1985 Bears Coverage: Honeys on hold

Every day of the 2015 Chicago Bears season, Chicago Sun-Times Sports will revisit its coverage 30 years ago during the 1985 Bears’ run to a Super Bowl title.

Honeys on hold

Marla Paul; Ray Hanania; Lynn Sweet; Robert Feder

Originally published Nov. 13, 1985

Time out.

The fate of the Honey Bears, the endangered Darlings of the Midway, has been put on hold.

That’s because Bears officials postponed a meeting scheduled for today at which the future of the Honeys was to be discussed. It’s merely a “conflict in schedules” we’re being told.

Bears spokesman Ken Valdiserri said the confab with Honey Bear leaders probably would be held later this week.

Protest movement update: Fans of the cheerleading squad are busy calling the club, which has received two petitions with “several hundred names,” beseeching the Bears not to cast off the 36 Honeys making up the squad.

The whole affair sounds like it is just strictly a bit of boring business to Jerry Vainisi, Bears general manager, who says, “Personally, I’m indifferent to cheerleading.”

He insisted, “The decision will rest on what we feel is best for the club. When you run a business – and this is a business – you consider what’s best for the business. You don’t do things according to what the fans necessarily want.”

Management, adds Vainisi, is “re-evaluating if cheerleading is an idea whose time has come.”

Or gone.