Sports Team Truths: Chicago

Each year, for the last four years, I have picked a sport and its suitable team that I’ll actively pay attention to. Not only do I learn more about the sport, but I also learn helpful facts that make easy starter conversations. So far I’ve done the MLB, F1 Racing, the Premier League, and the NBA. This year, I’m watching the NFL.

Ahhh, American football. I grew up being a Steelers fan because my Dad was always one, but here’s the catch: I’ve never been to Pittsburg. Not once. “Are there more pitts or burgs out there?” I’d ask my younger self. I guess I’ll never know.

A few years ago I decided to pick a new team to care about. Someone unloved. An underdog. So I picked the Chicago Bears (GO BEARS). Whenever I tell someone I am a Bears fan I always receive one of three reactions:

“Why?”

“I am so sorry.”

or the rare

“GO BEAHS!”

But now, oh boy, the tables might be finally turning.

Sports are a perfect pocket in the world of storytelling. You always have the stakes of never knowing who will win and who will lose each game. You get to watch the team’s arc change throughout the season. Players come and go, but your team will always be there. Plus, there used to be a cool visual art side of it before TV sports broadcasts changed everything. Here’s one of my favorite photos before the broadcast era:

For the past 10 years or so you would never never hear the words ‘Chicago Bears’ and ‘successful NFL team’ used in the same sentence. Last year, when Caleb Williams (a super high prospect quarterback that was #1 pick in the draft) joined the Bears, it felt like the war was finally over. The offense will be strong enough to actually win games.

The only issue was that Matt Eberflus was still leading the troops. From not analyzing game footage with his team to not taking advantage of their #1 draft pick, it quickly became clear Eberflus was a bad football coach. The Bears 2024 NFL season became just another muddled football season for the Windy City.

That was until last Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving Day, the Chicago Bears play the Detroit Lions. Lions beat the Bears 23-20. The Bears fail to use a time out and completely miss their chance to either win or at least tie the game.

“Maybe next time,” Eberflus dispassionately states once again to his depressed locker room.

The young and hungry players are sick of hearing Eberflus ignorantly move forward after loss after loss. It was clear the management of the team was the real issue, the teams’ experience and player potential was too high for it to be misfortune.

Eberflus was fired the next day. It was the first time in the football franchise’s history for a mid-season coaching change. Big whoop.

But the past is in the past, who cares about the 2024 Chicago Bears season? Not me. While it is still the NFL pre-season––where teams play each other but their games don’t actually count for the upcoming season––the 2025 Chicago Bears’ lineup is looking rather promising.

The Bears new coach is Ben Johnson. Johnson was previously the Offensive Coordinator for the Detroit Lions, but now he is in charge of the whole Bears army.

August 10, 2025. The Chicago Bears first pre-season game was against the Miami Dolphins. The teams tied at 24-24. Pre-season games don’t allow playing into overtime, but Johnson was pleased with what his players did.

Sunday, August 17, 2025. The Chicago Bears versus the Buffalo Bills.The Chicago Bears beat the Buffalo Bills 38-0. Johnson did not crack a smile until the game was declared over. He just menacingly stared the entire game:

Compared to Eberflus, this is terrific.

Friday, August 22nd, 2025. The Chicago Bears beat the Kansas City Chiefs 29-27. As in, the same Chiefs who won the Superbowl last year in 2024 and in 2023. Suck it, Travis Kelce. Go cosplay in the ocean as a construction worker somewhere else bud.

The official NFL football season does not start for another week or two, but if I ever mention The Bears again, now you know why.

Anyways, something I always love when it comes to sports history is the origin of the team’s name. Due to sports teams being franchised, it is common for the team of a specific area with a regionally specific title to move across the country. For example, the NBA team the Utah Jazz were originally from New Orleans. It’s not like there’s a bunch of Mormons out in the ‘Tah who love Miles Davis. For this week, let’s stick with Chicago.

Chicago is one of the U.S. cities where they have at least one team for every popular national sport. For baseball, you have MLB teams the Chicago Cubs and the White Sox. For basketball, you have the NBA team Chicago Bulls. For football, the Bears. For hockey, you have the Black Hawks or ‘Hawks’.

