There is more to the story of professional sports teams than what fans see on the court or the field.
That’s partly why John Bosco, of Elk Grove, wanted to read the new book by Otis Wilson and meet the former Chicago Bears outside linebacker and Super Bowl champion. Wilson was at Anderson’s Bookshop in Naperville on Friday night to meet fans and sign copies of “If These Walls Could Talk: Stories from the Chicago Bears Sideline, Locker Room and Press Box.”
“I feel everybody has hidden stuff. You watch these athletes on TV, but in the end they’re as human as the rest of us,” Bosco said. “I worked in the concourse at the airport for American Airlines, and I’ve seen players like Walter Payton a number of times. You realize now there is a storm behind the team.”
The book, co-authored with sports announcer Chet Coppock, takes readers inside the story of the Bears during the 1980s, including their victory in Super Bowl XX. More than 100 fans turned out to meet the 60-year-old Wilson.
“I worked on this book all throughout last year and felt like anybody, I had a story to tell,” Wilson said, speaking before his book signing. “Other players have written books about their experiences with the Bears, and I felt like it was my time.”
Wilson said he joined forces with Coppock after he had already written down a lot of his stories. The co-writing process had some challenges, he said.
“Chet is a great guy, and as we were working, he would remind me about certain things, and I’d realize there were other things I needed to put down,” Wilson said. “But Chet is a piece of work and sometimes I had to tell him, ‘This is my book, not yours.'”
Wilson called his Bears teammates “great people, a great bunch of individuals.” It was the unique collection of players that made things click, he said.
“You’re not going to find a team with players like Richard Dent, Mike Singletary, Gary Fencik and Steve McMichael and all the rest,” he said. “As a defense, we left no stone unturned. Buddy Ryan devised an incredible defense, but we had the players. We were dominating, and people feared us.”
Wilson also reflected on what many consider the demise of the Bears, who were unable to repeat their success after the 1986 Super Bowl victory and the departure of Ryan.
“It was Jim McMahon who called coach (Mike) Ditka ‘Sybil.’ You never knew from one day to the next what you were going to get,” Wilson said. “With Buddy Ryan, it was black and white, and people respected that. Before the Super Bowl, for Buddy it was either live with Ditka another year or see what happens somewhere else.”
Dave Donahoe, of Plainfield, who called himself “a Bears junkie,” said he tries to read everything he can about the team.
“I think I have every book there is about the Bears, and I went to a convention and got to meet Walter Payton in 1982,” he said. “The defense and the linebacker crew from the ’85 team were astounding. I wanted to meet Otis and get another signature.”
Darlene Ruther, of Naperville, said she heard about Wilson’s appearance at the last minute and was considering buying three copies of Wilson’s book “for the men in my life.”
“I’m a fair-weather fan, and I watched them like the rest of the country did back in 1985,” Ruther said. “This is only the second professional athlete I’ve met, along with Ron Santo. You never know what to expect. The players are usually really big.”
Billy Schaumann, 10, of Naperville, said his grandmother brought him to the event. He had just seen the Bears’ famous video “The Super Bowl Shuffle” for the first time earlier in the week.
“I thought the video was really cool, and, I mean, Otis Wilson is a legend,” Billy said. “My family knows all about the Bears and the Super Bowl, and I’d like to ask him (Wilson) who inspired him to play football.”
Wilson was asked about the title of his book and what fans would learn from “If These Walls Could Talk.” He thought a minute and answered succinctly.
“If these walls could talk, you will know a great story about a lot of great men,” he said.
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.
