On Dec. 9, 1962, the Chicago Bears beat the Los Angeles Rams 30-14. Richie Petitbon returned an interception 101 yards for a touchdown.
Scott Wilseck stayed home that day with the flu. He had been going to games regularly since 1956, and even counts a 1947 Bears game as his debut “in the womb.” But his mother, Evelyn, wouldn’t let him go to Wrigley Field that winter afternoon.
“Vowed I’d never miss a game after that,” he said.
For 60 years, Wilseck has attended every Bears home game — aside from the 2020 season, when fans weren’t allowed at Soldier Field because of COVID-19, of course. Adding to the 467-game streak is that for the past two-plus decades, he has lived in Estes Park, Colo., flying to Chicago on Saturday and staying with his son, Tom, before heading to Soldier Field.
Sitting in the 75th row in the end zone of Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London last Sunday, Scott and his wife, Lynn, were in the middle of their first trip to Europe, one that allowed Scott to keep his streak alive.
“Let’s just say this,” Wilseck said, “I don’t go to keep the streak up. I go because I enjoy it, really.”
Wilseck said he has 60 years of stories. He was born on New Year’s Day 1948, but the stories actually began when he was 7 years old.
Before the streak, he remembers ducking under the turnstile to get into a game because he didn’t have a ticket and standing between his father’s legs. Late in the 1955 season, Evelyn made sure he wore flannel pajamas under his jeans for warmth.
He started going regularly after George Connor retired. Connor, the four-time Pro Bowler who played offensive tackle and linebacker, was Evelyn’s favorite player. When Connor stopped playing, she stopped going and Scott’s first streak began.
Tom Wilseck remembers his grandma telling him that Scott didn’t speak to her for the entire week after she kept him home from the 1962 game against the Rams.
The first game of the streak was the ’62 season finale, a 3-0 win over the Lions.
“(Vince) Lombardi’s Packers were virtually unstoppable,” Wilseck wrote in an email. “But Detroit beat them on Thanksgiving Day. We were all shocked watching on TV. … So when the Lions played the Bears at the end of the season, (assistant) coach Luke Johnsos announced, ‘We beat the team that beat Green Bay.’”
Roger LeClerc kicked a 9-yard field goal.
“The Bears’ goal posts were kind of weird; they were planted in the ground maybe two feet into the end zone,” he said. “On big goal line plays, defensive linemen would use those posts for leverage, putting their feet against them for better footing.”
The vow to not miss another Bears home game was underway and rewarded with an NFL championship in 1963. It took a decade before Wilseck’s first near-miss.
On the morning of the first game of the 1973 season, Lynn was having labor pains, but she told Scott to go to the game.
He called her at the end of every quarter. His father had a connection with someone at the Chicago Park District, getting him easy in-and-out parking.
“I thought I could be at Hinsdale Hospital in 30 minutes,” he said.
Evelyn gave birth to their first child, Anne, hours later at 3 in the morning.
“That was close,” he said.
It’s Week 1 of the 1977 season, his 100th consecutive game. As Wilseck walks inside Soldier Field, George Halas crosses his path.
“I walk up to him and — I don’t collect autographs, but he grabbed my program out of instinct and signed it. I was glad he did,” he said. “I said, ‘Hey, Coach, this is my 100th game without missing. The last time I missed a game, you were coaching and Richie Petitbon had a pick-six.’ He shook my hand. He always looked like a crinkled-up old man on the sideline. That guy was like a rock.”
His 200th game came in 1989, Bears vs. Houston Oilers. He was going to mail the program to Mike Ditka after the game, but “the Bears made a massive screwup (in the game) and I thought, I’m not sending this program until the end of the season.”
The Oilers rallied from nine points down in the fourth quarter to win 33-28.
Two years later, Wilseck had another close call. The Bears were hosting the Dolphins a few days before Thanksgiving and Wilseck woke up at 3 a.m.
“I’m throwing up,” he said. “The first thought that came in my mind was the game. Then I think, well, the last time I missed a game, we won a world championship the next year.”
Lynn told him not to go. He said, “Let me see how I feel.”
“I got up,” he said, “I was fine.”
The streak continued.
Lynn Wilseck doesn’t typically attend games with her husband, Scott, but the London game last week was an exception. (Kevin Fishbain / The Athletic)
Coach Dick Jauron sent Wilseck a “very nice response” after his 300th consecutive game. He has had opportunities to stand on the sideline before the game, getting to meet some of his heroes. Former players are amazed by the streak.
Wilseck said the ’63 championship, a 14-10 win over the Giants at Wrigley Field, is his all-time favorite game. At a Bears convention in the ’80s, he met former quarterback Bill Wade and told him, “I was at the ’63 championship game and the ’85 Super Bowl. The ’63 game was a lot more exciting.”
“You think so?” Wade responded.
“I said, ‘Oh, my God, the outcome was unsure until the last play.’ The only suspense of ’85 was would my VCR run out before the whole game was recorded,” he said.