The Cubs’ name originates before the MLB solely dominated the baseball industry, back when there were other leagues like the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). When the sports world was still figuring out its organizational design throughout the late 19th and early 20th century, sports had countless leagues and teams.

The Cubs’ team name was initially the White Stockings, but then “Anson’s Colts” when Cap Anson (real name) joined the team. When Cap Anson then left the team, the team’s name became the “Orphans” in 1897. God what a name. “The Orphans kicked our ass today, son.”

The Chicago Tribune newspaper complained that printing ‘Orphans’ and ‘Capt. Anson’s Colts’ is too long and expensive for headline writers cover local sports news. So why is the baseball team named after a baby bear?

Well first, Chicago’s National League brought a new team into town. They’re still figuring out their name. But a lot of players from Cap Anson’s Colts/Orphans transfer over to it in hopes of making it big. All the players left behind on the ‘Orphans’ were young and inexperienced. At the time, the term cub was popular for it

So the team became the Chicago Cubs.

But what about the other new National League team for Chicago? The owner wanted to form a rivarly between the Cubs, so they picked a former name the Cubs had: the White Stockings. But just like the Cubs, newspaper editors wanted to save money on prints. So they became the Chicago White Sox.

Alright, time for football. The NFL was a lot different in the early 1900s. Out of all the teams that existed in the original National Football League, only 2 still exist today. Back then they were known as the Decatur Staleys and the Chicago Cardinals. Today, you know them as the Chicago Bears and the Arizona Cardinals.

The Bears’ football team was originally founded in Decatur, Illinois. When the team moved to Chicago and started playing in Wrigley Field (where the Cubs play baseball) they decided to change their name to the Bears. Not only did it strengthen the Cubs name, but also bolstered the idea of having a simple, one-syllable team name so papers save money.

The Chicago ‘Bulls’ makes the most sense as a regionally important team name. Aside from sounding all strong and powerful, the name alludes to when Chicago was the meat capital of the world before the industry decentralized. The first home basketball court, the Chicago Amphitheater, was also located nearby the cow-slaughtering stockyards.

Hockey time. The NHL, let alone hockey in general, is much less popular across the U.S. than basketball, football, and baseball––though I will argue it is the most entertaining. But the NHL has always had a bit of a dark history for being such a predominantly white sport. What a coincidence.

Here’s a “fun” fact: the Colored Hockey League (formed in 1895 in Nova Scotia by runaway slave descendants) was the first and only all-black male hockey league to ever exist. Though the NHL didn’t form until 1917, a lot of game changing strategies that popularized the NHL (like the slapshot) were originally invented in the CHL decades prior.

So it doesn’t surprise me when Chicago’s NHL name is still the Black Hawks in 2025. They were originally named after the U.S. 86th Infantry Division which carried the nickname ‘the Black Hawk Division’ after the Sauk/Native American Chief from the early 1800s. The hockey team’s original founder served on the 86th Infantry Division in World War 1, so I can see what the original intent was. But can I, today? Not really.

The logo still comes off as a racist caricature. At least the Kansas City Chiefs’ logo is an arrowhead and not a human silhouette. Sure, the Black Hawks team is named after a prominent indigenous leader, but he was a leader that fought against the U.S.’ genocide of Native Americans. If anything, making this the team’s name dishonors everything Black Hawk fought for. When you have a team name and mascot parodying a culture’s way of life, it dehumanizes them.

Aside from bleakly racist, it also feels uncreative. When you’re up against the Seattle Kraken or the Tampa Bay Lightning, cheering for a cartoon squid to beat your neighbor’s ass is extremely demeaning in the grander scheme of things. I’m just surprised the Black Hawks haven’t pulled a Washington Football Team yet.

Milk Crate Records: Autumn Atmospheres

Welcome back to Milk Crate Records, your one-stop-shop for tunes from all over the sonic universe. This is Max’s weekly column where he’ll ramble and suggest musicians you hopefully don’t know yet. Headphones are recommended for the proper digestion of this section.

