guys all talk about your first experience with George Hallis
Speaker 1: and him telling you how much you're gonna make. When
Speaker 1: did agents enter the picture and would George all or
Speaker 1: would George Hallis be able to accept an agent negotiating
Speaker 1: on behalf of any of you guys. No way, you
Speaker 1: would not talk to agents. You would not know. I uh,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't think I ever signed a
Speaker 1: contract as a player, even when I was with the
Speaker 1: Cowboys with an Asian. I always signed on my own. Uh.
Speaker 1: When I when I went with coach Landry, I mean,
Speaker 1: whatever he said, it was good enough for me. I
Speaker 1: mean I never needed an agent. What do you need
Speaker 1: an Asian for me? I have an agent now, but
Speaker 1: but nobody wants me so I mean, how so I
Speaker 1: gotta send him out there, you know, But it's okay.
Speaker 1: Do do any of you guys remember throughout your lives
Speaker 1: or career when agents came on the scene and had
Speaker 1: the guts to sit in front of some of these
Speaker 1: great owners of the early part of football. I think
Speaker 1: they came in with the advent of the American Football
Speaker 1: League the AFL, when the teams were bidding against the
Speaker 1: same players all the time. I know, I got a
Speaker 1: call from an agent as bad as I was to
Speaker 1: switch over the AFL. So okay, and you got an
Speaker 1: offer from the AFL, didn't you? And wow, you drafted
Speaker 1: me in the AFL. So, I mean, so I when
Speaker 1: it came time, but they gave me like a eight
Speaker 1: thousand dollars twelve I remember what it was, something like that,
Speaker 1: and uh, because they thought they were gonna get me.
Speaker 1: And I never went there. I got the keep the
Speaker 1: twelve thousand dollars. So actually my first year with the Bears,
Speaker 1: I made pretty good money or second whatever year it
Speaker 1: was because and I never had any intention of going
Speaker 1: today Houston, but it was it was a good bargaining thing.
Speaker 1: But you couldn't bargain with hellis what the hell you
Speaker 1: weren't gonna win. It didn't matter what you had, what
Speaker 1: you said. You could say anyone, I don't do that.
Speaker 1: Al Davis contacted me, and I felt the same way.
Speaker 1: They just I wanted to be in the NFL. In
Speaker 1: those early days, nobody even considered I mean, the AFL
Speaker 1: got popular in the mid sixties when guys had two
Speaker 1: choices and they started offering big money, you know, to
Speaker 1: those guys about the innovation of George Hollis and his
Speaker 1: coaching staff. Eight. Because you had no real idea that
Speaker 1: you were gonna be a tight end. You thought you
Speaker 1: were gonna be a defensive player, in the national football
Speaker 1: That was a little Johns's really yeuh, Luke, And you
Speaker 1: know you can talk about all the old guys. He
Speaker 1: had a good staff, but he had a very loyal staff.
Speaker 1: Those guys were all very loyal to him. And you
Speaker 1: know he said, he said, you're gonna play tight end.
Speaker 1: I said, what the hell will tight end? And Luke
Speaker 1: john So really designed the position. Because you remember John.
Speaker 1: I mean I lined up. I'd line up, I'd be
Speaker 1: this close to my offensive tackle and I would try
Speaker 1: to get off and release it. The guy would jam
Speaker 1: me down inside. I couldn't get off the ball. So
Speaker 1: I told I come out. I told Luke, I said,
Speaker 1: I can't get off the ball if I if I
Speaker 1: try to go inside, he pushed me down, or he
Speaker 1: pushed me too far outside. So as you split open
Speaker 1: about two or three yards, he told me. And we
Speaker 1: started doing that, and then I had a two way release.
Speaker 1: And then I thought I was pretty damn good because
Speaker 1: I could get off the line of scrimmage. And it
Speaker 1: was it was Luke, I mean Luke where he created that.
Speaker 1: He started flexing us out a little bit. That was good.
Speaker 1: The reason why I took her had a line up
Speaker 1: so close to the tackles because I was playing tackle
Speaker 1: and I needed help. Wow, not not true. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: how'd you feel about the quality of that offensive line?
