Jerry Vainisi, the Bears’ general manager during their only Super Bowl-winning season, has died. He was 80.
As GM, he oversaw contract negotiations and teamed with coach Mike Ditka and personnel director Bill Tobin to run the team. The 1985 squad, which won the Super Bowl, was the franchise’s most successful and remains iconic to this day.
Vainisi was particularly close with Ditka, with whom he also shared business interests. Ditka was emotional when contacted Wednesday and spoke exclusively with the Sun-Times’ Michael Sneed for a Sunday column.
The Chicago native left an accounting firm to become the Bears’ controller in 1972 and later served as the team’s treasurer and counsel. He was hired to replace Jim Finks in 1983.
The Bears fired him after the 1986 season despite the team going 32-4 in the previous two seasons combined. At the time, president Michael McCaskey cited a “difference in approach and philosophy.”
When Vainisi was fired, Ditka said: “We worked together to put out a team the city of Chicago and the Bears could be proud of. What hurts the most is that he is my best friend. The players and myself will miss him very much.”
Vainisi became the Lions’ vice president of player personnel in 1987 and joined the NFL’s World League of American Football in 1990, running football operations.
In 1995, he took over the Hinshaw & Culbertson’s spots and entertainment law division in Chicago. He bought Forest Park Bank in 1999 and became its chairman and CEO.
Vainisi was the youngest of four children born into a family that owned a deli near Wrigley Field. His brother Jack was a prominent scout from the Packers from 1950 until he died of a heart attack in 1960 at only 33.
