It was perhaps the eeriest setting in sports history: on New Year's Eve of 1988, on a chilly Saturday afternoon at Soldier Field in Chicago, a thick, biblical-looking fog – “the strangest thing you'd ever seen,” as Bears Coach Mike Ditka later said – overtook the stadium during a Divisional playoff game between the Bears and Eagles. Visibility became so limited that players couldn’t see their coaches or the fans – or in many cases, each other; participants later compared the experience to being in the Twilight Zone. Eagles quarterback Randall Cunningham would throw for 407 yards, completing 27 of 54 passes, but he also was intercepted three times and Philadelphia failed to reach the end zone. Their kicker, Luis Zendejas, nailed four field goals in the game. But the Bears’ Kevin Butler made two field goals on top of two first half Chicago touchdowns, the first of them a 64-yard pass play from Mike Tomczak to Dennis McKinnon. The end result: the Bears won, 20-12 – in a game instantly coined “The Fog Bowl” – and advanced to the NFC title game, where they were blown out by San Francisco on a frigid but fogless day. ― NFL 100
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