Chicago Bears Suffer Another Tragic Loss

The Chicago Bears family was hit with the expected but sad news that Virginia McCaskey died at the age of 102 earlier this week. Unfortunately, an unexpected twist arrived when another forgotten member of the team's legacy also passed. Dick Jaurion, their head coach from 1999 to 2003, has died at the age of 74, according to Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune. A native of Peoria, he graduated from Yale and became a big part of helping turn the Green Bay Packers around in the mid-1990s before elevating the Jacksonville Jaguars from expansion team to contender in 1997.

Jauron's tenure as Bears head coach is often misunderstood. He wasn't the first choice for the McCaskeys in 1999. They had planned to hire Arizona Cardinals defensive coordinator Dave McGinnis, but flubbed communication and some ill feelings led to that falling through. Jauron became their backup plan. His first two years were spent trying to clean up the mess left behind by Dave Wannstedt. Then, in 2001, magic happened. Riding a resurgent defense and ground attack, the Bears went 13-3 and won the division for the first time in a decade.

Jauron is often misunderstood in Chicago Bears lore.

Most people look at his four losing seasons in five years and assume he was a terrible head coach. In reality, it is far more nuanced than that. For one, Jauron was saddled with a miserable string of quarterback problems from Cade McNown to Jim Miller, Shane Matthews, a 37-year-old Chris Chandler, and washed Kordell Stewart. If that weren't enough, team president Ted Phillips then undercut the momentum he'd built with that memorable 2001 season by forcing the Bears to play in Champaign the next year so he could renovate Soldier Field in a move that many considered a downgrade.

The team rebounded somewhat in 2003, going 7-9, but it was too little, too late. GM Jerry Angelo wanted to hire his own head coach, and so the Chicago Bears fired him. It was a sad end to a run that seemed promising. Jauron ironically suffered the same problems when he took over the Buffalo Bills in 2006, never finding the quarterback he needed. Maybe his legacy would be stronger today if the Bears had supported him better.