Vintage Chicago Tribune: Worst Chicago pro sports teams

If you’re a fan of Chicago’s professional sports teams, then it’s been a mostly forgettable year.

Okay, there have been a few highlights. The Blackhawks selected 17-year-old Canadian phenom Connor Bedard with the No. 1 pick in the NHL draft. The Bears also had the first pick for the first time in 77 years in April’s NFL draft but traded it to the Carolina Panthers.

Otherwise, disappointment has been a common theme. The Bulls let a late lead slip away in a 102-91 loss to the Miami Heat on April 14, ending their season 1 win shy of a playoff berth and then lost the NBA lottery for a first-round pick. The Sky, despite losing star players and their coach/general manager James Wade, made the first round of the WNBA playoffs in September — but were quickly swept by the Las Vegas Aces, the league’s reigning champions.

White Sox fans cover their heads with paper bags during the ninth inning of a game against the Padres on Saturday at Guaranteed Rate Field. (Paul Beaty/AP)

Need more proof? Take Sunday, for example. The Cubs were shutout 4-0 by the Milwaukee Brewers at American Family Field and closed the season by losing 15 of their last 22 games. Cubs Chairman Tom Ricketts described the up-and-down 83-79 year as “four different seasons” from getting off to an OK start and the subsequent slump that nearly derailed the season to rallying back over .500 and the rough final three weeks in September.

[ Paul Sullivan: David Ross accepts blame for the Chicago Cubs’ fade down the stretch in a failed quest for an NL wild-card spot ]

“It’s tough to not achieve your goal,” Ricketts said. “It’s tough when you’re just a couple of games away from making the playoffs. And it’s extra tough that for a while there it looked pretty likely so it feels like something got taken away.”

The White Sox lost for the 101st time during the team’s final home game of the season at Guaranteed Rate Field. It’s just the fifth time in franchise history the Sox have lost 100 games. Teams from 1932 (49-102), 1948 (51-101), 1970 (56-106) and 2018 (62-100) also reached the dubious distinction.

[ LaMond Pope: As 1 of the worst years in franchise history comes to a close, 3 offseason questions for the Chicago White Sox ]

Just three miles to the north, the Bears blew a 21-point lead to the Denver Broncos — despite quarterback Justin Fields topping 300 passing yards for the first time in his career and also throwing a career-high four touchdown passes — for their 14th straight loss. The Bears visit the Washington Commanders tonight for “Thursday Night Football.” Spoiler alert: None of the Tribune’s sports reporters think the Bears will win.

Bears quarterback Justin Fields sits on the bench after the Bears lost 31-28 to the Broncos at Soldier Field, Oct. 1, 2023. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune)

We know — there’s always next year. But what if you can’t look away? What if it’s your job to watch and write about a team that’s in a tailspin?

Former longtime sports reporter Don Pierson covered the Bears for the Tribune from the late 1960s through the team’s Feb. 4, 2007 loss to the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLI. He experienced the teams highs and lows for almost five decades, so I asked him what it was like to follow the Bears during the 1969 season — when they won just 1 game. Does he consider that to be the team’s worst season ever?

[ Virginia McCaskey turns 100: Q&A with former Tribune reporter Don Pierson about the Chicago Bears matriarch ]

“Despite Bob Markus’s 1994 story about there being nothing funny about the 1969 season, I recall some hilarious things. But I have always maintained that it was NOT the worst team in Bears history,” Pierson said. “Worst record, but trust me, I’ve seen worse teams including, so far, the one we’re witnessing now.

“In 1969, the quarterback chaos was the overarching drama, but what Bears season doesn’t have QB drama?

“Gale Sayers led the league in rushing in 1969 even though he was coming off devastating knee surgery and Dick Butkus was voted NFL defensive player of the year, an incredible feat on a team that loses 13 games. Six of their 13 losses were one-score games. Two of their most lopsided losses were to the Vikings, who had a great Super Bowl-bound team.

[ Don Pierson: Chicago’s finest? All-time, it’s Bulls ]

“So let’s hear it for the good old days of 1969!” Pierson said.

Terrible seasons might be in the eye of the beholder — or sports reporter, in this case — so what follows is a look back at the season when each of Chicago’s current pro sports teams experienced its fewest wins.

