Jerry Vainisi, general manager during Bears’ only Super Bowl-winning season, dies

Jerry Vainisi, the Bears’ general manager during their only Super Bowl-winning season, died Tuesday in Oak Park. He was 80.

As GM, he oversaw contract negotiations and teamed with coach Mike Ditka and personnel director Bill Tobin to run the team. The 1985 squad, which defeated the Patriots 46-10 in Super Bowl XX, was the franchise’s most successful and remains iconic to this day.

Vainisi was particularly close with Ditka, with whom he also shared business interests. Ditka was emotional when contacted Wednesday and spoke exclusively with the Sun-Times’ Michael Sneed for a Sunday column.

The Chicago native left an accounting firm to become the Bears’ controller in 1972 and later served as the team’s treasurer and counsel. He replaced Jim Finks as GM in 1983.

The Bears fired him after the 1986 season despite the team going 32-4 the previous two seasons combined. At the time, president Michael McCaskey cited a “difference in approach and philosophy.”

When Vainisi was fired, Ditka said: “We worked together to put out a team the city of Chicago and the Bears could be proud of. What hurts the most is that he is my best friend. The players and myself will miss him very much.”

After Vainisi was fired, it took until the team hired Jerry Angelo in 2001 that the Bears bestowed the GM title on another executive. Tobin, Rod Graves, Dave Wannstedt and Mark Hatley were de facto GMs.

Vainisi became the Lions’ vice president of player personnel in 1987 and joined the NFL’s World League of American Football in 1990, running football operations.

In 1995, he took over Hinshaw & Culbertson’s sports and entertainment law division in Chicago. He bought Forest Park Bank in 1999 and became its chairman and CEO.

Vainisi was the youngest of four children born into a family that owned a deli near Wrigley Field. Older brother Jack was a prominent scout for the Packers from 1950 until he died of a heart attack in 1960 at 33. The Packers dedicated their next rivalry game to him, defeating the Bears.

Vainisi had five children and 14 grandchildren.