When the move was made from Decatur to Chicago shortly after the start of the 1921 season, original team sponsor A. E. Staley — head of a large and profitable corn products manufacturing company — had provided team organizer George Halas with $5,000 in seed money to expedite a move of the club off his compnay's books in Decatur to an independent, private existence in Chicago.

Staley & Company expired and team co-owners George Hallas and Ed "Dutch" Sternaman were free to rename their football club with a more conventional sports moniker.

[2] On January 28, 1922, Sternaman and Halas incorporated their team in Illinois as the Chicago Bears Football Club, with each man putting up $2,500 and making a joint contribution of $2,500 to provide the company $7,500 in working capital.

Two of these players — coach and end George Halas and tackle Ed Healey — were later inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Bears Hall of Fame center George Trafton was not a member of the 1922 team, as he took a season off to take a position as an assistant coach at Northwestern University.