Girding For Battle

Feb 02, 2007 07:39 PM Filed in: Day To Day
LionSuperBowlReady
Helmet Size 37: But What Happened To Those '85 Helmets?

By Jason George
Chicago Tribune
January 25, 2007

Even bronzed, lions prove difficult to measure.

Erin Edmister learned this atop a ladder Monday, when he struggled to wrap a measuring tape around the manes of the two statues that guard the steps of the Art Institute of Chicago.

"His ears kind of stick out 3 to 4 inches, depending on where you start," Edmister barked below to a co-worker who scribbled down the measurements.

"Nine feet, exactly, across the belly," he declared, while measuring the South Lion, formally titled "Stands in an Attitude of Defiance."

The North Lion, "On the Prowl," patiently awaited his fitting.

In the next few days the Institute will use these measurements to outfit the lions with matching Chicago Bears helmets -- a way to "Stand in an Attitude of Solidarity" with the city and its citizens, as the lions did by wearing White Sox caps in 2005.

The two felines have not shown Bears pride since the 1985 season, when fans revealed just how crazy, and criminal, some of them were.

It all started when Dan Galemb, an instructor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, crafted that original pair of helmets for the lions out of upside-down barbecue grills and foam. The institute installed them Dec. 6, 1985, as the Bears made their playoff run toward Super Bowl XX.

Within 72 hours, a thieving trio managed to free one of the helmets from a lion's head. The heist was unsuccessful though, as a museum guard ran outside just in time to startle the three, who dropped and dented the helmet before jumping into a waiting car and speeding off.

One day later, someone made a grab for the other one. This time, no security guard saved the day, and the headgear -- size 37 -- vanished. For days, museum employees and police searched without success; that is, until an anonymous caller telephoned the Forest Park Police -- 12 miles from the museum -- and placed what must remain one of the most unusual (and humorous) calls in law enforcement history.

"If you want to locate the football helmet that was stolen from the lion at the Art Institute," the caller divulged, "it is located in the cemetery."

And there the helmet sat, with a broken face mask and a dent, at a local cemetery. Police used a firetruck to transport it.

"It was too big for a car," they said.

Frazzled by what turned out to be a horrible, no good, very bad week, museum management stored both helmets indoors until the headgear traveled, by train, to cheer the Bears' Super Bowl victory in New Orleans. Three months later, the institute auctioned them off for charity.

Robert Flannery Jr., president of White Way Sign and Maintenance Co. of Chicago, won one of the auctions, and for years, featured his helmet on the company's St. Patrick's Day parade float and in its boardroom.

Flannery said he eventually donated the helmet to a charity, but he's since forgotten which one.

"The first thing that went through my mind when [the Bears] won on Sunday was `What did we do with the helmet?'" he said earlier this week.

The other helmet went to William Spatz, an area developer, who, to this day, proudly displays his trophy in his Chicago office. He even got the helmet autographed by most of the '85 team.

"Of the strange things I've purchased -- and my wife will tell you there's plenty -- that was probably one of the most fun things I've ever done," Spatz laughed. "It's the first thing a Bears fan goes to in my office."

To outfit the Art Institute lions this time around, Edmister and others are crafting the football helmets at Chicago Scenic Studios, known for theater and event stage design.

"I'm not sure how we're going to do it," Tony Vialpando, the project manager confessed earlier this week, as his crew took measurements from all over the lions to determine how long stability straps need to be.

One thing's for certain: Sneaking off with one of the helmets should be harder than it was in 1985, said Erin Hogan, an institute spokeswoman.

"They are going to be secured with coated aircraft wire."

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Prowling Michigan Avenue: A Few Lion Facts...

- Edward Kemeys sculpted the lions for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.

- A year later, Kemeys donated bronze casts of them to the Institute.

- The North Lion, formally titled "On the Prowl," weights 4,200 pounds.

- The South Lion, or "Stands in an Attitude of Defiance," weighs 5,100 pounds.

- The 1985 Bears helmets were not the first pieces of headgear for the lions. In 1984, the duo donned Cubs hats, during the team's unsuccessful postseason run. They sported White Sox caps in 2005.

- Each year, around Thanksgiving, the lions receive holiday wreaths, a tradition that has been marked since at least 1961.

- In 1967, someone stole one of the wreaths. The Tribune reported that the Institute's director publicly chastised the thieves, saying such a snatching during the merry holidays "was not in keeping with that spirit."

Source: Art Institute of Chicago, Tribune archives