The 1985 Chicago Bears team finished a dream season by winning the Super Bowl, 46-10, over the New England Patriots. But unlike recent championship teams, the Bears didn’t make it to the White House — their trip was pre-empted by the Challenger shuttle disaster, which occurred on Jan. 28, 1986, two days after Super Bowl XX.
Now, some of the team’s surviving members have made up for that lost chance, but it was Bears fan President Obama who greeted them at the White House, instead of President Ronald Reagan.
“This is as much fun as I will have as president of the United States. This is one of the perks of the job, right here,” Obama said. He then called the Bears, who went 15-1 in their championship campaign, “the best team in NFL history.”