Speaker 1: I mean, you guys were good. They were good. They
Speaker 1: were good. Remember the Packer game. Jim Cadillo said it
Speaker 1: was the best performance by an offensive line. Guys ran
Speaker 1: for two hundred forty eight yards. Remember that game. You're
Speaker 1: talking about the game we beat the Packers, Yeah, in
Speaker 1: sixty three. Yeah, that game was. The tone of that
Speaker 1: game was set when J. C. Caroline on the opening
Speaker 1: kickoff went down and just small some what was herb adderly?
Speaker 1: Her badly? Her badderly was the best defensive back that
Speaker 1: I ever faced? Him in night train Lane? How about
Speaker 1: rain Niski? Yeah, rain Niky, asked Mike. He used to
Speaker 1: go after him. He was just d He was the
Speaker 1: meanest man I've ever met. He He wasn't happy at
Speaker 1: any time in his life. I mean really, Uh. I
Speaker 1: got to know him a little bit later after, but
Speaker 1: he absolutely tried to kill me. And he tried to
Speaker 1: kill me. It didn't matter where I was. He was
Speaker 1: gonna find me and he was gonna hit me. It
Speaker 1: was okay because I found him and hit him too.
Speaker 1: What about the stand up with a middle linebacker, because
Speaker 1: I you know, you talk about the evolution of the
Speaker 1: great linebackers and middle linebackers throughout Chicago Bear history, while
Speaker 1: you talk about Bill George going from a stance up
Speaker 1: to a middle linebacker position. Was that a component that
Speaker 1: really allowed that position to grow? Yeah, and there's no
Speaker 1: question about it, Bill Bill. When Bill George played, he
Speaker 1: was letting, he was down in three points a lot
Speaker 1: of times, he played right over the center and he
Speaker 1: was quicker in hell. But but then he stood up too.
Speaker 1: But I mean, I'm just saying, you know, we had
Speaker 1: other linebackers that fortunate a pretty good football player too.
Speaker 1: So uh and who the guy? Yeah, Larry Morris? Who
Speaker 1: Larry Morris? Larry Morris can't remember? Then Joe Fortunato. Yeah,
Speaker 1: good linebackers we had. Larry Morris was the MVP of
Speaker 1: the game. Absolutely, Yeah. Two interceptions. When you when you
Speaker 1: watch that position, you watched the sixty three game, you
Speaker 1: see him come up out of a stance and the
Speaker 1: linebackers were shifting. You know, there there are some similarities
Speaker 1: between football today with the motions out of the backfield
Speaker 1: in the shifting of the linebackers. So there had you know,
Speaker 1: there's those elements that are still in the game today
Speaker 1: that you know, you guys had a chance to start.
Speaker 1: It was a whole whole element about shifting is basically
Speaker 1: you're trying to distract, so you you you if you
Speaker 1: can confuse I know, offensive lineman or hard to confuse, right,
Speaker 1: you can confuse him a little bit and make him
Speaker 1: uncertain about who the hell are you supposed to block.
Speaker 1: It gives you a big edge because the ball is
Speaker 1: going to be stepped in one two three period, so
Speaker 1: you know, he didn't have the time to make up
Speaker 1: his mind, and that's what people were doing. That's all
Speaker 1: they were doing. It gives you, It gives you a
Speaker 1: little advantage because you know, offensive linement aren't death smart.
Speaker 1: Go ahead, loo, hey, let's throw up a picture of
Speaker 1: the sixty three guys getting ready for a practice at
Speaker 1: Wrigley Field. How close were you guys as a team?
Speaker 1: Obviously the team was smaller than it is today. What's
Speaker 1: everybody thinking here in this picture? Johnny, you're getting ready
Speaker 1: for I guess practice. You got Edi Edo Bradovitch in there.
Speaker 1: You got Doug Atkins. John just got a manicure. Obviously,
Speaker 1: he's looking at his finger and I was just checking
Speaker 1: my fingernails. When you look at that picture, does it
Speaker 1: take you back to Wrigley Fields, to take you back
Speaker 1: to that time with your teammates and friends telling me,
Speaker 1: tell us what each of you feel about looking at
Speaker 1: that picture. I've always wont to what they were looking at.
Speaker 1: Seventy four kill Colin, kill Colin. Yeah, I got most
Speaker 1: of them, don't. I don't know what they're looking This
Speaker 1: has gotta be pre game, you guys. You guys are
Speaker 1: in full uniforms here this this. You guys don't dress
Speaker 1: that well for practice. I assume that's gotta be pre game.