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Bears great Gale Sayers and Bears coach Jim Dooley on the sideline during the first quarter of the Chicago Bears vs. St. Louis Cardinals preseason game on Sept. 12, 1969. (Phil Mascione/Chicago Tribune)

“If it were a book, it would be written by Stephen King. If it were a movie, it would be scripted by Brian DePalma. The year was 1969, the worst season in Bears history. Try to forget it. Just try,” Tribune reporter Robert Markus wrote at the 25-year anniversary of the 1969 team.

In their second season under Jim Dooley, who replaced George Halas as coach, the Bears lost 17-0 in their season opener to the Packers in Green Bay and started the season 0-7. They notched their only win, 38-7, against a Pittsburgh Steelers team that also went 1-13.

That win, however, would come back to bite the Bears. Running back Gale Sayers returned from a knee injury to rush for 1,032 yards in his last full season, but the big controversy of the season surrounded three starting quarterbacks — Bobby Douglass, Jack Concannon and Virgil Carter — as Dooley tried unsuccessfully to lift his team out of its funk.

Carter got his opportunity late in the season, but Dooley pulled him at halftime of a loss to the Packers, and Carter called him “gutless and a liar.” Carter also said he hoped management wouldn’t be “chicken(bleep)” enough to make him return to Chicago the following season to play out his option. The outburst earned Carter a $1,000 fine from the organization, and he left the team a game early.

A more serious and heartbreaking moment in the season was that running back Brian Piccolo was diagnosed with cancer after he went to doctors for a persistent cough and they found a chest tumor. He died about seven months later.

Chicago Black Hawks Gordon Fraser, left, and Nick Wasnie, circa Dec. 14, 1927. (Chicago Tribune historical photo)

Pete Muldoon was the first Hawks coach in franchise history. Fired after one season, he reportedly said, “This team will never finish in first place,” a statement that later became known as the “Curse of Muldoon.”

Now, there are those who claim it never happened, that Muldoon just packed up his hockey stick and quietly left town. Yet, the outcome of the team’s second season in Chicago — with only 7 wins in 44 games and a last-place finish in the league’s rankings — made some wonder if the curse were real.

Playing in the old Chicago Coliseum, the Hawks opened 1-0-1 and quickly went downhill from there, posting two 10-game losing streaks, including one to (mercifully) end the season. Charlie Gardner absorbed much of the pounding, starting in goal for 40 games and posting a respectable 2.84 goals-against average. Duke Keats “led” the team in scoring with 14 goals and 22 points.

The frustration reached a boiling point in the last game of the season — a 6-1 loss to the Rangers in the Coliseum. Keats and New York defenseman Ching Johnson squared off in a bitter brawl that required players from both teams, the referee and two uniformed policemen to break up. The fans had had enough too. Three times during the game, play stopped for attendants to clear the ice of newspapers showered down from the stands.

Not one coach could take all the blame. Barney Stanley, who presided over a 21-game stretch in which his Hawks went 3-17-1, was fired on Jan. 18, 1928. His replacement was Hugh Lehman, who had started the season as goalie. Lehman’s record was 4-17-2.

The next season, the Hawks posted a similar record (7-29-8) that included a 15-game winless streak at home and an NHL record number of shut outs at home — 20 times in a 44-game schedule.

Chicago Bulls coach Tim Floyd talks to his team during a time out against the Utah Jazz at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Feb. 5, 1999. Because of the lockout, this was the first game of the short season. (Nuccio DiNuzzo/Chicago Tribune)

The “Last Dance” season of 1997-98 produced a sixth championship in eight years for the Bulls with Michael Jordan still at the peak of his powers. But the dynasty came to a halt. Jordan retired for the second time, Scottie Pippen was sent to the Houston Rockets in a sign-and-trade deal and coach Phil Jackson went on his first sabbatical.

The next season didn’t begin until February 1999 because of a lockout. Unlike the records that Michael Jordan & Co. produced throughout the ‘90s, this one would be memorable as a result of losing — a lot.

