Seeds of a Rivalry

As you may know, I'm writing a book exploring the history of the Packers through 100 individual plays. Here's a chapter from early in the book detailing the Packers' first game against the team that would become the Chicago Bears.

Seeds of a Rivalry

November 27, 1921

The Packers have come to dominate their rivalry with the Chicago Bears. For most of the past three decades, they’ve been firmly on top of their southern counterparts.

But that wasn’t how things started. In fact, in the early days of Packers history, the Green Bay squad was lucky to play the Bears at all. Since there was no league schedule, teams had to line up opponents themselves, and given their big-city status (at least relative to the Packers), the early Bears could afford to be choosy with their opponents in ways the Packers could not.

And when they did play? As often as not, the outcome was fairly lopsided.

That was the case the Packers and the proto-Bears — then called the Chicago Staleys — met for the first time. There was no glorious start to what would become a century-long rivalry. No, the Packers got handled. The final score was 20-0, though the local paper was careful to point out that the Packers gave it everything they could.

“The Packers were beaten but not disgraced. Every man on the team played great football. They were there in the battling and when the final whistle blew there was plenty of glory in the defeat. The Packers met a better team.”

How much better? It’s hard to say for sure, but the Staleys were the class of the league in 1921, winning the American Pro Football Association championship with a record of 9-1-1. The Packers were one of five teams the Staleys shut out completely that season, and no one was able to score more than 13 points on the Staleys in their entire 11-game schedule.

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