Speaker 1: There was probably a band or something that was pretty game,
Speaker 1: that was pretty game. Yeah, so, Bob, you think it's
Speaker 1: when the band was on the field very well, be
Speaker 1: yea and all that stuff. What sticks out to me
Speaker 1: is eighty one eighty one. That's Doug Adkins. That was
Speaker 1: a man six foot eight, two hundred ninety something like
Speaker 1: that that I think I would really like to know
Speaker 1: how many sacks he had in his career. Always fought
Speaker 1: with Hallis, always argued with hellis Dick Dick Buckers is
Speaker 1: on here just a little bit ago said if he
Speaker 1: actually worked out and trained, he should have been yeah,
Speaker 1: banned from the NFL because he would have heard there
Speaker 1: was one Oh oh, don't get him mad, right, and
Speaker 1: we scrimmaged the Bears when I was an All Star
Speaker 1: and uh I had an angle blocking him. Fucked down him.
Speaker 1: So I got my arm in between his legs, and
Speaker 1: I have all his legs. I have a question. He
Speaker 1: reached down. He picked me out. I'm really by the
Speaker 1: back of my shoulder. I pulled me on me over.
Speaker 1: You can block me, son, but if you ever hold me,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna break your goddamn neck. I thought, yes, sir,
Speaker 1: I have a question for you for and I know
Speaker 1: a lot of the audience, some of the guys were
Speaker 1: talking about people who are young out there. They don't know,
Speaker 1: but can you do? You know who the first smaller
Speaker 1: guy in the NFL was thrown out to be a
Speaker 1: wide receiver? Who was the first guy. There's a question
Speaker 1: that anybody could answer. I'll give him to It gets
Speaker 1: to McDonald. Who Tommy McDonald he was seconds played for
Speaker 1: the Cleveland Browns. Bobby Mitchell, Yeah you remember Bobby Mitchell.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, he was the first guy that they put
Speaker 1: out as a flankers receiver that wasn't six foot two,
Speaker 1: you know, or something like that. Now, if I'm not mistaken,
Speaker 1: Tommy McDonald, who was a Hall of Famer for the
Speaker 1: Philadelphia Eagles, they had him in mind when they moved
Speaker 1: you into different positions, a smaller, shifty guy that could
Speaker 1: play any of the receiver spots. Do you recollect that?
Speaker 1: Say that again, I didn't hear that. I know that.
Speaker 1: It's the sound is really difficult for year, so we apologize.
Speaker 1: So when they started to move you all over the field, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was because of how Philadelphia used Tommy McDonald. Yes,
Speaker 1: that's accurate. Does that resonate with you? That's accurate. Yes,
Speaker 1: that just they used the game became more important about
Speaker 1: speed and uh, the guys who had speed or the
Speaker 1: little guys. And they found that the little guys that
Speaker 1: could take the punishment, they became great players because they
Speaker 1: had speed and ability. And you see it every day
Speaker 1: in the NFL now, the little guys or the way
Speaker 1: little guys excite the fans that when you when you
Speaker 1: see a team pitcher coach, I thought, I remember you
Speaker 1: telling us when I played for you that Rick Casaris
Speaker 1: was one of the toughest football players that you He
Speaker 1: was the toughest football player I ever saw. Why. Well,
Speaker 1: I'll tell you one thing. When he used to he
Speaker 1: was kind of a prize prize fighter, and when Marciano retired,
Speaker 1: they wanted Rick to try to become heavyweight champion. He
Speaker 1: was a mean son of a gun. I was in
Speaker 1: a place up on h It wasn't the cottage, It
Speaker 1: was a place up on Clark Street one night and
Speaker 1: he Patty was his girlfriend, Patty Counts, and uh, somebody
Speaker 1: somebody said something to Patty and I never seen anything
Speaker 1: like it. I mean, I I was scared he's gonna
Speaker 1: kill the guy. I mean and uh, I mean he
Speaker 1: was mean and he was the nicest even tempered guy
Speaker 1: in the world. But if he got pissed off, Wow,
Speaker 1: were you with the team yet when he when he
Speaker 1: when they got in a brewhall with Detroit over in Detroit,
Speaker 1: and we saw in the game films afterwards, Rick had
Speaker 1: walked out on the field and he decked that linebacker
Speaker 1: from Green Bay from Detroit, and he just walked off
Speaker 1: the field And we didn't know it until after we
Speaker 1: watched the game for they tell a story. They tell
Speaker 1: a story when he was a Florida when he was
Speaker 1: in college that in the game they went in and
Speaker 1: they'd say he locked the door to the locker, little
Speaker 1: door to the other team, and he said, anyone one
