When new Chicago Bears coach Ben Johnson attended the NFL scouting combine this week in Indianapolis, all five of our legacy team leaders were in action at the same time, a rarity of the sports calendar.
The other four heads of the legacy teams were all in late-season or preseason mode: Bulls coach Billy Donovan, Blackhawks interim coach Anders Sorensen, Cubs manager Craig Counsell and White Sox manager Will Venable.
They’re all unique individuals with diverse personalities and different agendas. Two things our five guys have in common are the fact they work for a Chicago team and are trying to find a solution to their organization’s recent cold spell, or in Venable’s case, the Sox’s polar vortex spell.
Johnson and Venable are new to the group and arrive at their jobs as unknown entities entering the honeymoon phase of their Chicago careers.
Johnson must compete for a playoff berth with a No. 1 quarterback in his second year and hopefully an improved offensive line. Venable seemingly has a grace period on the South Side with a team expected to lose 100 or more games for the third straight season. His primary assignment is not to be Pedro Grifol, the former manager who took a mediocre roster and made it worse.
Both of the United Center occupants are operating under the radar in the final weeks of their 2024-25 seasons. Donovan has a losing record in his five seasons, but few blame him for Arturas Karnišovas’ play-in-round-or-bust mentality. Sorensen replaced Luke Richardson early on in Year 2 of the Connor Bedard rebuild, but the Hawks actually have gone backward, ensuring a place for Sorensen alongside Jeremy Colliton on the Hawks’ honor roll of forgettable coaches.
Counsell, the highest-paid manager in baseball and the only one of our five guys expected to make a postseason run in 2025, is under the microscope after a lackluster first year on the North Side. He also is tasked with saving the hide of team President Jed Hoyer, who is entering the final year of his contract and needs to justify his existence after four October-free years.
Can these five guys make their names in Chicago? Or will they do a “Full Bevington” and blow their big shot, like former Sox manager Terry Bevington did in the 1990s?
Whatever happens to this quintet, it probably can’t fare much worse than the last iteration of Chicago leaders, which included Richardson, Grifol and Matt Eberflus, all of whom were fired in 2024 after disastrous tenures and winning percentages in the low .300s.
We’re currently in the dark ages of Chicago sports, as we’ve mentioned a time or two since 2021. And all recent changes at the top in the past year made us wonder whether there ever was a golden age of local leaders — an era when all five head coaches/managers of our legacy teams were successful at the same time.
It turns out there was one brief stretch, from 1989-91, when Bulls coach Phil Jackson, Bears coach Mike Ditka, Cubs manager Don Zimmer, Hawks coach Mike Keenan and Sox manager Jeff Torborg all ruled the Chicago sports world.
How’s this for combined success? Jackson was at the start of a stretch in which he would go on to win six titles with the Bulls. Ditka was still in his post-Super Bowl glory, albeit heading for a big fall. Zimmer took the Cubs to the National League Championship Series in 1989, and Keenan would guide the Blackhawks to the Stanley Cup Final in 1991-92. Torborg’s Sox teams never made it to the postseason in 1989-91, but he stewarded the rebuild to a 94-win season in 1990, the final year of old Comiskey Park.
All five teams were fun to cover, in part because those five leaders were intelligent, thoughtful, media-friendly and colorful characters who just happened to be good at their jobs.
Here’s how the quintet fared during their Chicago tenures.
Winning percentage: Jackson had an unfathomable .738 winning percentage in his nine years with the Bulls, starting in 1989-90 and ending with the second repeat in ’97-98. Ditka became synonymous with the Bears franchise in the 1980s, winning the ’85 Super Bowl and fielding a .631 winning percentage in 11 seasons from 1982-92. Keenan (.542 from 1988-92), Torborg (.515 from ’89-91) and Zimmer (.507 from 1988-91) had much briefer stays that didn’t end well, though all three are a big part of their team’s storied history.
Personalities: Ditka was the most quotable leader in Chicago sports history and showed no quarter from his critics, whether it was throwing gum at one fan in San Francisco, flipping off others or yelling “Here’s your IQ, buddy” to a heckler. No one owned a town like Ditka. Keenan, also nicknamed “Iron Mike,” was another short-tempered tough guy prone to eruptions and stepping on management’s toes.