Only a few holdovers remained from the championship team, and the Bulls headed into a certain losing season for the first time since Jordan’s first few seasons in the league. Toni Kukoc led the team in points (18.8), rebounds (7.0) and assists (5.3) per game. The Bulls, meanwhile, scuffled to just 13 wins (a .260 winning percentage) during a season shortened to 50 games.

And the 1998-99 team still holds a dubious place in NBA history — the Bulls scored just 49 points during an April 10, 1999 loss to the Heat, the fewest points by any team since the shot clock was introduced for the 1954-55 season. Tribune reporter Terrence E. Armour described it like this: “In a season of lows, this was the absolute bottom. This was the pits. This was the deepest abyss.”

Twenty-five years after Jordan played his final game for the franchise, the team has yet to return to the NBA Finals. The Bulls have been to the Eastern Conference finals only once since 1998, getting dispatched by LeBron James and the Heat in five games in 2011.

Concerned teammates crowd around injured Ron Santo as manager Leo Durocher, left, hurries to scene in June, 1966. (Chicago Tribune)

The second season of the ill-fated “College of Coaches” experiment didn’t work in 1962, and the Cubs lost a franchise-record 103 games. Charlie Metro, one of the coaches, recalled that another coach, Elvin Tappe, once changed his lineup without telling him.

“I tacked up my lineup and threw the other one in the (toilet),” Metro said. “Either Ron Santo or Ernie Banks, I don’t remember who it was, said, ‘Which lineup are we going to use?’ And I said, ‘The one that’s got my name on it.’”

Leo Durocher took over the Cubs at age 60 and made his famous declaration that they weren’t an eighth-place ball club, pointing to the young talent in the clubhouse. He was right. The Cubs lost eight of their first nine games in 1966 and finished 10th, tying the franchise record with 103 losses.

In late August Durocher was so flummoxed, he ripped the bullpen phone off the dugout wall at the Astrodome when the new-age scoreboard made fun of him in a cartoon. The saving grace was the Cubs now had a pitching nucleus with starters Fergie Jenkins and Ken Holtzman, who along with Banks, Santo, Billy Williams and others began a turnaround one year later.

Chicago Fire players enter the pitch for a match against the FC Cincinnati at Soldier Field, Aug. 25, 2020. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)

Few things about the 2020 Major League Soccer season turned out the way the Fire would have hoped.

The team won no road games and were winless in their final 6 matches.

But the opportunity was there for the Fire to reach the postseason for the first time since 2017, thanks in no small part to a more-than-generous playoff line that gave 10 of 14 teams in the Eastern Conference a shot at winning the MLS Cup.

[ From Nov. 8, 2020: Chicago Fire miss out on the MLS playoffs for the 3rd straight season, losing 4-3 to New York City FC at Soldier Field ]

And generous or not, clinching a playoff berth would have been a reasonable accomplishment for the Fire in their first season under sporting director Georg Heitz, technical director Sebastian Pelzer and coach Raphael Wicky.

But like most of their plans that season, the Fire let the opportunity slip and missed out on the postseason.

Jacqueline Ovalle, left, of the Mexican national team and Yuki Nagasato of the Chicago Red Stars battle for control during a competitive friendly at SeatGeek Stadium on April 8, 2023, in Bridgeview. (Jamie Sabau/Getty)

The team’s struggles went beyond the pitch when it became clear 11 months ago the Red Stars likely would need to be sold.

The club removed owner Arnim Whisler from all participation in club or managerial operations in the wake of an October 2022 report compiled by former U.S. Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates — a 319-page document titled “Report of the Independent Investigation to the U.S. Soccer Federation Concerning Allegations of Abusive Behavior and Sexual Misconduct in Women’s Professional Soccer” — found the National Women’s Soccer League to be a haven for predators and abusers.

[ NWSL fallout: Red Stars owner steps back, Thorns fire execs and Louisville apologizes following US Soccer report ]

The Yates report included descriptions of abuse and harassment allegedly perpetrated by former Red Stars coach Rory Dames and allegedly covered up by Whisler.

The team was put up for sale in late 2022.

“My personal mission and my personal belief is that we need women in positions of power and leadership. We all need it, not just women need it, but as a society, as a planet.” Cubs co-owner Laura Ricketts told the Tribune last year.

