Remembering Doug Buffone: Chicago Bears Linebacker and WSCR Radio Host

Chicago Bears greats remembered their friend and teammate Doug Buffone fondly after learning the former linebacker and radio host had died Monday at his Chicago home. Paramedics were called to his West Side Chicago home, where he was found dead of natural causes.

Buffone, 70, played 14 seasons for the Bears, eight as a team captain, and was the last active Bears player to have been on a roster under George “Papa Bear” Halas. He still holds the all-time linebacker interceptions record for the team.

After football, he hosted a sports radio show on The Score with former Bulls star Norm Van Lier, and later joined former Bear Ed O’Bradovich for a Bears postgame show.

From 1966 to 1979, his playing days coincided with several Bears legends: Dick Butkus, Mike Ditka, Gale Sayers and Walter Payton among them.

DICK BUTKUS

“I will always remember him for his football talent, sense of humor and enduring friendship. He was a very special guy. ... He was a Pro Bowler in my eyes on my team.”

MIKE DITKA

“He was a great guy, a great friend and a hell of a football player. But forget the football — he was one of the good guys. For a sports guy who was pretty big in our town, he handled himself very, very well. He was very humble. He was a good guy — period. I don’t know any other way to put it. I never heard anybody say anything about Doug that wasn’t complimentary.”

ED O’BRADOVICH

“Being with Doug the last 49 years, I know that no one person could love a family more than Doug. I know that no one person that played the game of football loved it more than Doug did. The bottom line is he was true and loyal to his family, to football and to his friends. I cannot tell you how much I will miss him.”

BEARS CHAIRMAN GEORGE McCASKEY

“There was no one tougher on Sundays than Doug Buffone. And he proved it each week over his 14-year career, a tenure record he shared with another great, Bill George, for 33 seasons. His retirement ended a link to our founder as he was the last active player to play for George Halas.”

READ

• A remembrance of Doug Buffone in the Chicago Sun-Times
• Doug Buffone’s obituary in the Chicago Tribune