Zimmer, nicknamed “Popeye” because of his huge jowls, was once caught on national TV during a Cubs-Giants game at Wrigley Field yelling at a fan: “Go on home, you fathead.” His 1989 team was called “The Boys of Zimmer,” a reference to a popular 1980s Don Henley song, “The Boys of Summer.” His unconventional strategy would be laughed at by today’s analytically minded front offices, but somehow it worked in ’89.
Jackson was dubbed the “Zen Master” by the media for his spiritualistic approach to coaching his players, becoming the first existentialist leader of a Chicago team. He remains an almost mythical figure in retirement. Torborg, who died in January at 83, was the least outgoing of the five but always commanded the respect of his players. Shortstop Ozzie Guillen, a future Sox manager, called him the best skipper he ever played under.
Cultural significance: Jackson’s final season as Bulls coach in 1997-98 led to the dissolution of the Michael Jordan dynasty, as chronicled in the documentary “The Last Dance.” General manager Jerry Krause and Jackson sparred, forcing Jackson’s imminent exit, which was referred in the name of the documentary.
Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf told Jackson after the season that he could come back. “After winning six championships in eight seasons (in a nine-year career), he deserves the right to coach if he wants to coach,” Reinsdorf said. “He said it’s time to step back, take a year off.” But that narrative was forgotten or ignored. Once Jackson left, so did Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman. The franchise has never been back to the Finals.
Ditka’s persona became iconic when “Saturday Night Live” introduced a sketch about uber-Bears fans who downed sausages and beer and worshipped at the altar of “Da Coach.” The gum-chewing character with a thick mustache was recently parodied in a Super Bowl ad with Matthew McConaughey. To many, the word “Ditka” means Chicago.
Zimmer’s big belly and bulging cheeks gave him that classic, old-school baseball manager look, at least until he became a spokesman for Nutrisystem in 1989 and briefly assumed the nickname “Slimmer Zimmer.” It didn’t last, fortunately for Cubs fans who like a little meat on their managers’ bones.
Bad endings: As happens during a divorce, all five left with some degree of bad blood toward management, though some eventually reconciled with their former teams.
The Bulls feted Jackson with a banner ceremony in 1999, and he thanked Krause during his speech. Bulls fans loudly booed at the mention of Krause’s name. Ditka was fired by then-Bears President Mike McCaskey in 1993 and left with the famous line, “Scripture tells you that all things shall pass. This, too, shall pass.” His sad departure was treated like a state funeral in Chicago.
Torborg was told by Reinsdorf’s general manager, Ron Schueler, that the New York Mets wanted to hire him away during the 1991 season. When Torborg told Schueler no thanks, he was informed he might want to consider the gig, hint-hint. Feeling pushed out, Torborg took the Mets’ generous offer.
Keenan, a noted control freak, self-destructed with the Hawks in 1992, months after his most memorable contribution to Hawks lore — putting star Jeremy Roenick in a cast during Game 2 of the ’92 Stanley Cup Final in Pittsburgh. It was vintage Keenan. “During his turbulent tenure, Keenan was possessed not only by winning hockey games, but by seizing control of everything and everyone in his path,” Tribune columnist Bob Verdi wrote. “He enjoyed considerable success at all of the above, and that required stepping on a lot of toes.” Keenan won a Stanley Cup two years later with the New York Rangers, ending the team’s famous drought.
Zimmer was fired by the Cubs early in ’91 after giving his Tribune Co. bosses an ultimatum on a contract extension. “What am I? A piece of garbage in Lake Michigan?” Zimmer said he asked executive Don Grenesko. After being fired, Zimmer told Cubs beat writers to help themselves to all the beverages in his hotel room minibar, compliments of Tribune Co. It was a perfect way to say thanks for nothing.
Whether Johnson, Donovan, Counsell, Venable and Sorensen can leave their marks on Chicago like the aforementioned old-school leaders won’t be known for years.
But it’s doubtful this current quintet will be remembered for being as colorful and entertaining as their late-20th century predecessors.
Those were five guys who knew how to make this town smile.