Speaker 1: of the time or all of me, come on. I
Speaker 1: don't know what happened, but I mean those are stories
Speaker 1: they tell. I don't know if they're true. But Rick
Speaker 1: Assars was the toughest guy I mean, to me, he
Speaker 1: was anyway. How did that translate to the football field,
Speaker 1: that toughness of how did it translate to what he
Speaker 1: had to do on the field? Ricks greater better days
Speaker 1: where a hit behind him, But he still was tough.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know he was. He was a grinder
Speaker 1: at the time I got to know him. But when
Speaker 1: he was early in his career, he was at a
Speaker 1: hell of a running back. I mean, through some real
Speaker 1: bad injuries all the time. He's really a tough guy,
Speaker 1: really tough. So you guys win the sixty three championship,
Speaker 1: you're the toast of the city. How were you received
Speaker 1: by mayor daily and that whole time after the championship, Well,
Speaker 1: they had us down at the Mayor's off us remember
Speaker 1: we went down there A bunch of the guys during
Speaker 1: it actually afterwards during the offseason. But I don't think
Speaker 1: too many guys cared. I think we're on our way
Speaker 1: to get a beer somewhere. There wasn't anything like after
Speaker 1: the Bears won the Super Bowl in the eighty five.
Speaker 1: You know, there's your quarterback Bill Wade. Mike, why don't
Speaker 1: you tell him the story about Bookkeeach and Wade Rudy book.
Speaker 1: What's the story? I don't know if he wants to
Speaker 1: tell him. I shouldn't have brought it up. Johnny, you
Speaker 1: want to tell it? No, the time we got in
Speaker 1: trouble with Papa bear On, did I mean Rudy and
Speaker 1: Bill Wade or your memories going huh what I do?
Speaker 1: I know I showed up somewhere, But you know at
Speaker 1: that time, you know, Rudy was a better football player.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's no question about it. I mean Bill Bill,
Speaker 1: Bill was fantastic for us, but Rudy was. Rudy was talented.
Speaker 1: He could throw the football, and John he could throw
Speaker 1: the football as good as anybody I've ever seen. After games,
Speaker 1: did you guys have evalue like film evaluation? Did you
Speaker 1: have that technology back then, because I always bring up
Speaker 1: in our film evaluation with coach Dicker running the projector,
Speaker 1: it was a humbling experience. Did you guys go through that?
Speaker 1: The same thing with George. We used to break up
Speaker 1: into units, you know, the offensive line, defensive line, all
Speaker 1: that stuff, and the coach would go over the game films,
Speaker 1: you know, and somebody would make the mistake run that back,
Speaker 1: run that back. Look what you did? You know, so
Speaker 1: point out to everybody. So it was kind of humbling experience.
Speaker 1: Didn't say too much and you made a great block,
Speaker 1: but when you missed something that was really pointed out
Speaker 1: all right before Gael Sayers Willie Gallimore, how great was he?
Speaker 1: How hard was nineteen sixty? After what happened, Well, I
Speaker 1: think that ruined our season. I think we were planning
Speaker 1: on repeating as champions, and when they got killed, it
Speaker 1: just kind of took the wind out of our sales.
Speaker 1: What happened. It was on a Sunday and we were
Speaker 1: in Rentalleier Course and on Sunday the served old liquor
Speaker 1: in Indiana. But we were always accepted at the Rentsaler
Speaker 1: Country Club. So a bunch of us fellas went out
Speaker 1: to the country Club to have a beer or two,
Speaker 1: and Willie and John Farrington when came and brought the
Speaker 1: pizzas for everybody. So they had a Volkswagen with a
Speaker 1: sun roof that was opened and we all just stayed
Speaker 1: there for a little while watch TV and had had
Speaker 1: the pieces and we left for camp out laugh for
Speaker 1: Camp Well. They took a different road back and right
Speaker 1: after that we after we left and about an hour
Speaker 1: later became news that they had missed a curve driving
Speaker 1: back on the highway and both of them had gone
Speaker 1: through the roof of the volkswagen and were killed. And
Speaker 1: that was probably the most difficult thing I've ever had
Speaker 1: to experience him going on that wake at in Rensselaer
Speaker 1: in that season. We wore badges on our our jerseys
Speaker 1: that year, and I think that was the constant reminder
Speaker 1: of their presence and what we missed, and I think
Speaker 1: it just had a deflating effect on the whole year. Johnny,
Speaker 1: how good of a player was Willie? How great of
Speaker 1: a player was Willie Gallimore? Really was? He had speed,
Speaker 1: boyd Uh that second gear two had a great second gear.
