Virginia McCaskey Dies: Chicago Bears Owner’s Net Worth, House, and Investments

Virginia Halas McCaskey, the Chicago Bears’ major owner and daughter of team founder George Halas, died Thursday at 102.McCaskey has controlled the Bears since her father died in 1983. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell stated that she left a “legacy of class, dignity, and humanity” and that the “Bears that her father started meant the world to her.”

Mrs. McCaskey, one of founder George Halas’s two children, was born on January 5, 1923. She and her late husband, Ed McCaskey, reared eleven children in an unpretentious Des Plaines house. After her brother, George “Mugs” Halas Jr., died in 1979, she was set to inherit the team from her father. She did so upon his death on October 31, 1983, becoming one of the few women in athletics to occupy such a prestigious role. “He could have done things a different way,” she told the Sun-Times in an unusual interview in May 2018. 

Virginia represented 13 family members and owned around 80% of the Bears. On the board of directors, she voted on her family’s shares. It is unknown what will happen to that voting bloc following her death. When asked about the club’s future in recent years, George consistently stated that his mother had a plan to maintain the team inside the family following her death. The NFL requires each club to have a succession plan, albeit public specifics are murky. For years, Virginia, a fervent Catholic, cited her son, Pat, as saying the Bears would remain in the family until the “second coming.”

Witnessing Football History:

Halas purchased the franchise for $100 in 1920 and attended the historic convention in Canton, Ohio, establishing the American Professional Football Association. Two years later, it became the National Football League. The Staleys, who had moved from Decatur to Chicago the year prior, were renamed the Bears. After his 1925 collegiate season, Halas accompanied Red Grange on a barnstorming tour, which helped to legitimize the professional sport. He brought along his young daughter. When she attended the NFL’s inaugural championship game, Virginia was nine years old. “It’s a special feeling to be part of that Bears history, which was very significant in the survival and history of the team,” according to her. “And for George Halas.” 

The Challenges:

Virginia graduated in 1943. She and her husband had a strong relationship with running back Brian Piccolo, who died of cancer in 1970 after four seasons with the Bears. She learned not to get too close to Bears players before great running back Walter Payton joined the club. “After Brian Piccolo died, my husband Ed and I promised ourselves we wouldn’t be as personally involved with any of the players,” she remarked, eulogizing Payton in 1999. “We could follow that resolve until Walter Payton came into our lives.” Even in her late 90s, Virginia was an active franchise member.