Even the Bearmobile is down and out, but fans hope beer and sausage offerings can help save its season

While the second week of the season went well for the Bears, the same cannot be said for the Bearmobile.

The 1967 Cadillac hearse decked out in team colors and Bears logos and anti-Packer art has weathered countless snowy days and pregame antics and was a popular site at many tailgate parties outside Soldier Field.

But last week, a few days after the Bears’ disastrous loss to the Packers, at 10:55 p.m. Sept. 11, a white Volkswagon Beetle crashed into the car in the 300 block of East 18th Street, police said. It pushed the Cadillac into the car in front of it. The driver of the Beetle fled the scene, but the car was ticketed for having expired plates, police said.

This past weekend, the Bears played in Denver, but the back of the car remained smashed up, with half of its bumper missing and drivers-side rear panel partially torn from the car.

Sun-Times staff photo

Hoping to get the attention of the football gods (perhaps) its owners and fans held a vigil, and left a makeshift memorial on the front hood, featuring such candles and flowers and such offerings as a can of “312” beer, fresh sausages and pictures of better times.

Whether it will take divine intervention to fix the car remains to be seen, but a blue sign on the windshield points to a GoFundMe launched a few days ago to get the Bearmobile up and running again.

Sun-Times staff

A “driver plowed into the back of the parked Bearmobile with the same force as Refrigerator Perry hitting the hole in SB XX,” the online fundraiser reads. “We appreciate the kind words, candles, Miller Lites and polish sausages that have been left on her hood as an ode to the memories she has made and friendships she has created. We hope that one day the steel steed and her mustachioed master will ride again reeking of burnt oil, stale beer, raw meat and charcoal into the lot for one last tailgate.”

But as of Monday evening, the fundraiser had raised just more than $500 towards its $10,000 goal.

Will the Bearmobile make it to a tailgate soon? Just like the Bears, organizers can only hope that, hey, it’s still early in the season.

(And while waiting for the repairs in the meantime, fans can just sit back and rewatch Eddy Pineiro hitting that game-winning field goal over and over.)