Speaker 1: He wasn't quite as quick right out of the gate,
Speaker 1: is like a like a Sayers, you know, but he
Speaker 1: had that second gear. If he got opened that nobody
Speaker 1: was even going to be come close to him. You know,
Speaker 1: I've had played with I played with Sayers, and I
Speaker 1: covered Peyton, and I've covered a lot of Remember Jimmy Brown,
Speaker 1: all these great running backs, And I like to say,
Speaker 1: the best way to explay the greatest backs of all time.
Speaker 1: You're trying to figure out who it is, And the
Speaker 1: best way I could say is that if I wanted
Speaker 1: any running back for a season, I'll take Walter Payton,
Speaker 1: the greatest ever. If I want a player for one play,
Speaker 1: I'll take GAYL Sayers for one play, GAYL Sayers. And
Speaker 1: you can talk about Jimmy Brown and talk about OJ
Speaker 1: and talk about a lot of these great players. But
Speaker 1: I think it's one thing that Chicago Bears are noted
Speaker 1: for a lot of great players, especially on defense, but
Speaker 1: they had some pretty darn good offensive players. Right, there's
Speaker 1: one right over there. Yeah, that's pretty good. John was.
Speaker 1: He was a guy like Willie Gallimore. You know one
Speaker 1: thing about Walter Peyton. You know, we had a designated
Speaker 1: play call. It would make an impact in the defense
Speaker 1: for two or three yards and that Walter display his greatness.
Speaker 1: A guy like Willie Gallimore was he was your was
Speaker 1: your offense? Bob, was a designed to that specific or
Speaker 1: did you did you have a freedom of choice? Well,
Speaker 1: we ran the players that were called. I think, Uh,
Speaker 1: I don't think Willie had an inordinate number of plays
Speaker 1: called like they would for Walter Peyton or somebody like that.
Speaker 1: But he was the key to his His running style
Speaker 1: was yet a very long stride and he's you know
Speaker 1: in a way. Gail says was that way too, and
Speaker 1: they'd be able to change directions into you know, very
Speaker 1: very quickly. Yeah, Gail was, you know, more quicker cutting
Speaker 1: and open field than Willie was. But Gallimore, what I
Speaker 1: never saw anybody so fast once he got through the
Speaker 1: line of scrimmage. You know. All right, we got some
Speaker 1: fan questions we're gonna bring out here in a second.
Speaker 1: Each guys stayed in Chicago after your playing careers, started
Speaker 1: your second careers, Johnny who became a famous TV sportscaster
Speaker 1: here in town. Did you love that part of your
Speaker 1: life being a sportscaster. Oh yeah, it's straight fun, especially
Speaker 1: being able to cover the sport that you played, you know,
Speaker 1: and uh, kind of went through generations of Bears. That's
Speaker 1: one of the things here. When I came here, I
Speaker 1: had a bigger problem remembering faces and names because I
Speaker 1: had every decade to worry about because I either played
Speaker 1: with them or covered them until the last twenty years.
Speaker 1: You know. But but that's Uh, it's been a good life.
Speaker 1: What was it like interviewing Mike after games? Oh? No,
Speaker 1: we we used to. But we did a lot of
Speaker 1: those Sunday night shows. Uh, when I was a little
Speaker 1: under the weather. That's sometimes on the Bears extra. We
Speaker 1: used to have fun. I mean, he were famous. Those
Speaker 1: interviews were legendary sometimes, right, Well, they were better when
Speaker 1: we won than when we're lost. I know that. But
Speaker 1: but he was he was he was he was a
Speaker 1: fair journalist, right, No, he was. No, he was great. Great,
Speaker 1: it was great. He was a bright shining light in
Speaker 1: Chicago at that time. Was it was it hard to
Speaker 1: separate build the friendship you guys forged and as being
Speaker 1: players together, that all of a sudden you're on a
Speaker 1: kind of a different professional stage than a professional playing field. Well,
Speaker 1: I don't. I never looked at it that way. I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: but I never looked at it that way. I mean,
Speaker 1: John was my friend and he had a job, and
Speaker 1: he did his job and I did my job, and
Speaker 1: sometimes it didn't work well. You know, I know, I
Speaker 1: know us as players that we would watch that show
Speaker 1: just hoping that you wouldn't say anything mean about us.
