Tom King

It was a mid February night in 1999 when all hell broke loose in Chicago, and the ripple effects came all the way east to Nashua.

Even to yours truly’s phone, which rang with then-Bishop Guertin football coach Tony Johnson on the other end.

“Did you hear?” he said, or at least we remember him saying as it was a long time ago.

Johnson was informing your humble scribe that the Chicago Bears had just named the first team president in their illustrious history that was not a member of the Halas-McCaskey family, a guy named Ted Phillips. OK, big deal in Chicago, what does that have to do with around here?

“That,” Johnson said, “is Mark’s brother. He’s a BG grad.”

Yikes. The “Mark”, of course, is former BG assistant and former head Alvirne coach Mark Phillips, a longtime member of the Guertin faculty.

And a story of the year was taking shape. Ted Phillips, whose time as president of Da Bears is coming to an end with his well-deserved retirement in February of 2023 – just 24 years and a few days to his ascension into the top Chicago job – was a financial guy. He headed the Bears finance department; they liked his work when he would be there from another firm as a tax guy. 

So he went from being a bean counter to trying to figure out what was then known as Plan B free agency. 

It’s been a great ride. When Phillips assumed the Bears presidency, they were reportedly worth slightly less than $400 million. Now? Some $5.8 billion, according to Forbes. 

Phillips’ Bears come to Gillette Stadium for the third time during his tenure on Monday night, and in even more of a fitting situation, Patriots coach Bill Belichick has a chance to eclipse great Bears coach George Halas’ 324 victory total, as he tied the mark last Sunday.

The team that comes into New England is probably not what Phillips would want, During his time, the Bears went to the Super Bowl once, in 2007 (the 2006 season), losing to Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts in the rain in Miami. They haven’t had a ton of success on the field, which he always felt was key, and likely made him a target of the fans’ ire.

Who knows if QB Justin Fields and the management team of coach Matt Eberflus and GM Ryan Poles (the fourth he’s hired). Phillips told yours truly eight years ago the toughest decision he ever made was firing 10-year GM Jerry Angelo, the architect of that Super Bowl team QB’d by Mike Tomczak. Then there was Jay Cutler. And Mitch Trubisky. As he told the Chicago Sun-Times shortly after his retirment was announced in September, 

“Some of the mistakes that were made were high-profile mistakes,” Phillips said. “Those are tough to come back from. The Achilles’ heel, the one thing I’d change: Get the quarterback right, please. That’s what I’d change.” 

On the flip side, Phillips oversaw rennovations to not only the team’s suburban practice facility/headquarters but also negotiated the rennovations to historic Soldiers Field itself – that was a huge, huge accomplishment. He’s helped lay the groundwork for the Bears to eventually play in a new stadium in the Chicago suburbs. 

With that work, and the incredible increase in franchise value, it’s no wonder the McCaskey family is grateful.

Team matriarch Virginia McCaskey, George Halas’ daughter, said in a statement the Bears were “very blessed” to have Phillips, saying he did whatever he was asked with great success.

“It’s difficult to put into words how much Ted has meant to the Bears and our family,” chairman George McCaskey said in a similar statement. “The faith that Virginia and Ed McCaskey placed in him by naming him President and CEO of the Bears has been rewarded many times over.”

Back in the 2000s, when Guertin was in several Division II title games, Phillips would give the Cards an inspired talk over speaker phone. 

Of course, the Bears haven’t been able to match his alma mater’s success. 

“I don’t have regrets — I don’t operate that way,” Phillips told the Sun Times back in September. “Am I disappointed? Absolutely. We haven’t been able to find a consistently winning team.” 

Phillips had to walk that line. He hired general managers who hired the coach. He let people, from what these eyes saw, do their jobs and put his faith in them.

“Everyone says I’m not a football guy,” he told the Sun Times. “It makes me chuckle a little bit. I’m not a coach, I’m not an evaluator. I’ve been in the business 40 years, and I think I’ve learned a little bit. I’ve never made the decisions of who should coach and who should play.” 

Still, he laments the fact Da Bears didn’t make more than one Super Bowl during his presidency and two while he was a Bears employee (the 1986 romp over, who else, the Patriots).

“It’s been a hard lesson to learn,” Phillips told yours truly a few years ago. “I started with the Bears in 1983, and a couple of years later, I got a Super Bowl ring,” Phillips said. “I thought it was something I’d get a chance at every year, and that’s certainly not the case.”

But that final day will be a big change, that’s for sure. He gave the Bears 40 years, and now, as he put it in an interview, “I’m giving myself the gift of time.” 

It’s funny. Nashua has a connection with that old NFC “Black and Blue Division.” Nashua alum Greg Landry was a star QB with the Detrot Lions. Late Nashua Mayor Don Davidson was a Packer Cheesehead to the max. And Phillips was basically a lifelong Bear. Any Vikings out there?

“Every day has been a true pleasure and being surrounded by so many talented and wonderful people has made my job richly rewarding on many levels,” Phillps said in his retirement announcement. “I will always bleed blue and orange and forever be proud to be a part of the Chicago Bears family.”

Bears chairman George McKaskey, when asked by the Sun Times who he’d like to replace Phillips when he’s retired, simply said, “Ted 2.0”.

Sounds like a good title for a movie. A great title for a life story, one that is filled with accomplishment. Ted Phillips, through his career with the Chicago Bears, has done his alma mater as well as the city of Nashua proud.

Tom King can be reached at tking@nashuatelegraph.com, or on twitter @Telegraph _TomK.