Sept. 21, 1975: Walter Payton's NFL debut

It was nearly as difficult to sell patience to Bears fans in 1975, when Walter Payton made his NFL debut against the Colts, as it is today. The Bears had not made the playoffs since the 1963 NFl championship under George Halas. They had not had a winning season since 1967 (7-6-1, Halas' final season). And they were 24-59 in their previous six seasons.

With a new general manager in Jim Finks (the first person outside the Halas family to have control of the roster and the team), a new head coach in Jack Pardee and an exciting rookie running back in No. 5 overall draft pick Walter Payton from Jackson State, optimism for a new era was similar to what it is today with Ben Johnson paired with Caleb Williams.

But patience was all the Bears could ask for after Pardee, Payton and the Bears fell flat in a 35-7 loss to Bert Jones and the Colts at Soldier Field. As reporters covering the game noted, it didn't look much different from the previous regimes of Abe Gibron and Jim Dooley that made the original mess — just as Johnson's 0-2 start has been littered with many of the same issues that got Marc Trestman, John Fox, Matt Nagy and Matt Eberflus fired.

Payton almost literally went backward in his first NFL game — minus-4 yards in nine touches. Payton had eight carries for zero yards and one reception for a four-yard loss.

The Bears and Payton would get off the mat the following week — Payton had 21 carries for 95 yards in a 15-13 victory over the Eagles at Soldier Field on Bob Thomas' 26-yard field goal with eight seconds left.

It was still a long march to contention. The Bears finished 4-10 in 1975 (winning two of their final three games), but Payton was just warming up. Payton rushed for 1,310 yards (99.3 per game) and 13 touchdowns in 1976 and took it to another level in 1977 — rushing for 1,852 yards (132.3 yards per game) and scoring 14 touchdowns to win the NFL Most Valuable Player Award. With Payton in overdrive, the Bears won their final six games in a mad dash to a 9-5 record and their first playoff berth since 1963. Just eight years later, Payton and the Bears finally reached the top, winning Super Bowl XX under coach Mike Ditka in the 1985 season.

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The box score told the story: Walton Payton had eight carries for zero yards rushing; and one reception for minus-four yards.

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The Bears 1975 press guide featured the defense — Doug Buffone (55), Don Rivers (57) and defensive end Richard Harris (84) celebrating an interception by rookie cornerback Bill Knox in the 1974 opener against the Lions.

Walter Payton's Bears bio in the 1975 press guide. It was an impressive rookie class that also included safety Doug Plank, center Dan Peiffer, quarterback Bob Avellini, fullback, Roland Harper, defensive end Mike Hartenstein, guard Revie Sorey, kicker Bob Thomas, guard Noah Jackson and linebacker Tom Hicks

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I was a vendor at Soldier Field in my last three years of high school — 1975, 1976 and 1977.

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The program from Walter Payton's first NFL game.

Walter Payton is wearing No. 21 in this photo from the Bears-Colts game program in 1975.

The Bears added a nice tip of the cap to Colts owner Bob Irsay, a native Chicagoan who bought the Colts in 1972.

Jack Pardee had six on-field assistant coaches in 1975. Ben Johnson has 22 assistant coaches in 2025.

The Bears' offensive depth chart in the '75 opener.

The Bears' defensive depth chart in the '75 opener.

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