Speaker 1: If we got through the Johnny Moore Show and I'll
Speaker 1: coach Dick is saying, then okay, you can maybe might
Speaker 1: get through the film session the next day. I never
Speaker 1: said the offensive line stunk. No, wait, we had no
Speaker 1: It was fun. I had a lot of fun doing
Speaker 1: a show with John I really did. And I'll tell
Speaker 1: you what, I bet you that was one of the
Speaker 1: best received shows in Chicago television. We had the ratings,
Speaker 1: the ratings were astronomical, and people they loved Mike DiPT
Speaker 1: they loved the Bears and he's entertaining. As we knew. Well,
Speaker 1: it was a great time. It was a great period
Speaker 1: of time. Did you enjoy being called a commentator on
Speaker 1: the network for games? Yeah? That was doing network games?
Speaker 1: Was was was fun. I was always happy if I
Speaker 1: got to do a Bear game. You know, when you
Speaker 1: work for a CBS network and I'm in Chicago. I
Speaker 1: did my local sportscasting and then on the weekends I
Speaker 1: would go do games, and I would always want to
Speaker 1: do Bear games, but I didn't always get the Bear games.
Speaker 1: Sometimes the Bears were playing here and I'm doing a game,
Speaker 1: you know, Detroit Lions against Minnesota and have to fly
Speaker 1: back and do Bears extra and stuff when I hadn't
Speaker 1: even seen the Bear game. You know, it can be
Speaker 1: it could be a hassle. So but that's the nature
Speaker 1: of the nature of the beast, right all right? Some
Speaker 1: fan questions is from a Manda Schaumberg. What was it
Speaker 1: like playing at Wrigley Field? I never ran into the
Speaker 1: goal post? Did you? Did you ever run into the
Speaker 1: goal post? I'm sure the receivers did, though the goal
Speaker 1: post were on on the goal line in those days,
Speaker 1: and neither of the end zones was actually ten yards deep.
Speaker 1: One ended up at the wall, and the in the
Speaker 1: in the north end zone was just short of ten
Speaker 1: yards and they ran into the brick wall and you
Speaker 1: know the left field wall. Did that affect your goal
Speaker 1: line offense or even the type of pass plays you
Speaker 1: guys would run from the five yard line in I
Speaker 1: don't you ever going to dugout on the first place side?
Speaker 1: I think I went in there one time accidentally split
Speaker 1: in their after catching the path. You know what. It
Speaker 1: was close, but it was great. I mean I thought
Speaker 1: it was great. The fans were right on top of you.
Speaker 1: They were right on top of you, you know you uh.
Speaker 1: I thought it was a great place to play football.
Speaker 1: I really did. Was it wasn't half the year in
Speaker 1: field for you? And then they did? Did they go
Speaker 1: to all grass or wasn't in field all year round? Well?
Speaker 1: They they sotted the infield after. You know, when you
Speaker 1: played your first couple of games, it was great dirt,
Speaker 1: but they sotted it. Then it was terrible I ever
Speaker 1: had because the Cups played, yeah, until late September, we
Speaker 1: always had to play on the road. The first two
Speaker 1: or three games that it was a great field, they
Speaker 1: sotted it and it never came up when we played,
Speaker 1: you know, and then branded from Oak Park. What was
Speaker 1: the best lesson you all learned from coach Alice Bob
Speaker 1: you're laughing, don't swear, but beyond time, pay attention and
Speaker 1: play like hell. Best lesson to watch your pennies. When
Speaker 1: he signed me, he said, Johnny, we're gonna we like you.
Speaker 1: We want you to play for us. And everything. We're
Speaker 1: gonna give your six thousand dollars and that was an
Speaker 1: NFL minimum. So I had a pretty good year and
Speaker 1: I thought I was going to get a raise. He
Speaker 1: offered me seven thousand and next year. You know that's
Speaker 1: that was Papa Bear, George Hollis. He told me to
Speaker 1: watch my opinnies and that's what I do. What was
Speaker 1: anybody on making money? Wasn't well? Who was the guy
Speaker 1: that walked in the locker room and said, Wow, this
Speaker 1: guy's making some coin or this guy's Nobody knew what
Speaker 1: everybody was making everybody really really happened with with Sayers
Speaker 1: and buttkis right. That's where the big money started when
Speaker 1: they came in. When they came in two years after
Speaker 1: you win a championship, did you guys think, wow, we're
Speaker 1: gonna win another one. We were a pretty good team
Speaker 1: and uh in sixty five and we didn't win it.
