Today in Chicago History: Chicago Bears suffer only loss of 1985 season to Miami Dolphins

Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on Dec. 2, according to the Tribune’s archives.

Is an important event missing from this date? Email us.

Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago)

• High temperature: 71 degrees (1982)

• Low temperature: Minus 1 degree (1942)

• Precipitation: 4.47 inches (1982)

• Snowfall: 5.6 inches (1991)

1934: Chicago Bears rookie Beattie Feathers became the first professional to rush for 1,000 yards in a season (1,004), leading the NFL.

1942: Italian physicist and Nobel Prize winner Enrico Fermi and a team of physicists successfully tested a nuclear explosion under the grandstand of University of Chicago’s football stadium.

Vintage Chicago Tribune: The Atomic Age is born at the University of Chicago’s football stadium

A squash court under Stagg Field’s stands was available for the covert operation, the university having given up football. It was an appropriate site for initiating the Manhattan Project, the crash course that Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration had decreed.

1971: The Chicago White Sox traded pitcher Tommy John and infielder Steve Huntz to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Dick Allen.

In his three years with the White Sox, Allen hit .307 with 85 home runs and 242 RBIs, including a .308 average with 37 home runs, 113 RBIs, 99 walks and a .603 slugging percentage during his MVP season. He earned seven All-Star selections, including three with the Sox.

Dick Allen played 3 seasons with the Chicago White Sox. Now 78, Allen recalls his time on the South Side fondly: ‘I’ve never been treated any better.’

Allen, who died in 2020 at age 78, had 351 home runs, 1,119 RBIs and a .292 career average during a 15-year major-league career with the Philadelphia Phillies (1963-69, 1975-76), St. Louis Cardinals (1970), Los Angeles Dodgers (1971), Sox (1972-74) and Oakland Athletics (1977). During his 11-year peak (1964-74), Allen’s 165 OPS+ was the top in baseball.

He was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in December 2024.

1975: Chicago 41st Ward Ald. Edward Scholl was convicted of taking $6,850 in bribes from a contractor to permit zoning changes in his ward.

The Dishonor Roll: Meet the public officials who helped build Illinois’ culture of corruption

Scholl pleaded guilty in 1975 to filing false tax returns in 1971 and 1972 that were tied to accusations he took bribes from a contractor to permit zoning changes in his Far Northwest Side ward. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison. Scholl was a rare successful Republican politician in Chicago and was the youngest member of the Chicago City Council when he was first elected in 1963 at age 25. He was reelected in 1967 and 1971 before being elected to the state Senate in 1972. He lost a reelection bid for Senate in 1974.

Also in 1975: The International Livestock Exposition closed at the International Amphitheatre for the last time. Lack of funds and diminishing attendance were given as reasons for the demise of the annual event, which began in 1900. It was considered the oldest annual convention in Chicago.

1978: Bird watchers flocked to North Avenue Beach to catch a glimpse of a Ross’ gull, an extremely rare Siberian bird that had only been spotted once previously in the continental United States.

Snowy owls’ unusually early visit to Chicago lakefront could signal migratory boom

Another Ross’ gull appeared in Chicago in March 2023.

1985: The Miami Dolphins stopped the Bears’ bid for an undefeated season, winning 38-24 on one of the most-watched-ever “Monday Night Football” games. The game did a 29.6 rating and 46 share, meaning nearly half the nation’s televisions were tuned in.

Chicago Bears’ 1985 Super Bowl run: Don Pierson’s game-by-game breakdown from the ‘most memorable season’

Walter Payton set an NFL record with his eighth-straight 100-yard game, but the stat was lost in the loss.

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