The 1963 Chicago Bears season was their 44th regular season and 12th post-season completed in the National Football League. The club posted a 11-1-2 record, earning them an NFL Western Conference Championship, their last playoff berth prior to the AFL-NFL merger, and a spot in the NFL Championship Game against the New York Giants. The Bears prevailed beating the Giants 14-10 for the club's eighth NFL title, and their last under legendary head coach George Halas.
1963 would be the Bears' last NFL Championship until 1985. The Bears' defense became the third defense in the history of the NFL to lead the league in fewest rushing yards, fewest passing yards and fewest total yards.
In 2007, ESPN.com ranked the 1963 Bears as the ninth-greatest defense in NFL history, noting, "n 1963, Bears defensive coach George Allen came up with a new zone defense against the pass, befuddling opponents. With Doug Atkins and Ed O'Bradovich pressuring opposing QBs from their defensive end slots, and Bill George and Larry Morris defending against short passes from the linebacker position, the Bears picked off 36 passes, and allowed just 10.3 points and 227 yards per game. The Bears went on to win the NFL championship, thanks to the D. In the title game against Y.A. Tittle and the Giants, who had the best offense in the NFL, Chicago's five picks were the key, as the Bears won 14-10. George Allen got the game ball."
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“Must we really see Chicago in order to be educated?”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“It is pitiful when a man bears a name for convenience merely, who has earned neither name nor fame.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Much poetry seems to be aware of its situation in time and of its relation to the metronome, the clock, and the calendar. ... The season or month is there to be felt; the day is there to be seized. Poems beginning “When” are much more numerous than those beginning “Where” of “If.” As the meter is running, the recurrent message tapped out by the passing of measured time is mortality.”
—William Harmon (b. 1938)