Speaker 1: We got beat out by Baltimore, I believe, but uh
Speaker 1: on a controversial call, remember that, Ray Berry? Yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: but uh, we're a good team in the sixty five,
Speaker 1: no question about it. But what we had stars and
Speaker 1: we had Rudy Boukas was quarterback. I said Rudy Bukers
Speaker 1: was quarterback and Stars was a running back. So I
Speaker 1: think that's the first time with the Bears have ever
Speaker 1: led the league in the offense for the year, for
Speaker 1: the season. And then last question from Ryan and Rickleyville.
Speaker 1: Do you guys like the direction of the way the
Speaker 1: league is going here in twenty nineteen? The league? Yeah,
Speaker 1: sport so many? Are you kidding me to making a
Speaker 1: lot of money? Are you kidding me? Have play sports today?
Speaker 1: You make a lot of money. I mean, these guys
Speaker 1: should never have to work for a day in their life.
Speaker 1: They should be set for life if they take care
Speaker 1: of it. And that's great. I'm glad to see that.
Speaker 1: I'm glad to see them making that kind of money
Speaker 1: because it's a tough game. You get hurt, and you
Speaker 1: can you can be screwed up for over life. But
Speaker 1: uh no, I just hope, I hope they appreciate what
Speaker 1: they got because it's not gonna be there forever. But
Speaker 1: while you got it, put it away, save it, and
Speaker 1: when you're done playing, you won't have to work anymore.
Speaker 1: But I don't like is all the the instant report,
Speaker 1: I mean, the timeouts for the referees reviewing the referees calls.
Speaker 1: Now they're you're getting more more calls for controversial past
Speaker 1: interference and all that type of stuff that just you
Speaker 1: laying the game and it just makes it makes it
Speaker 1: bad for the fans to sit, particularly at the games,
Speaker 1: to sit on their hands. Well, they didn't know what's
Speaker 1: going on, Johnny, I forgot the questions state of the
Speaker 1: league right now? Are you excited to where the NFL
Speaker 1: is hitting ahead a couple of times? What was the
Speaker 1: question he was asking, Johnny, if you're excited the direction
Speaker 1: the league is going, the different aspects of either and
Speaker 1: its own celebrations, the whole social media involvement, the you know, replays, bioficials,
Speaker 1: all those elements. I think it's just it's society changes,
Speaker 1: every generation changes, and so the way it's going, it's
Speaker 1: it's all right with me. I think it's fine. Guys
Speaker 1: want to celebrate in the end zone and whatever. It's
Speaker 1: just that you almost have to accept what's changing. Just
Speaker 1: look at the this is my own opinion. Everybody's got
Speaker 1: computers now, everybody's got iPhones now, and all this hacking
Speaker 1: that's going on, all these things that are happing Baltimore
Speaker 1: the city of Baltimore got hacked. They hacked and they
Speaker 1: had to pay money to get unhacked. It's like, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna give you an example. You remember when autoation was
Speaker 1: getting they were going faster and faster, the Indianapolis five
Speaker 1: hundred faster. Pretty sure they had. They started having a
Speaker 1: lot of accidents when I was covering it because they
Speaker 1: were getting too fast. So what did they do. They
Speaker 1: put limits on the horsepower and so they've really cut down.
Speaker 1: They knew man couldn't control it anymore. Man could not
Speaker 1: control the speed, so they cut back on it. Now,
Speaker 1: what's happening with computers and iPhones and all this stuff.
Speaker 1: We can't control it anymore. It's getting out of hand.
Speaker 1: And what is what is it going to be like?
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, everybody that has computers, you know
Speaker 1: what's going on. And I just wonder how it's all
Speaker 1: gonna end up. I don't know. It just kind of
Speaker 1: scares me. Interesting time. Indeed, all right, we're out of time.
Speaker 1: The sixty three championship team, Mike Dit, Bob Watsca, Johnny Morris,
Speaker 1: thank you everybody, Thank you guys very much,