This year the Chicago Bears sent me something that I didn’t expect.
You can imagine how pleasantly surprised I was when I received a package from the Bears that contained a very cool plaque thanking me for being a Bears season ticket holder for 40 years. I can’t believe it.
Forty years ago, in the spring of 1985, I had a chance meeting while standing on the 20-yard line down on Soldiers Field with the entire Chicago Bears Football Team… Before they won the Superbowl.
You see, I had just transferred from the Chicago Tribune as an advertising executive to WGN Radio right before WGN signed with the Chicago Bears to become the radio voice of the team. It was very fortuitus indeed.
I’d loved the Bears since I was a kid and was very excited to have a chance to offer Bears advertising on WGN to my clients. But here’s how I got the tickets 40 years ago.
That spring day I had many of my advertising clients down on the field with the entire Bears team before they were the Superbowl Champion Bears. Everyone was mingling, getting autographs and photos with the players. Then came the chance meeting.
An older lady comes up to me and says, “Young man, do you have season tickets for your clients?”
I told her that I did not, but would love the opportunity to get some.
She said, “I’ll see what I can do”, then she put her hand on my shoulder, leaned in close to me and whispered in my ear, “They have a chip on their shoulder this year and they’re going to go all the way.”
I suddenly felt like I had an inside tip at the Kentucky Derby. Not only did I get a pair of season tickets that I could use to entertain my clients, I got the scoop on how the season was going to go for the Bears.
I immediately began calling my clients, giving them the inside scoop on how the season was going to go for the Bears. As I signed up more and more Bears advertisers, you can imagine what a sage I looked like as the Bears won game after game. I kept piling it on and soon had the most Bears advertising clients at the station.
All because of that chance meeting, those clients stayed with me from 1985 until 1992 when I left WGN to help start up CLTV News for Tribune Broadcasting. I think that’s when I started saying, “I’d rather be lucky than good.”