It is that time of year…late August. The summer is finally beginning to cool down here in New York. That unrecognizable chilly-hoodie-weather is slowly creeping into the air. It feels fantastic. Crunching dead leaves, drinking hot coffee in cold weather, munching apple cider donuts, burning candles, slow cooking chili, throwing the football…fall is around the corner. So here are some of my favorite songs that sonically captures the best season of them all.

#1: “Coffee” by Sylvan Esso

I think this song will always be my personal go-to for when I want to get in the fall mood. That, or either “Kiss Me” by Sixpence None The Richer, which I think is so good I can’t mention it in this list.

Indie-electronic-pop duo Sylvan Esso’s 2014 hit “Coffee” embraces themes of love and heartbreak. Lyrics like the verse “Wild winters, warm coffee. Mom’s gone, do you love me? Blazing summer, cold coffee. Baby’s gone, do you love me?” followed by an ear-itching chorus that sings “Get up, get down” on repeat always makes me think this song is about trying to find a way to love and dance even when everything is coming at you.

The emotional polarity between the seasons is exemplified through the narrator’s coffee temperature. I love that. I think this song is really about finding yourself through dancing between the good and the bad. Super hot summers versus freezing winters, I think that is a reason why fall is such a perfect season. It’s the calm before the storm. Everything is dying, but so colorfully, so why dwell on the past or the future when you can just dance through it all?

#2: “Sweet Nostalgia” by Ariel Days

Ariel Days’ self-titled EP features the warm track “Sweet Nostalgia” filled with mellow guitar chords, melancholic lyrics, and a crisp beat. I loved this song so much in 2022 that I created this illustration based on where the song mentally took me:

This song feels like the best byproduct from all those late 2010s mellow-indie-bedroom projects. You know those artists. Banes World, boy pablo, Cuco, Inner Wave, and such. The Clairo-verse. Where there are “lo-fi” dreamy riffs, slow subtle drum beats, hella reverb, and vulnerable romantic lyrics.

This song is the peak of those songs, but better and with zero allegations attached (fuck Banes World). “Sweet Nostalgia” takes me to that earlier part of the fall season where the trees still have leaves and it doesn’t get dark out too early. The part of autumn where you can wear shorts or pants, a t-shirt or a jacket, sneakers or boots. The first signs of autumn.

#3: “If I Ever Feel Better” by Phoenix

Phoenix is one of my favorite alternative bands of all time. But I’m not here to praise the French. I’m here to praise one song by them.

“If I Ever Feel Better” is a track off of Phoenix’s first album United back from 2000. I wasn’t even alive yet when this song was composed. Though the genre it most falls under here is technically “French House”, the tune includes jazz samples, a killer bass line, and long lyrics that surprise you how much they fit in just one bar.

The first lyric of the song is “They say an end can be a start” before lead singer Thomas Mars (and Sofia Coppola’s husband) expresses his fears about not knowing how to move through life. Mars drops hard truths he’s learned like “I’d better learn to accept things in life I can’t control” and “I’ve watched all my castles fall, they were made of dust, afterall” casually throughout the catchy song. The song ends with repeating the first verse “they say an end can be a start” highlighting Mars’ cyclical nature of trying to discover what love means to him.

I think what makes this song feel like autumn is the dark, cathartic lyrics that yearn for how to live life. Slap that on top a track that starts with eerie synths transitioning into toasty bass lines, you quickly get that perfect mix of hot and cold (just like fall). Similar to the Sylvan Esso track, I think what makes a song seasonally resonate with the listener as “fall vibes” is that bittersweet fusion of lonely lyrics complimented by emotionally warm, upbeat tempos.

That’s all for this week on Bum Sums! If you enjoyed reading and think a friend would too, forward them this email. Beg them to sign up. Hunt them down if necessary. If you want your own weekly column, or any other fun ideas, contact us. We want to make this the best community building newsletter out there. Stay tuned for more stories next week.

Written by Max Van Hosen.