Ticker tape parades had been bestowed in the past - V-J Day, Franklin Roosevelt, Charles Lindbergh, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, the Apollo 11 Astronauts.

Now came the Chicago Bears.

The Bears had finished well the year before, well enough to come within one game of the Super Bowl before losing to the San Francisco 49ers in a game that would both haunt and inspire them through the off-season. Some thought they were ready to go all the way then, but 1984 was not to be the year.

Payton runs around the Patriots defense

Led by a coach who personified the traditions of the team, its founder and a long history that stretched to the very foundations of the National Football League, the Bears would grab the 1985 season from the moment it began and never let it go.

In the early weeks of the season, opponents who jumped to a quick lead over the Bears found it was not an indication of good things to come. In four of the first five games, Chicago came from more than a touchdown behind to win.

In the third week, against the Minnesota Vikings, quarterback Jim McMahon came in from the bench in the third quarter and began what appeared to be a comeback. Before he was through, McMahon had thrown three touchdown passes in less than seven minutes - and the talk changed from comebacks to miracles.

In the fourth week, the Bears demolished the NFC East champion Washington Redskins.

Two weeks later, they beat the San Francisco 49ers in a game the Bears had thought about for a long, painful year. Humiliated in a 23-0 loss by the 49ers in the prior season's conference championship, the Bears had spent the off-season eager for the rematch . In 1985, they dominated the Super Bowl champion 49ers, avenging the playoff defeat and staking their claim as the best in the National Football League.

In the eleventh week, the Texas Stadium scoreboard read: Chicago, 44, Dallas, o.

Mike Ditka carefully downplayed the astonishing win against his old coach, Tom Landry. Mike Singletary said he couldn't have dreamed it any better. Dave Duerson and Otis Wilson barked at heckling Dallas fans and within week the Junkyard Dog Defense was well on its way to creating a nationwide chorus of woofers.

In the twelfth week, Bear great Walter Payton tied the record for consecutive 100-yard games at seven. The following week, he would break the record, the only bright spot in a game that cost the Bears a perfect season.

A disastrous first half against the Miami Dolphins, the only teams ever to go undefeated through the season, playoffs and the Super Bowl, ended the Bears' dream of an unblemished year.

From the defeat in Miami, they found rededication and a new, sharper focus. They won the next three games in regular season play and in the playoffs they recorded back-to-back shutouts.

No one had ever held two consecutive opponents scoreless in post-season play.

Perry spikes the ball after his TD.

In New Orleans, they won Super Bowl XX by a score of 46-10 -- numbers that appropriately reflected their season-long dominance of the NFL and at the same time provided an ironic salute to the defense that many longtime NFL veterans said was the best ever to play the game.

It was the year of Sean Landeta's strange un-punt in the Giants playoff game and the year Chicago gave a standing ovation to the snow in the fourth quarter of the Rams playoff game.

It was the year of the Super Bowl Shuffle and the Refrigerettes. It was the year the Art Institute's lions wore the Bears helmets.

It was the year they won it all, and when they brought the Super Bowl trophy home, 500,000 Chicagoans went into the streets to pump warmth into a sub-zero day. Ten tons of ticker-tape fell and 150,000 of the half-million crammed themselves into Daley Plaza for a glimpse of the football team that had rewarded the long-suffering Chicago faithful.

Bears President Michael McCaskey held the Vince Lombardi Super Bowl trophy up to the crowd and proclaimed every American in the land a Bear fan.

Place kicker Kevin Butler, one of only five Bears able to squeeze through the crowd to the podium, spoke into the microphone.

"Isn't this sweet?" he said.

The half-million agreed.