The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-12-17
By JOE WILLIAMS

Washington, Dec. iS,-Tt was no surprise to the master minds who comloSe the board of strategy that the Chicago Bears were knocked of in the football playoffs here,
 T could see 1t coming week ago. admitted It. Comdr. George HalaS who owns the Bears and who coached them until he went into the Navy. Halas, on his first leave and looking at the Bears for the first gtime in almost two months, warned the fellows they were in for a whacking This he revealed today as he prepared to return to the naval training station at Norman, Okla.
 They had been winning too cas- fly end too long," explained Halas They had become softened sp:ritu- ally. Once a team gets into such a mood you can't bring 1t back over- night; you must keep prodding the players mentally day after day"
 Fearing that his remarks might be misinterpreted Halas, gracious loser, hastened to add that 1t was was not cinch the Bears would have won under any circumstances. The fact is the way the game was played we were lucky we were not more decisively beaten"
 At no time did Halas agree with the critics that this was his greatest team.
 McAfee Best
 T read the interview you had with Doc Spears out in Toledo" he said, "and I agreed with pretty much everything he said. We had a better team last year; much better. You can't lose break away runner like George McAfee and not miss him. A McAfee comes along once in a generation. In my book he was the best ball carrier I ever saw.'
 Clark Shaughnessy stood by and listened as Halas talked. T suppose they'll be saying they've found a defense for the T now" he smiled. Shaughnessy is an old T man from way back. AS coach of Stanford he won l6 straight games with the T.
 But they finally caught ur with lis," he grimaced, "and it was much the same story as the one we're talking about, the defeat of the Bears. My fellows had been winning too easily and too long. too, so when the day came they found themselves in trouble they didn't have enough mental fire to escape"
 Efaughnessy has always spent some time with the Bears. Hes ae old friend of Halas' and helped in- stall the T out there.
 Hunk Anderson, who has prac- ticaliy been running the Bears in the absence of Halas, sensed that the Bears had gone down spiritually early last w-.k and asked Shaugh- messy to give them a fight talk.
 '"They seem to think they are in for another cakewalk," growled An- derson, but know they are .n for a whale of a battle. Washington has been getting better week by week and right now they are at their peak"
 So Shaughnessy assembled the squad and went into his routine, stressing the stern actualities of the situation.
 'I guess I'm not much of a talk CT" Shaughnessy laughed, because two of the players went to sleep on me"
 At about this time Sid Luckman. who had been rushed as he had never been rushed before in t..e folding money outfit. came in to see EIalas. The Pears quarterback is go- ng into the service and is anxious to be assigned to thu Oklahomr station where Halas operates.
 He listened to the master minds ,eview the game and the intangibles which helped bring on the unexpect- Id trouncing.
 "we lost this game two seasons Igo." commented Luckman. We lost : the day we beat Washington 7S-0. NC couldn't seem to get that romp Iut ef our minds"
 Next Xearg
 Lucklnan is only one of the pros esSional standouts who is headed pr military work. Almost ha6 of