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Uni Watch: Bears ’36 Throwbacks Shine Light on NFL’s Segregated Era

The Chicago Bears will be wearing 1936 throwback uniforms this Sunday as part of the team’s season-long centennial celebration. There’s nothing unusual about that, of course. Barely a day goes by nowadays without some team, somewhere, wearing a throwback uni, whether as a nod to retro style or as a way to showcase the team’s visual history.

But the Bears have done something new. In a two-minute video segment posted to the team’s website and social media accounts on Tuesday night, team chairman George McCaskey and five players—quarterbacks Mitch Trubisky and Chase Daniel, defensive lineman Akiem Hicks, linebacker Danny Trevathan, and tight end Trey Burton—addressed the uncomfortable truth that the NFL was a segregated, all-white league in 1936, thanks to a 12-year ban on black players that ran from 1934 through 1945.