Ricketts spearheaded an investment group that officially became the new owner of the Chicago Red Stars on Sept. 1 after approval from the NWSL Board of Governors. Ricketts also joined five other women in becoming minority owners of the Sky in June.

The Red Stars were purchased for $35.5 million, a record for an existing NWSL club, with another $25 million earmarked to be put into the team.

Chicago Sky Brooke Wyckoff, left, is fouled by Charlotte’s Tammy Sutton-Brown on June 29, 2006, in Chicago. The Sky won 75-69. It was the franchise’s first ever win at UIC Pavilion. (Charles Cherney/Chicago Tribune)

By the time the credits rolled on “Chicago Sky: Season One,” a couple of things were clear, if not public knowledge.

First, the team that registered the worst record in the WNBA at 5-29 faced a steep climb to respectability.

Second, coach/general manager Dave Cowens would be rappelling on a different mountain.

“I was talking to (owner) Michael Alter and (CEO) Margaret Stender and told them I didn’t think I was going to come back and wanted to pursue some avenues and some opportunities in the NBA,” Cowens said. “We had a long talk, and they understood where I was coming from.”

Cowens said he enjoyed coaching the Sky but conceded he did not initially grasp the differences between coaching men and women. By way of example, he said it took him a while to realize WNBA players craved order and planning, while he coached by the NBA model of leaving ample room for freelancing and improvisation.

A bright spot was Candice Dupree, the 6-2 forward from Temple taken by the Sky with the No. 6 pick in the 2006 WNBA draft. Dupree was named to the Eastern Conference All-Star team.

Both benches clear after White Sox Bill Melton and Detroit’s Dick McAuliffe exchanged shoves and blows early in the 1970 season. Both were ejected from the game. (Edward Feeney/Chicago Tribune)

Before 2018, the Sox’s last 100-loss season came in 1970, when they finished 56-106 under three managers, including Don Gutteridge, who was let go on Sept. 2, 1970 after asking for assurance he would be back in 1971.

But the 1970 team wasn’t expected to compete from the outset. The rebuilding Sox had lost 95 games in 1968 — their first non-winning season since 1950 — and 94 games in 1969. Third-base coach Don Gutteridge took over for manager Al Lopez in May 1969, and guided the 1970 Sox, including a young Bill Melton.

[ Chicago White Sox end 2023 with 101 losses. 5 takeaways from the ‘frustrating’ season. ]

“There was no free agency then, so they decided to go with every young guy they could find,” Melton told the Tribune in 2013. “They got rid of most everybody but Joe Horlen and Tommy John. That was the beginning of the youth movement, much like they do today, except now they can insert free agents to improve the club. And there was a recession going on, and the bottom line is they didn’t draw like they do today.”

And the Sox’s youth movement wasn’t restricted to the field. The team also hired Nancy Faust — a North Park University graduate — as baseball’s first female organist. (Faust remained a mainstay at Sox home games for 41 seasons.)

The team was so unwatchable the Sox drew only 495,355 fans, averaging a little over 6,100 per home game at old Comiskey Park. It was the ballpark’s lowest attendance in more than 50 years. On Sept. 21, 1970, just 672 people attended a double-header against Kansas City.

[ Chicago White Sox reach 100 losses for the 5th time in franchise history after falling to the San Diego Padres 6-1 ]

A game against Boston on Aug. 19, 1970, however, marked the team’s “emergence from mediocrity.”

“On the few occasions when good things come to the Chicago White Sox, they come in large quantities,” Tribune sports reporter Richard Dozer wrote. “Today, those who weren’t already on their way home from a crowd of 17,113 in Fenway Park sat in utter amazement while the victory-starved White Sox arose from oblivion for a glittering moment in baseball history.

Chicago scored 11 runs in the ninth inning to whip the Red Sox 13-5.

There was a light at the end of the tunnel. By the end of the season, the Sox changed directions with a new general manager in Roland Hemond and a new manager in Chuck Tanner. The Sox made a 23-game improvement in 1971 after Hemond made nine deals involving 31 players, bringing back only seven of the 25 members of the 1970 roster.

The Sox opened their season on April 7, 1971, with new uniforms keyed to the color red and a new radio announcer. It might be, it could be, it was … Harry Caray.

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