CHICAGO — Former Chicago Bears executive Jerry Vainisi, the general manager when the team won Super Bowl XX in January 1986, died Tuesday at age 80.
Vainisi served as Bears GM for four seasons, promoted to that post by franchise founder and owner George Halas in summer 1983. The team confirmed Vainisi’s death Wednesday evening.
Vainisi remained in that role through the end of the 1986 season, and during that span, under the guidance of coach Mike Ditka, the Bears won 52 games and four NFC Central championships and put together an iconic season in 1985. They went 15-1 during the regular season, then steamrolled three opponents in the postseason by a combined score of 91-10 en route to their only Super Bowl title and first NFL championship since 1963.
Vainisi’s exit from Halas Hall came after the Bears suffered a 27-13 home loss to the Washington Redskins in their playoff opener after the 1986 season. After a 14-2 regular season, the Bears started Doug Flutie at quarterback in the playoff game. That became a hot-button issue at Halas Hall and was partly behind then-President Michael McCaskey’s push to replace Vainisi.
Flutie, whom the team traded for just 12 weeks earlier, had started only one game for the Bears before that playoff game and went 11 for 31 for 134 yards with a touchdown pass and two interceptions in the season-ending loss to the Redskins.
Before his tenure as GM, Vainisi was with the Bears for 11 years, serving on the team’s board of directors in addition to serving as controller, treasurer and in-house counsel.
After leaving the Bears, Vainisi spent three seasons as vice president of player personnel for the Detroit Lions before working in operations for what started as the World League of American Football and later was retagged NFL Europe. Vainisi was with the Lions in 1989 when they used the No. 3 pick to draft Hall of Fame running back Barry Sanders.
In 2010, Vainisi was inducted into the Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame. In 1999 he became president and sole owner of Forest Park Bank and also served as its chairman and CEO.
