What happened to the '64 Bears defense?

[Todd Pence]

In 1963, the Chicago Bears took the NFL title fielding one of the greatest defensive units in NFL history, a platoon more fearsome even than the ballyhooed Bear unit of 1985. In 1964, with no significant lineup changes, this same unit were the least effective in the league. How did the Bears' D go from among the best ever to worst in the NFL in just one year? I know the tragic offseason death of Willie Gallimore had an impact on the team, but it still doesn't explain how the defense could fall so far.

Here are the raw numbers:

1963 Bears defense: 3176 yards and 17 touchdowns, surrendered, 54 turnovers forced.
1964 Bears defense: 4485 yards and 46 touchdowns surrendered, 30 turnovers forced.

The only thing I can think of is that several of the key starters were starting to get a little long in the tooth, and Bill George and Larry Morris missed substantial time, but even that doesn't account for the dropoff. Their '63 title game opponents the Giants also suffered their own collapse in '64, but that was more easily explainable due to age, key player loss and injury. What happened to the Bears is a bit of a mystery.

[Bryan]

63 Bears faced some pretty weak QBs. McHan/Waters, Bratkowski/Baker, Ron VanderKelen, Ed Brown, Roach/Bratkowski (now on GB!), Plum/Morrall, King Hill. That said, they did beat a healthy Starr once and a healthy Unitas twice.

In 64, early in the year they lost substantially to Starr and Unitas. John Brodie had replaced McHan/Waters with SF, and older Roman Gabriel had replaced Bratkowski/Baker with the Rams, Sonny Jurgensen and Don Meredith were now on the schedule (two losses), Tarkenton played both Vikings games. I think they faced significantly tougher QBs in 1964 than in 1963. Would that explain such a huge defensive letdown? Not sure.

[RichardBak]

From what I can remember reading, there was a lot of dissension after the title game win. Halas didn't give out the expected raises and goodies many of the players felt they were entitled to. They did bounce back in '65, though, thanks to a couple guys named Butkus and Sayers.

There also was a dark cloud over that '64 team. Galimore and Farrington were killed in a roll-over car accident in training camp, but prior to that, a popular taxi squad player (Parilli?) was shot to death in a bar fight that included O'Bradovich, Joe Marconi, and some cops. IIRC, O'Bradovich later married that's player's widow.

[BD Sullivan]

From what I can remember reading, there was a lot of dissension after the title game win. Halas didn't give out the expected raises and goodies many of the players felt they were entitled to. They did bounce back in '65, though, thanks to a couple guys named Butkus and Sayers.

There also was a dark cloud over that '64 team. Galimore and Farrington were killed in a roll-over car accident in training camp, but prior to that, a popular taxi squad player (Parilli?) was shot to death in a bar fight that included O'Bradovich, Joe Marconi, and some cops. IIRC, O'Bradovich later married that's player's widow.

The death of Bears LB Tony Parilli came just two days after the Bears' title win, with the team celebrating New Years Eve in suburban Willowbrook at a bowling alley that Ditka partially owned. Parilli got into with some guy in the bathroom, leading to Marconi going in to try and break it up--with the local police chief and another cop tthen rying to break that up. For some reason, the police chief thought it was smart to try and break up the fight by using his gun to hit Marconi over the head. The gun went off and the stray bullet shot and killed Parilli.

[RichardBak]

I remember when I first heard about that incident as a kid, I thought Babe Parilli has been killed. I was a big AFL fan.