The Shufflers Do the Stomp, 46-10 : At Long Last, Bear Fans Have Reason to Cheer

Chicago sports fans erupted with joy Sunday after the Bears whipped the New England Patriots, 46-10, in Super Bowl XX.

The victory was more than a triumph for Chicago sports fans. It was a long-awaited vindication for a city that has labored to shake off the inferiority complex of being called the nation’s Second City.

“No Second City now,” said Marty Brown, 26, of LaGrange, Ill., who was among the 300 people watching the game at the Ultimate Sports Bar and Grill in Chicago’s north side. “It’s a tremendous shot in the arm. Nobody really believed this day would ever come.

“This is something I can tell my grandchildren about,” he said. “This is history.”

The celebration started early because the Bears were in control of the game from the start. Fans started talking about a Bear dynasty during the third quarter.

“A city as great as Chicago deserves a team as great as the Bears,” said John Rudie, 25, of Chicago. “This is only their first year back as the Monsters of the Midway.”

“The Bears are the best team,” said Craig Tomera, 27, of Chicago. “Chicago has been waiting a long, long time for this. This is one of those few towns that live and die with their teams.”

Chicago last captured an NFL championship in 1963.

“It’s nothing like ‘63,” said Edgar Fitzpatrick, 63, of Chicago, who was enjoying the game at Schaller’s Pump on the south side. Fitzpatrick said the 1963 team created none of the excitement this year’s team has produced.

“Believe me, it’s something now, I’ll tell ya,” he said.

As Super Bowl Sunday dawned, Chicago sports fans were still nursing the psychic bruises left by the depressing collapses of its professional sports teams in the past few years.

The Bears lost last year’s NFC championship game against San Francisco, the eventual Super Bowl champions. In 1984, the Chicago Cubs lost the National League championship series after winning the first two games of a five-game set from the San Diego Padres. One year earlier, the White Sox lost the American League playoffs to the Baltimore Orioles.

Several hundred hearty fans braved frigid 13-degree weather and 20 m.p.h. winds in Daley Plaza, renamed Bears Plaza for one week, to watch the game on a giant outdoor television screen. Fans wrapped themselves in sleeping bags and blankets to escape a wind chill of 20 below zero.

“If you’re going to be in Chicago, you’ve got to be with all the people,” said Jon Asplund, 21, of Chicago. “There’s too much energy to be cold.”

Rowdy fans who began celebrating before the game forced police early Sunday to shut down Rush Street bars and arrest 30 people for disorderly conduct. Police closed off part of the nightclub district when boisterous fans spilled out of the bars into the streets.

“The fans took over the street,” said Dennis Schlack, manager of the Chicago East Apartment Hotel. “It looked like a pep rally.”

Police and witnesses said the most of the crowd was calm, but fans who jumped on cars and confronted officers found themselves arrested.

“It’s kind of like a big party for the city,” said Joe Fiorito, 21. “We’re all just out here for the Bears.”