John Damore, the oldest living Chicago Bear, hopes team has Super Bowl in its future
Every Bears game day, 92-year-old former offensive lineman John Damore can be found in his bedroom recliner, unlit cigar in hand, eyes glued to the TV. He breaks into a wide toothless smile after every touchdown.
“I don’t miss a minute,” he said. “I don’t miss a minute and if it plays twice, I watch it twice.”
Since walking off the field for the last time 67 years ago, Damore’s love has only deepened for his hometown team. He was born and raised in west suburban Riverside and remembers wearing Bears jerseys as young as 9 years old.
Believed to be the oldest living alum of the team, he’s ready to watch as quarterback Caleb Williams and head coach Ben Johnson lead the team to their first playoff game of the season against longtime rival the Green Bay Packers Saturday night.
The storied Bears-Packers rivalry marked Damore’s memories of his time on the team from 1957-59. He still feels the bitterness of playing against his Midwest foe.
“Green Bay, even back then, was the game of the year for us,” he said. “It was always the biggest game for us, and it's continued since.”
His advice for current Bears, some as many as 70 years his junior, is simple: Keep the energy up.
Damore is a father of two, grandfather of two and husband of 66 years to his wife Joyce. He looks back fondly on his time as a Bear. He stayed involved in the program after his retirement following an ankle injury in 1959. Damore remembers indulgent pregame meals with Hall of Fame linebacker Bill George and playing gin rummy with legendary Bears tight end and eventual head coach Mike Ditka.
Back then, professional sports teams were tight-knit, he said. The Bears players “partied as a team after every game, even the losses.” They were often joined by former Blackhawks players, including Stanley Cup winners Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita. The pro athletes would swap stories.
“We’d go to hockey games and they’d say, ‘Oh my God, that’s so rough,’” Damore’s wife Joyce said. “You take the hockey guys to the Bears game and they'd say, ‘Oh, my God, we've never played anything like that.’”
Damore has watched as the game, the fanfare and the Bears have changed. His $9,000 salary may have been a decent chunk of change in the 1950s, but he marvels at how much NFL players are paid now. Even the minimum salary for rookies is typically $700,000 in the league.
“I’d go and play today if they gave me $475,000,” he said.
The Bears have evolved and changed over the years, disappointing their fans with four consecutive losing seasons before making the playoffs this year. But Damore is confident Johnson has ushered in a new era, bolstered by Williams.
Having a promising quarterback helps. But Damore says the rest of the players are vital for having a strong team.
“To be a quarterback, you can only be good if your team is good,” he said. “If your team is bad, Jesus Christ can’t be a good quarterback. Your teammates are very important.”
As the Bears hope to take the playoffs head-on, the team is also looking to find a potential new home. The team has long discussed plans for a new stadium to varied reactions from fans. While it once appeared suburban Arlington Heights would host the new Bears stadium, the team recently said it has expanded the search to include Northwest Indiana. For Damore, the suburbs would be acceptable but moving out of state would be nearly sacreligious.
“I’d be heartbroken if they [left] before I die, and that may be tomorrow," he said. "They got to stay in Chicago, it's Chicago history."
For now, he’s got his eyes on Saturday’s playoffs game, unsurprisingly predicting a Bears win. In Damore’s perfect world, his beloved Bears are celebrating on a confetti-covered field after a win on Super Bowl Sunday.
“It would be my greatest goodbye if I died the second day after they won it,” he said. “It would be great for me if I passed on after they did it.”