Wilseck did attend both Bears Super Bowls. He’s seen Bears games in Chicago, New Orleans, Miami and now London.
Oh, and Champaign.
Before the 2002 schedule came out, Wilseck booked a room at a Super 8 next to the mall for every weekend of the season to guarantee he’d have a place to stay when Soldier Field renovations sent the Bears downstate.
Wilseck’s record during the streak is 261-201-5, including home games at Wrigley Field, one at Dyche Stadium in Evanston, a season in Champaign and last week’s 35-16 win in London.
When the Bears have a new stadium, Wilseck plans to continue the streak.
“It’ll cost me a lot more money, unfortunately,” said Wilseck, a former math teacher at Lyons Township High School. “But I’ll be there. I hope this drags out forever, really.”
Wilseck knows the question is coming. Everyone asks him.
Why?
Wilseck has seen one playoff team in the past 13 seasons. He hasn’t attended a playoff win since the 2006 season.
His streak is on its 13th coach and God knows how many quarterbacks. From 2014 to 2017, he saw four consecutive last-place teams. From 1997 to 2000, another quartet of last-place finishes. He can probably count on one hand the number of relevant December games he has attended in the past decade.
When Wilseck takes hikes, he’ll run into other Estes Park residents in Bears gear. They’ll start talking. The streak comes up.
“They look at me like I’m nuts,” he said. “And then I say, ‘It’s really a study in masochism. And it has been.’”
Wilseck acknowledged that he sometimes asks himself during a game, “Why did I fly in for this?”
“It’s neat,” his son Tom said. “At the same time, sometimes I kind of shake my head over it a little bit.”
Wilseck books his flights once the schedule comes out. He’s found tickets for $79 on United “if you buy it early enough,” and is proud to have once gotten a seat on Spirit Airlines for as cheap as $39. And thanks to Tom, he never has to pay for lodging.
Tom Wilseck, left, has been attending games with his dad, Scott, since 1985, though he’s not the diehard his father is. (Courtesy of Scott Wilseck)
Tom’s first game was the Bears’ 36-0 win over the Falcons in 1985. He usually misses one or two home games a year. If it’s late in the season and the weather is frigid, he’ll bow out. But his dad will be there.
“I walk in the stadium, I’m 10 years old,” Scott said. “I tell people, the talent on the field, I don’t care if they’re 3-13. The talent on the field is tremendous. When they were horses — in the ’70s, the guy next to me, we’d watch (Dick) Butkus for a quarter. Watch nothing else, and believe me, it was well worth the price of admission.”
Tom remembers fondly watching the way his dad appreciated Devin Hester. The Wilseck seats are in the second row of their section. The people in front of them rarely stand up, so they don’t need to, but when Hester would get set to return a kick, Scott stood.
“I get asked this a lot, too, he’s not crazy loud at the games,” Tom said. “He cheers and stuff, but he’s not over the top. It’s neat when I see something that really catches him.”
Caleb Williams has caught Wilseck’s eye, too.
“It’s not conclusive, but he’s there,” he said. “He has all the signs.”
One game, a fan whose seat was in the front row asked to trade seats. He didn’t want to look over the edge all game.
Wilseck took him up on it. Then he sat and watched as the regulars from their section walked to the seats with a look of terror.
Was the streak over? Where was Wilseck?
“They’re thinking, ‘Oh, my God, did he get killed in a plane crash?’” he said laughing. “Then I’d stand there and wave.”
Would a Bears Super Bowl victory be the type of accomplishment, a sign, that Wilseck could retire the streak?
“I’ve thought about that, but no,” he said. “I’ll keep going.”
The total number of Bears home games is in the 500s since he started going nearly a decade before “the streak” began. Wilseck has received a thank you note from Bears chairman George McCaskey and a certificate of appreciation signed by owner Virginia McCaskey. He could certainly compete with Pat McCaskey when it comes to Bears trivia — something he has actually done.
After the Bears’ win over the Jaguars, the Wilsecks spent a few more days in London. A “train geek,” he was in the perfect place for trains. Next month, he’ll take his customary flight to Chicago and spend a few weeks at Tom’s condo. They’ve got repainting on the agenda, in addition to three Bears games at Soldier Field.
“I know it’s important to him,” Tom said. “It’s not something he talks about a lot. I know it’s important to him. It’s cool being a part of it.”
“I enjoy staying with my son for a weekend, eating real pizza, eating Italian beef and then flying out,” Scott said.
He doesn’t have any special Bears gear he wears. He no longer dons head-to-toe regalia. He’s not loud. He always has binoculars around his neck.
“I go to the game to see,” he said, “not to be seen.”
And there’s an appreciation every time Wilseck steps inside Soldier Field, no matter the Bears’ record or what’s on the scoreboard. It’s that love for his team and the sport that has kept the streak going, now into its seventh decade.
“Where do you see somebody go to a job and they come out of that tunnel and they act like little kids? They’re jumping around. They are really into this,” he said. “I think it’s fantastic.”
(Top photo of Scott Wilseck at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium: Kevin Fishbain / The Athletic)
