Here are 41 things that have changed from the last time the Chicago
Bears played in the Super Bowl which was Super Bowl 20 in 1986 1. Brian Urlacher was in 2nd grade. Rex Grossman was in kindergarten.
2. Peyton Manning was 10 years old. Eli Manning was 5 years old. Their
dad, Archie, had just retired from the NFL two years earlier.
3. Lovie Smith was in his first college coaching job at University of
Tulsa.
4. Ronald Reagan was the President, and Harold Washington was the
Mayor. James R. Thompson was the Governor running for re-election and his
office was in the new State of Illinois Center, which is now called the James
R. Thompson Center.
5. George W. Bush was 39 years old and still drinking. His father would
run for President two years later.
6. Rod Blagojevich was just out of law school and was a low-level
prosecutor working for the Cook County State's Attorney, Richard M.
Daley.
7. Barack Obama had just moved to Illinois, and Osama bin Laden was
fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan.
8. Red Grange and Sid Luckman were still alive.
9. The Colts had just moved to Indianapolis from Baltimore and were the
doormat of the AFC EAST. The Bears were the champions of the NFC
CENTRAL.
10. Property in Wicker Park and Bucktown was cheap because they were
really bad neighborhoods.
11. CD players, cellular phones and fax machines were expensive,
cutting edge technology and only a few people used them.
12. "Surfing the net" meant a volleyball game at the beach, and
virtually no one used the "@" key on their TYPEWRITER.
13. Sam Walton was still alive and was wealthier than Bill Gates.
Windows were panes of glass...not a computer operating system that was a pain
in something that rhymes with glass.
14. The Soviet Union was our main enemy, and Saddam Hussein was our
ally.
15. There were no lights at Wrigley Field, and the oldest park in
baseball belonged to the White Sox.
16. Michael Jordan and Ozzie Guillen had just finished their "Rookie of
the Year" seasons. Jordan's coach was Stan Albeck and Guillen's manager
was Tony LaRussa. (Three out of four of those guys are now wearing
championship rings, but what ever happened to Stan Albeck???)
17. Soldier Field had AstroTurf. The Houston Oilers played in the
AstroDome.
18. The Fox TV Network didn't exist, and ESPN had yet to air a single
live pro football, baseball, or basketball game.
19. MTV played music and so did some AM radio stations. Cable TV
advertised NO COMMERCIALS, because the consumer dollars pay for it, NOT
advertising dollars.
20. Lindsay Lohan and Hilary Duff weren't born yet; Jackie Gleason and
Richard Nixon were still alive.
21. Hillary Clinton had dark hair and was the First Lady......of Arkansas!
22. "The Love Boat" and "Diff'rent Strokes" were still on network TV
every week.
23. Martin Luther King Day was about to be celebrated as a National
Holiday for the first time. "9-11" was a phone number many cities were
just adopting for emergency calls - not a date of terror.
24. I-88 was called "Illinois Rt. 5" , I-355 hadn't been built yet, and
the "Bishop Ford Freeway" was still the Calumet Expressway.
25. What the CTA now calls "The Blue Line" had just been extended to
O'Hare and the Orange Line to Midway hadn't been built yet.
26. Q101 played adult contemporary music and most teenagers listened
to 89 AM, WLS. Music from the 70s and 80s wasn't "retro" yet.
27. Tiger Woods hadn't won an amateur golf tournament yet.
28. Most people knew Seattle just as a city in the Northwest U.S. - not
the home of grunge or Starbucks.
29. Only Southerners went to NASCAR races and only Northerners went to
NHL games.
30. The Chicago area had no Wal-Marts, Targets or Home Depots, and
Walgreen's was only in the Midwest.
31. Depending on your bank, your ATM card was good at only "Cash
Station" machines or only at "Money Network" machines, but there were no fees.
32. "The Phone Company" was Illinois Bell.
33. They still sold leaded gasoline and you couldn't pay for your gas
at the pump.
34. Discover Card hadn't been discovered yet, and Miller Genuine Draft
hadn't been brewed yet.
35. Stereo TVs were the rage that HDTVs are now. 8-track tapes were
still being made.
36. All of the Blockbuster Video stores that are now closing hadn't
opened yet. Betamax was still competing with VHS. Privately owned video rental
stores made a fortune.
37. You paid cash for your groceries and fast food, and you used a
travel agent to book airline flights.
38. Bowl games didn't have corporate sponsors, and if the #1 ranked
team was in a conference that played in one bowl game and the #2 ranked team
was in a conference that played in another bowl game, then so be it!
They let the sportswriters vote on the national champion. (and no college
football games were played after New Year's Day)
39. The Baltimore Ravens were the Cleveland Browns. The Tennessee
Titans were the Houston Oilers. The Oakland Raid ers were the Los Angeles
Raiders that had just left Oakland. The Arizona Cardinals (the former Phoenix
Cardinals) were the St. Louis Cardinals, and the St. Louis Rams were
the Los Angeles Rams. The Jacksonville Jaguars, Carolina Panthers, Houston
Texans, and the Cleveland Browns (not to be confused with the Cleveland
Browns that are now the Baltimore Ravens) didn't exist. The Seattle
Seahawks (last year's NFC Champions) played in the AFC.
40. Number 9 on the Bears was their Punky QB...McMahon) - not their perky field
goal kicker.
41. There were no iPods - just Sony Walkmen - so if you said something
about a "shuffle" on your Walkman, they assumed you were listening to
"The Super Bowl Shuffle"